From: Cal Redmond (calred@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu Dec 05 1996 - 06:40:45 EST
Warren or Aleece Langford wrote:
>
> Fellow B-Greekers
>
> In the foreword to Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls edited by James
> H. Charlesworth it states
>
> "All the scrolls are in Hebrew and Aramaic (a few fragments are in
> Greek)."
>
> My question is what are these few fragments in Greek?
I would argue that the quotation from Charlesworth, my former advisor
for a Th. M. at Princeton, is somewhat misleading. I suppose it depends
upon one's definition of "fragment."
Cave 7 contains several very small but sometimes identifiable Greek
fragments. These include portions of Exodus 28:7 and from the
apocryphal Letter of Jeremiah 43-44. A few scholars, who I view as
taking a sensationalistic turn, purport to find portions of Mark in the
Cave 7 Greek fragments. When one views the photographs of these
fragments, one finds perhaps a dozen letters, the identity of some of
which is unclear, and purporting to find Mark or other NT documents in
here is difficult for me to believe.
Cave 4 contains much longer Greek "fragments." These include a 26-line
manuscript of Lev. 26:2-16 (4qlxxLeviticus(a)=4Q119), a collection of
small fragments from Lev. 1-11-6:5 (pap4QLXXLeviticus(b)=4q120),
fragments from Numbers 3:40 - 4:16 (4QLXXNumbers=4Q121), and a fragment
from Deut. 11:4 (4QLXXDeuteronomy=4Q122). In addition, a "paraphrase"
of the Exodus event account is present, so identified because of the
prsence of the words "Egypt," "Moses," and "Pharaoh"
(pap4QparaExodusGr=4Q127). Photographs of these as well as published
editions are found in _Discoveries in the Judaean Desert IX: Qumran Cave
IV_, ed. Skehan, Ulrich, and Sanderson, Clarendon Press, 1992.
This continues the thread from a few days ago, in which Carl Conrad
graciously advanced my terse argument. To me, these speak to the
fundamental influence of Greek even in "fundamentalist Jewish cults"
like Qumran; if this is a correct interpretation, it means that Greek
was very firmly established in Jewish religious life.
-- Cal Redmond Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Missionary Appointee, Cameroon Baptist Theologial Seminary calred@ix.netcom.com http://www.GeoCities.com/Athens/4025/index.html
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