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Re: Aristobulus II's "sadducees"?

> Date sent:      Thu, 10 Oct 1996 01:09:21 +0200
> To:             orion@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il
> From:           mc2499@mclink.it (Ian Hutchesson)
> Subject:        Re: Aristobulus II's "sadducees"?
> Send reply to:  orion@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il

> In my recent previous post on this subject, I mentioned Dupont-Sommer's
> interpretation of the Ephraim & Manasseh found in the Pesher Nahum. In
> simplifying his position, I have spread a little misinformation:
> Dupont-Sommer says that as the birthrights of Ephraim and Manasseh were
> exchanged, so were those of Hyrcanus and Aristobulos, ie Hyrcanus, the
> elder, became the equivalent of Ephraim, the younger.
> 
> This allows him to talk of the seekers of smooth things as the Pharisaic
> supporters of Hyrcanus. It makes me wonder about "the stranger who joins
> them", ie "those who lead Ephraim astray", in the interpretation of Nahum
> 3:4 -- we know that Hyrcanus received support from Antipater, who would be
> thought of in Jerusalem as extraneous to the situation.
> 
> If the commentary to Nahum 2:11b, which refers to "the coming of the rulers
> of the Kittim. But then she [Jerusalem] shall be trampled under their
> feet...", can be interpreted in a concrete manner to refer to Pompey and
> AEm. Scaurus, we have a clear earliest date for the writing of the Pesher Nahum.
> 
> Ian Hutchesson
> 

I agree that the Kittim are Romans.  But two comments.
First, why do you assume a phrase cast in the form of an 
imprecation or prophecy is after the fact?  Second, 
don't be so sure the agent doing the trampling is
syntactically the Kittim.  The "Antiochus to the Kittim"
phrase comes out of a lacuna and reads like a
subordinate clause, with the subject of "shall be trampled" 
referring either to a preceding subject before the 
clause (e.g. Jerusalem, or the Congregation of the
Seekers-after-Smooth-Things, or whatever).  The passive 
verb requires no agent, but if there is an agent named 
it will come in the lacuna immediately following the 
"trampled" verb (TRMS).  

pNahum has had so many restorations done _on the basis_
of historical scenarios read back into the text. 
Consequently, the existing pNahum that we all think of
is actually a pseudo-text, part real text and part
restored pseudo-text, which is cited in support of and
believed to confirm historical scenarios which created
the original restorations.

Greg Doudna
Copenhagen