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RE: 4Q521
---------------Original Message---------------
Comrades,
Is this (4Q521) the only Qumran text which makes reference to
"resurrection"
or "making the dead live again"?
What I am curious about is what the precedence may be for translating part
of line 12, "we mothim yihyeh" with "resurrect the dead" (as Tabor and
Wise
have in their excellent article "4Q521 on Resurrection").
p.s., as a side note, this seems to deny the claim that there is a
Sadducean
thread in Qumran belief, as the Sadducees apparently denined any kind of
resurrection.
Thanks for your help.
Jim West, ThD
Professor of Biblical Languages, CCBI
----------End of Original Message----------
Interesting point. Three questions if I may:
Is "yihyeh" here the 3rd pers. masc. sing. future of "to enliven" (yiykhyeh)
or "to be" (yihyeh)? Though I think this refers to the former, it isn't
certain to me from the transliteration.
Secondly, can anyone tell me where I can get a cross-reference from nQxxx
designations to the Rockefeller Museum plate number designations? (And in
the meantime, what is the plate number of 4Q521 please?
Many thanks.
P.S. A relevant observation: Qimron noted that 4QMMT "is not a collection
of halakhot (or ordinances) arranged systematically according to subject,
but rather a work which lists some (miyktzat) special halakhot in which the
sect differs from its opponents. It appears that the halahkhot listed in
this text occupied a central place in the halakhic controversies that took
place between the sect and its opponents." (p. 131). I didn't find any
mention of the verb "khayah" or the noun "met" under variant spellings,
though I could easily have missed a variant spelling. If this issue is not
present in 4QMMT this may have some implications in itself. One explanation
I'd submit is that denial of resurrection may represent the intrusion of
extra-Judaic thought into the Hellenist-Roman-Nouveau-Tz'dokim absent from
the earlier Judaic thought reflected by the Khasiydim- Tz'dokim of the Dead
Sea Scrolls. This would mean that the resurrection dispute emerged only
with the Hellenist-Roman-Nouveau-Tz'dokim, and that P'rushim and
Khasiydim-Tz'dokim of the DSS would have been in agreement on this issue.
By way of introducing the reasons given for the schism by Qimron, he
identifies the "you" group of MMT as a leader of Israel, i.e., the
Nouveau-Tz'dokim in Y'rushalayim, the "they" group as the P'rushim ("evident
from the similarity between the halakha of the opponents of the sect and
rabbinic halkha"), while the third of the three major groups in Judaism at
that time was the "we" group -- the Dead Sea sect (Khasiydim-Tz'dokim).
Qimron: "From MMT we learn the reasons for the schism; up to now we have had
no explicit evidence on this subject. Josephus (Ant. XIII 171-3; XVIII
2-17) gives the impression that the sects were primarily divided over
theological questions, for instance those relating to the resurrection of th
dead or the role of Divine Providence. He was concerned to produce an
explanation that would make sense to his Greek (and Roman) readers."
Likely, it seems to me, to his own secular nature as well. "But the fact
that only matters of practice are mentioned in MMT confirms the view that
it was not dogma, but law that was apt to produce lasting schisms in Judaism
(Ginzberg, p. 105; Revel, p. 3 (citing Geiger). Revel adds: "This is
particularly true of the Kariates who differ in nothing but religious
practice from the rest of Israel." (Qimron, pp. 175-6).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Yirmiyahu Ben-David, Pakiyd 16
K'hiylat Ha-N'tzarim
(World-wide Congregation of Nazarene Jews)
N'tzarim Virtual Community Center in
Ra'anana, Israel at
www.netvision.net.il/~netzarim
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