4q225 2i 1-2 - a possible reconstruction and explanation.pdf

4Q225 2i 1-2: A Possible Reconstruction and ExplanationAuthor(s): Robert KuglerSource: Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 126, No. 1 (Spring, 2007), pp. 172-181Published by: The Society of Biblical LiteratureStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27638427 .Accessed: 07/01/2015 14:59

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The Society of Biblical Literature is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toJournal of Biblical Literature.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 184.168.27.152 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:59:32 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

4Q225 2 i 1-2: A Possible Reconstruction and Explanation

Now entering a new phase of study with the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls

nearly complete, Qumran scholars have before them fresh challenges, not the least of which is integrating the results of their specialized research with more general areas of

scholarship, including study of the Hebrew Bible, NT, early and rabbinic Judaism, and

early Christianity. Yet for those who remain devoted to scrolls-specific research there are

remaining errands, including that of restoring lost text at the edges of fragments where

enough evidence does survive to permit reasonable speculation. The following attempt to reconstruct 4Q225 2 i 1-2 and to explain it in its broader context is both a hopeful and a

cautionary tale of attending to that task.

4Q225: An Overview

4Q225, inscribed in the late first century b.c.e., survives in only three fragments with evidence of five columns of text.1 Fragment 3 preserves so little of the bottom left and

right corners of two adjacent columns that it is impossible to determine what the two

columns contained. By contrast, frg. 2 provides the majority of two full columns of text, and frg. 1 reveals the middle portion of nearly a full column. Additionally, frg. 1 has

recently been shown to follow frg. 2, so that together, 4Q225 2 i, ii; 1 give substantial evi dence of three consecutive columns of text.2 They record, with varying degrees of detail and interpretation, selected episodes from Genesis and Exodus: the reaffirmation of God's

promise to Abram in Gen 15:1-6 (2 i 3-8a); Isaac's birth in Gen 21:1-7 (2 i 8b-9a); the near sacrifice of Isaac in Gen 22:1-18 (2 i 9b-14; 2 ii l-10a); a genealogy from Isaac to Levi and a sum of the years of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Levi (2 ii 10-12); and a telescoped account of the Passover and escape from Egypt in Exod 12:1-13; 13:17-14:31 (2 ii 13-14;

1.1-11). As for the text's origin and purpose, it is plausibly the record of one of the Qum

1 For the editio princeps, see J. T. Milik and James VanderKam, "225. 4QPseudo-Jubileesa," in Qumran Cave 4.VIII: Parabiblical Texts, Part I (ed. H. Attridge et al.; DJD 13; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 141-55; henceforth DJD 13.

2 For the placement of frg. 1 after frg. 2, see Robert Kugler and James VanderKam, "A Note on

4Q225 (4QPseudo-Jubileesa)," RevQ 11 (2001): 133-39; also note that 4Q226 7 overlaps with 225 2 ii 8-14, but the rest of 4Q226 presents material unrelated to the remains of 4Q225 (for 4Q226, see

DJD 13, 157-70).

172


Critical Notes 173

ran covenanters' nightly colloquies on Scripture (1QS 6:7) meant to demonstrate to its

audience the reliability of God's promises, even when threatened by Prince Mastemah

himself.3

Reconstructing 4Q225 2 i 1-2: The Problem

For all that we do know about 4Q225, a key passage still confounds commentators.

Evidence of only sixteen character spaces on line 1 and twenty-seven spaces on line 2 sur

vives, but even more vexing than the meagerness of the two lines is their lack of apparent connection with the rest of the manuscript.

*rnn [wajjn rron n [ ]?[ ] 1 nh[v] oft-raw pro n[ur? ]rr?[p mpo] 2

1. [ ] ?

[ ] t that per [son] will be cut off 2. [from among] his [peo]ple. [ he sta]yed in Haran twenty [ye]ars.

