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Re: 4Q Therapeia
Edmcook@aol.com wrote:
>
> With regard to the "translation" of 4Q "Therapeia":
>
> This text was a well-known obsession of Allegro's, who thought he saw all
> kinds of things in it that weren't there. The text in fact is gibberish (as
> is the "translation"), and the only conclusion to draw about it is that it
> was a writing exercise; see J. Naveh, "A Medical Document or a Writing
> Exercise? The So-called 4QTherapeia," Israel Exploration Journal 36 (1986),
> pp. 52-55.
I realize that Allegro often takes it on the chin because of his
unpopular (among Christians) beliefs, but I have never had reason to doubt
his scholarship. I have not read Naveh's paper and will make it a point
to do so. Allegro claims that there is precedent for the unusual mixture
in medical writing. Was it normal for "writing exercises" to be done on
expensive parchment? Have other writing exercises been found in the DSS
corpus? Your post sounds more like an ad hominem against Allegro than
merely honest scholarly differences of opinion, which is expected. Wouldn't
there be just as much reason to wonder why a "writing exercise" would have
transliterations from Greek to Semitic and some of the other irregularities?
Line 3 of the fragment looks reasonable to me with Allegro's
translation.
I would, however, like to hear the other side
Jack Kilmon
Houston, Texas
JPMan@accesscomm.net