[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Wise, Abegg, Cook book
notes on The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, by Michael Wise, Martin
Abegg, and Edward Cook (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996), in case any of these
are of interest:
p. 5. The claim that Bedouin "discovered nine more caves containing scrolls"
between caves 1 and 11 is false. E.g., cave 3 was discovered by archaeologists
p. 16. Pliny's account of Essenes is not part of a "travelogue."
pp. 19-20 & 52. The reading of Damascus Dicument interpreting the 390
years as preceding 586 BCE is interesting.
p. 22. The "triclinium" proposal has received substantial rebuttal, e.g.,
from J. Magness at SBL 1994.
p. 31. F.F. Bruce made a suggestion the authors highlight, yet Bruce is not
in the bibliography.
p. 34. The 364-day calendar is said to have been used by the sicarii, "the
only group of ancient Jews following it to whom the ancient sources give
a name," yet no ancient sources are quoted. Is Josephus the intended source?
He does report that sicarii killed and kidnapped during festivals:
War 2.254 [13.3]; 4.398-409 [7.2]; 4.425 [7.4]; Ant. 20.187 [8.10];
20.208 [9.3]. But does Josephus report that the sicarii observed a
different or 364-day calendar?
p. 137. According to J. Strugnell, CBQ 26 (1967) 580-2, this translation of
1QS 8.3 ("by working justice") is wrong; Strugnell's proposed solution is
not persuasive, but he (and Brownlee) saw the problem.
p. 258. 4Q213 (Levi Aramaic) frag. 2, line 20 is translated "The name of
her disgrace" (presumably reading xsdh).
pp. 358-9. The introduction to the translation of 4QMMT makes inadequate
comment on Sadducees and Essenes but significant comment on Paul.
These notes may not be representative of the book. Despite some excessive
dust-jacket sales pitch, a too-brief bibliography, and some misleading
historical proposals, this book is of considerable interest.
sincerely, Stephen Goranson UNC-Wilmington