The last half of line 1 and the reconstructed first two words of line 2 prescribe the

punishment o?k?r?t for a sin that must have been the subject of the rest of line 1, and the

end of line 2 mentions someone having dwelt in Haran for twenty years. Establishing a

relationship between k?r?t punishment and the stories of Isaac's near sacrifice, the

3 For this view, see Robert Kugler, "Hearing 4Q225: A Case Study in Reconstructing the Reli

gious Imagination of the Qumran Community," DSD 10 (2003): 81-103, esp. 100-103. My earlier

work should be read in the context of the wider discussion of 4Q225 since its publication in 1994.

Contributions to the discussion include: Moshe Bernstein, "Pentateuchal Interpretation at Qum

ran," in The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment (ed. Peter W Flint and

James C. VanderKam; 2 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1998), 1:137-38; Moshe Bernstein, "Angels at the Aqedah: A Study in the Development of a Midrashic Motif," DSD 7 (2000): 263-91, esp. 278-83; Joseph A.

Fitzmyer, "The Interpretation of Genesis 15:6: Abraham's Faith and Righteousness in a Qumran Text," in Emanuel: Studies in Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor of Emanuel

Tov (ed. Shalom Paul et al.; VTSup 94; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 256-68; Joseph A. Fitzmyer, "The Sacri

fice of Isaac in Qumran Literature," Bib 83 (2002): 211-29; Florentino Garc?a Mart?nez, "The Sacri

fice of Isaac in 4Q225," in The Sacrifice of Isaac: The Aqedah (Genesis 22) and Its Interpretations (ed. Ed Noort and Eibert Tigchelaar; Themes in Biblical Narrative 4; Leiden: Brill, 2002), 44-57; Betsy

Halpern-Amaru, "A Note on Isaac as First-Born in Jubilees and Only Son in 4Q225," DSD 13 (2006): 127-33; Menahem Kister, "Observations on Aspects of Exegesis, Tradition, and Theology in Midrash,

Pseudepigrapha, and Other Jewish Writings," in Tracing the Threads: Studies in the Vitality of Jewish

Pseudepigrapha (ed. John Reeves; SBLEJL 6; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994), 7-15, 20; James Kugel,

"Exegetical Notes on 4Q225 'Pseudo-Jubilees'," DSD 13 (2006): 73-98; Lukas Kundert, Die Opfer

ung/Bindung Isaaks, Bd. 1, Gen 22:1-19 im Alten Testament, im Fr?hjudentum und im Neuen Testa

ment (WMANT 78; Neukirchen-Vluyn; Neukirchener Verlag, 1998), 95-107; James C. VanderKam, "The Aqedah, Jubilees, and Pseudo-Jubilees," in The Quest for Meaning: Studies in Biblical Intertex

tuality in Honor of James A. Sanders (ed. Craig Evans and Shemaryahu Talmon; Leiden: Brill, 1997), 241-61; Geza Vermes, "New Light on the Sacrifice of Isaac From 4Q225," JJS 47 (1996): 140-46.


174 Journal of Biblical Literature 126, no. 1 (2007)

Passover, and the exodus has defied scholarly attentions, and only Jacob?not Abraham,

Isaac, or the Hebrew people whom the manuscript concerns most?is said to have dwelt

in Haran for two decades (Gen 31:38,41). Some general propositions about 4Q225, how

ever, provide assistance in sorting out the puzzle of the manuscript's first two lines.

Reconstructing 4Q225 2 i 1-2: Framing Propositions

First, most agree that Jubilees was influential in shaping 4Q225's accounts of Abra

ham, Isaac, and the exodus, though it was hardly intended as a "new Jubilees" or a copy of

the book itself.4 Rather, close examination suggests that the relationship 4Q225 shared

with Jubilees was far more nuanced, that of an independent composition that nonetheless

traded on its audience's awareness of Jubilees. Indeed, three key instances in 4Q225

strongly support this contention.

