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Bib texts used devotionally
In reply to Mark Smith's query about other texts possibly used
devotionally, 4Q Deut q may be one.
According to Josephus, copies of Ha}azinu and other Biblical
poems were kept in the Temple (Jos. Ant 4:303). Rabbinic sources
report that the Levites read parts of the poem in the Temple
while the Additional Offering (musaf) was being made on Sab-
baths. They completed it over a six-week cycle and then began
again (B. RH 31a; P. Meg. 3:7, 74b end; see Maimonides, Sefer
Avodah, Hilkhot Temidin Umusafin 6:9). Conceivably, the copy
mentioned by Josephus was used for this purpose (cf. H. St. J.
Thackeray, Josephus: The Man and the Historian, p. 90.). Since
4QDeut q apparently contained only the poem, and was not part of
a longer Torah scroll (see Skehan, BASOR 136 (1954):12-15),37
perhaps it was used for reading the poem on some similar occa-
sion, or for teaching the poem by heart, as Deut. 31 commands.
See also DJD 14 p. 79.
-- Jeff Tigay
_________________________________________________________________________
Jeffrey H. Tigay (jtigay@mail.sas.upenn.edu)
Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
847 Williams Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104-6305
Tel. 215-898-6339 (messages: 215-898-7466).
_________________________________________________________________________