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orion Greek Kittim and Romans
X-Sender: davic@pop.erols.com
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 1997 10:29:53 -0500
To: orion@mscc.huji.ac.il
From: David Goldman <davic@pop.erols.com>
Subject: RE: Greek Kittim and Romans
I thank Prof. Lemche for the reference in Numbers 24:24. Indeed this helps
clarify for me that the scrolls refer to the Greeks -as Ibn Ezra explains.
It is noteworthy that Onkelos and Targum Yerushalmi refer to KITTIM as
ROMAEY. In any event, the Scrolls are saying that the final battle with the
forces of evil are with the KITTIM. Perhaps(?) the targum sources lend some
support to the thesis that the Scrolls were authored in Herodian times. I
know some will be upset with me for saying that, since there is of course
no indication that the scrolls followed targum interpretative traditions.
BUT, since neither ROMAIM or YEVANIM is used, but rather KITTIM, perhaps
the authors of the scrolls were referencing this and Daniel. We know from
Jewish tradition that the forces of "Rome/Edom" are the final enemies. Thus
perhaps KITTIM was a Jewish code for the Romans in the scrolls when they
would not want to explicitly write that word...