The rationale for God's request that Abraham sacrifice Isaac is articulated only by the words pnwa DmiK na D"?OUm DTH^N bx] I T\nb[W]hr\ "W \X\T\ "Then Prince

Ma[s]temah came [to Go]d and he accused Abraham regarding Isaac" (2 i 9b-10a). A

recipient understands the sentence only through awareness of the fuller statement pro vided in Jub. 17:15-18 of the Joban explanation for God's request.5

15During the seventh week, in the first year during the first month?on the

twelfth of this month?in this jubilee [2003], there were voices in heaven regard

ing Abraham, that he was faithful in everything that he told him, (that) the Lord

loved him, and (that) in every difficulty he was faithful. 16Then Prince Mastema came and said before God: "Abraham does indeed love his son Isaac and finds

him more pleasing than anyone else. Tell him to offer him as a sacrifice on an

altar. Then you will see if he performs this order and will know whether he is

faithful in everything through which you test him." 17Now the Lord was aware

that Abraham was faithful in every difficulty which he had told him. For he had

tested him through his land and the famine; he had tested him through the wealth

of kings; he had tested him again through his wife when she was taken forcibly, and through circumcision; and he tested him through Ishmael and his servant

girl Hagar when he sent them away. 18In everything through which he tested him

he was found faithful. He himself did not grow impatient, nor was he slow to act; for he was faithful and one who loved the Lord.

A related instance of 4Q225 assuming its recipients' awareness o? Jubilees in 2

ii 9b-10a is a seemingly inexplicable outburst by God following the binding of Isaac:

4 Understandably, the title assigned to 4Q225, "Pseudo-Jubilees," is often thought to be an

overstatement of its relationship to Jubilees. It is, in the words of one of its editors, "not... pretend ing to be the work of this [Jubilees'] author, nor is there any indication anyone thought it was"

(VanderKam, "Aqedah',' 261). For further views on the closeness or distance between 4Q225 and

Jubilees, see Bernstein, "Angels at the Aqedah," 269 n. 15; Garc?a Martinez, "Sacrifice of Isaac," 45. 5 Translations of passages come from The Book of Jubilees (trans. James C. VanderKam; CSCO

511, Scriptores Aethiopici 88; Louvain: Peeters, 1989), ad loc; for other instances of this explanation for God's command, see b. Sanh. 89b; Gen. Rab. 56:4.


Critical Notes 175

IHN ?T?T fc? / [ O Tljrp nn]y, "N[ow I know that ] / he will not be loving."6 The declamation does not appear in Genesis or Jubilees, but knowing Jub. 17:16-18 would

explain for a recipient who the subject of the verb is and the meaning of the phrase: Prince

Mastemah accused Abraham of loving Isaac more than anything else, God included (Jub. 17:16), but God knew that Abraham was faithful to God in all his afflictions, and "was the one who loved the Lord" (Jub. 17:17-18). In 4Q225's characteristically condensed

form, which relies on its recipients' prior knowledge of Jubilees, 2 ii 9b-10a confirms God's confidence that Abraham would not let love of Isaac trump faithfulness to God.

A third indication that 4Q225 depends on its recipients' awareness of traditions in

Jubilees is the content of frg. 1. It is easiest to construe the surviving snatch phrases on frg. 1 as the remnants of a highly condensed Jubilees-style account of the exodus and the accom

panying Passover feast.7 The binding of Prince Mastemah in 2 ii 13 (vacat nO?WDH ~W\

TION) echoes his bondage at the exodus according to Jub. 48:15, 18. The appearance of Belial listening to what someone has to say in 2 ii 14 ("lttW] byhl PQUn) may have developed from the addition of demons to the exodus story in Jub. 48:16.8 In a related

instance, Belial's striking action in 1:3 (? mil 7P [^l frOI) employs the verb used of God in Exod 12:29 (TT2?) and perhaps expands on the transfer of the blame for striking down

all of Egypt's firstborn in Jub. 49:2 to the "forces of Mastemah." The phrase in 1:4a, T[nnnD DmiN DP nrrDJ, "according to] his [covenant] made with Abraham," repeats Jub. 48:8, which reports that God afflicted Egypt and delivered the people from Pharaoh to honor the covenant with the ancestor. And 4Q225 1:4b?with *faNr!, "and they ate," and 1:10,

with D*]n T\*W b[y, "o]n the shore of the [sea"?recalls Jub. 49:1-2,6,23 and Jubilees' rec

ollection that the Passover meal began as the firstborn of Egypt were attacked and was

completed only after the crossing of the sea.9 A second general proposition useful for our purposes is that where 4Q225 departs

from Jubilees and Scripture (especially in expanding Genesis 22), it does so as elliptically as it does in using Jubilees. Abraham's sighting of fire on the mountain where he was to

sacrifice Isaac (W& [TMTV\ [2 ii 1]) is perhaps best understood as an abbreviated form of the motif elaborated in Pirqe R. El. 31 that Abraham saw a divine self-manifestation marking

