RelSt 225 Class Minutes #17 (5 November 1996)
Taken by Micah Y. Selya; reviewed by ... could it be Belial? 

Assignment for 7 Nov 1996: Read Temple Scroll & War Scroll


Topic 1: Why are the scrolls seen as relevant for early Christianity?

1) For scholars who are trained in Christian studies (e.g. Abegg) it 
is natural to focus on material that seems relevant to Christianity.

2) There is also a hangover from the earliest period (ca 1950) when 
virtually all DSS scholars (except Yadin and Sukenik) were Christian.

3) Example: the organization of the "sectarian" community may seem to
throw light on the earliest Christian reports in the NT book of Acts --      
                 
  distinct       | 1. priests  = super apostles | distinct 
  from           | 2. council  = apostles       | from
  Greater Israel | 3. the many = brethren       | Greater World
                 
4) Even before 1950 the CDC was thought by some to refer to Essenes
and was often seen as a parallel to early Christain groups which had 
a concept of communal property, strict rules of behavior, etc.


Topic 2: Bible Variants, question by Tamar Lasson

Dr. Kraft answered using the book of Jeremiah (not by the famous 
bullfrog!) as an example -- 

1. The oldest Masoretic text (MT) MSS we have are from around 800 CE.
2. The Latin "Vulgate" translation by the church father Jerome (around
   400 CE) is based on Hebrew that is very close to the later MT. 
3. In the early 200s CE, Origen of Alexandria creates his "Hexapla," 
   a six column work consisting of [information corrected here]:

  1.Hebrew | 2.Hebrew | 3.Aquila | 4.Symmachus | 5.LXX/OG | 6.Theodotion 
             in Greek 
              letters          

The Hebrew behind Aquila's translation (made around 135 CE?) is close 
to what later became the MT.

However the LXX/OG is sometimes quite different from MT, as in 
Jeremiah, where it is 1/6 to 1/7 shorter than the MT.

Dr. Kraft then went on to explain that the "Bible" should not be 
looked at as a single textual unit in this early period. Each 
"biblical" work must be investigated individually.


Topic 3: The Hodayot/ The Hymns

Three types of hymns are found, relative to the biblical materials:

1. Those with no clear relationship to biblical Psalms
2. those which are clearly copies of biblical Psalms      
3. Those with some overlap (wording, style, etc.) but no identity

We began by looking at Garcia Martinez'

1. "Apocryphal Psalms" section, 11QPsalms\a, col. 27 (p.309),
   with its narrative section on David and his psalms

2. Then Psalm 151 (col. 28; p.310) --
   some traditions include it among the biblical Psalms

3. "Psalms of Exorcism" in 11QApocryphalPsalms\a (p.377) --
   Belial is the baddest boy of of both man and angels!

Bdi Bdi Bdi that's all folks (for now)!!!!
 
/end/