6 For a defense of this reconstruction, see DJD 13,151,153; see also the contrasting suggestion in Vermes, "New Light," 142 n. 19; and see Kugler, "Hearing 4Q225," 95 n. 42, for my explanation of why the editors' reading is to be preferred, and of the lacuna at the end of line 9 that the editors' reconstruction requires.

7 For these and other possible connections between 4Q225 1 and Jubilees' account of the Passover and exodus, see Kugler, "Hearing 4Q225," 95-96. Note that there is possibly another instance where 4Q225 follows Jubilees, but in what it omits, not what it includes. While Jub. 18:2-3 and 4Q225 2 i 10b-13a reproduce almost precisely God's command to Abraham in Gen 22:2, they both omit the destination, "to the land of Moriah."

8 See VanderKam, Book of Jubilees, 314, for the argument that the plural pronominal suffix and

following plural verb in the Ethiopie text of Jub. 48:16 should stand as a reference to demons and not be emended (as it generally is) to the singular to make the verse refer to Prince Mastemah alone. 9 In "Hearing 4Q225," 96,1 also suggest that the possible reference to a time (or place?) free "from the guilt of immorality" (nUTH PPD) echoes the sacred future envisioned at the end of the

jubilees in Jub. 50:5 (cf. 20:3-6).



the place of sacrifice in the form of a pillar of fire (cf. Tg. Ps.-J. Gen 22:4).10 And Isaac's

exhortation to Abraham, n?* THN mfl]D, "T[ie me well," in 2 ii 4 evokes with only a few

words the complete tradition offered up in Tg. Ps.-J. Gen 22:10 (cf. Gen. Rab. 56:l).11

Notably, we know the full forms of these exegetical motifs from two oft-related, later Jew ish texts, Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan.12 Given the affiliation between

4Q225 and Jubilees, though, this hardly seems surprising, as it has long been recognized that especially Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer repeats many of the motifs we encounter in Jubilees.13

Indeed, the only unique expansionist motif evident in 4Q225's account of the near sacri

fice, the presence of weeping angels of holiness and jeering angels of Mastemah (2 ii 5

7a), is most closely related to the weeping angels at the Aqedah known also from Pirqe R.

El. 31 and Gen. Rab. 56:5.14 Significantly, 4Q225's apocopated presentation of motifs

known until now in full form only in much later texts suggests that they are of greater

antiquity than previously imagined. Third, by virtue of the close relationship of 4Q225 with Jubilees, it is possible to see

Passover as a unifying theme in the Qumran text. VanderKam has observed two clear

10 Pirqe R. El 31 (ed. Luria 70a): ?V2Wb Tp p?n ]12 WX bv TIDP HN!, "He saw a column of

fire from the earth to the heavens." On the connection between this passage and the reference in

4Q225 2 ii 1, see Marc Bregman, "The Aqedah at Qumran: Fire on the Mountain: A Comparison of

4Q225 Pseudo-Jubileesaand Pirqe de-Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 31" (abstract of lecture presented at the Orion Center, May 21, 1998, http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/orion/programs/Bregman.shtml). Van derKam and Milik in DJD 13,151, also cite Tg. Ps.-J. Gen 22:4, where Abraham sees Tup N*ip^ pp NTIIU by, "the Cloud of Glory enveloping the mountain" (translations of the targum are from Michael Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan: Genesis: Translated, with Introduction and Notes [Aramaic Bible IB; Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992]). The editors also observe that "there is insuffi cient space for the full expression U?N TlOP NT! on the fragment" (VanderKam and Milik, DJD 13,

151), further supporting the notion that 4Q225 apocopates the exegetical motifs it incorporates. 11 ??nm arm*? tith wsn *nps p omaj t?i row *ro nan ^it? prw now, "And Isaac said to his father, 'Bind me well that I may not struggle in the agony of my soul and be pitched into the pit of destruction....'"

12 On the close relationship between Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, see

Gerald Friedlander, Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Tr?bner, 1916), xix. Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer is generally dated to the eighth or ninth century c.e. (H. L. Strack and G. Stemberger, Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash [trans. Markus Bockmuehl; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1992], 356), and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan is dated no earlier than the seventh century c.e. (Maher, Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, 11-12).

13 Friedlander, Pirke De Rabbi Eliezer, xxi-xxvii. Anna Urowitz-Freudenstein ("Pseudepi graphic Support of Pseudepigraphic Sources: The Case of Pirqe de Rabbi Eliezer" in Tracing the

Threads, ed. Reeves, 35-53) challenges the direct connection between Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer and early Jewish pseudepigrapha that Friedlander suggested. She does nothing, though, to undercut the sound ness of the view that Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer drew from a pool of traditions shared by Jubilees. 14 On this, see Bernstein, "Angels at the Aqedah," 278-81. A further instance of elliptic refer

encing might be evident in the designation of Abraham's dwelling place as rVTlNin, "the wells," when God commanded him to sacrifice Isaac. This may depend on the tradition of reading "1N2

PIU; in Gen 21:33 as "seven wells"; see Theodor N?ldeke, "Sieben Brunnen," AR 1 (1904): 340-44, cited by Fitzmyer, "Sacrifice of Isaac," 217 n. 10. However, the evidence N?ldeke cites for this tradi tion is late, and of Mandaean, Christian, and Muslim origin, making it of doubtful value.


Critical Notes 177

indicators linking Passover and the exodus with the Aqedah in Jubilees. According to Jub.

18:3, 18-19, the binding of Isaac occurs on the date assigned to Passover, and only in

Jubilees' accounts of the binding of Isaac and the Passover does Prince Mastemah play a

featured role (17:16; 18:9, 12; 48:2, 9, 12, 15), as he does in 4Q225 (2 i 9-10; 2 ii 6-8, 13,

14).15 And even though the absence of an explicit Passover-related date for the Aqedah in

4Q225 leads VanderKam to downplay the possibility that it joins Jubilees in making this connection, the argument above that 4Q225 presupposes Jubilees suggests that explicit

linkage would hardly have been necessary; the audience already familiar with Jubilees could have made the connection without the assistance of the date formula.16

Reconstructing 4Q225 2 i 1-2: A Proposal

Returning to 2 i 1-2 mindful of the foregoing propositions, a possible reconstruc

tion emerges. First, if we rely on 4Q225's close affiliation with Jubilees to narrow the list

of possible crimes for which k?r?t might have been assigned as a punishment, we come

quickly back to the topic of Passover. By contrast with the frequent use of k?ret in the

Hebrew Bible (e.g., Gen 17:14; Exod 30:33, 38; Lev 17:4, 9; 20:3, 5-6; 22:3; etc.), only twice

does Jubilees prescribe k?r?t as a punishment, and in 49:9 it is in reference to the failure

to observe Passover if one is pure and not away traveling at the time of the feast.17 The

judgment depends on Num 9:13, which, in the course of establishing the "second

Passover," mandates observance of the feast by the pure and those "not traveling" at the

appointed time of the feast: nniDJi noan nwyh Vrni 7VT\ *? -p-rm ni?o am nu>K warn ?TOPO Ninn WSJH, "But anyone who is clean and is not on a journey, and yet refrains from

keeping the Passover, shall be cut off from the people." Jubilees 49:9, with help from 49:21, seems intent on clearing up a potential ambiguity in Num 9:13, namely, whether "p*Tl riTl xb means being close to the temple, where one would make the Passover sacrifice

(Deut 16:1-7), or close to one's family home, where home observance would be possible

(Exod 12:1-28).

Jub. 49:9. The man who is pure but does not come to celebrate it [Passover] on

its prescribed day?to bring a sacrifice that is pleasing before the Lord and to eat

15 VanderKam, "Aqedah" 245-48. 16

Ibid., 260. VanderKam cites another difference between Jubilees and 4Q225 that motivates his effort to open up some space between them. Jubilees 1:27 indicates that the book is dictated to

Moses by the Angel of the Presence, but 4Q225 is the speech of an unknown third-person narrator

(pp. 260-61). However, the view that 4Q225 perhaps originated as a record of one of the Qumran covenanters' evening colloquies on Scripture (1QS 6:7) could draw the two works closer together, inasmuch as it imagines that the "speaker" of 4Q225 was indeed commenting on Scripture for the

assembled community, Scripture that included Jubilees. 17

Following Gen 17:14, k?r?t also appears in Jub. 15:14 as punishment for a man's failure to

be circumcised. That the penalty in 4Q225 has to do with circumcision and echoes Gen 17:14, as sug

gested by Bernstein ("Contours of Genesis," 64) is unlikely, since the only other possible reference to circumcision in 4Q225 was eliminated by Kugler and VanderKam ("Note on 4Q225," 135), when what was once bw\, "and he circumcised," was corrected to read I^DNI, "and they ate" (4Q225 1.4).



and drink before the Lord on the day of the festival?that man who is pure and

nearby is to be uprooted because he did not bring the Lord's sacrifice at its time. That man will bear responsibility for his own sin.

Jub. 49:21. They will not be able to celebrate the Passover in their cities or in any

places except before the Lord's tabernacle or otherwise before the house in which his name has resided. Then they will not go astray from the Lord.

Clearly Jubilees 49 leaves little doubt about the meaning of ron &b "["112: it can only refer to proximity to the temple.

Returning to line 1 (and the first portion of line 2), it is possible that an echo of Jub. 49:9 and Num 9:13 occupied the lost portion. Like Jubilees 49, the chief interest is in

addressing the relative location of the potential festal celebrant.

]ron[y mpa] / wnn [vz]in rron ?[wyb bm noan nao ro]n[ ta jm] i

The virtues of this reconstruction are that it occupies the number of spaces one expects before the first letter trace (28-29); it provides a clear explanation of the first surviving let ter (taw); it respects the dominant influence of Jubilees on 4Q225; and it ties into the

Passover theme that characterizes much of the remaining manuscript. The downside of the reading is that it requires additional material prior to this first surviving column: at

least Win 1U?N WH7\ would have to appear in the closing line of the preceding column; and with that comes a further column of text, about the contents of which we have no

real idea.18

As for the text preserved at the end of line 2, ni[tt>] D[*]nwp pnn i[W, the only scriptural or Jubilean antecedent for someone dwelling in Haran for a period of twenty years is Jacob's sojourn there while in service to Laban (Gen 31:38,41; cf. Jub. 27:19; 29:5). At first glance this has nothing to do with 4Q225's narrative and thematic preoccupa tions?the binding of Isaac, the exodus, and the Passover. But in view of the sharing of

exegetical motifs in 4Q225 with those repeated especially in Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer and Tar

gum Pseudo-Jonathan, here too we are drawn back to Passover. In Pirqe R. El. 32 we learn

that Gen 27:9 mentions Jacob having brought two lambs in feeding his father a deceiver's

repast because one was the Passover lamb and the other was for his father to consume; the

night of betrayal, as it turns out, was the night on which Passover would be observed. This same motif is repeated in Tg. Ps.-J. Gen 27:9.19

18 The end of the preceding column may also have been "linu NIH ~IU>N WNH, to match Num 9:13 completely; but that would necessitate a conjunction before TH3 at the beginning of line 1, where there is little room to spare. As for the possibility of fitting a complete, sensible clause on line 1 prior to the preserved text, there seems to be too little space to allow it.

19pns no*uu; -rrmn \b n *?n prur bw foan rvr\ onp ""n w >di onp "ta w warn

T^n Vd?? o*oyoa i1? row*? "mm noan tajd "thin *?n iw?j yiwb biw, "He [Jacob] went and

brought two kids of the goats. Were two kids of the goats the food for Isaac? Was not one sufficient for him? As it is said, 'The righteous one eats to the satisfaction of his soul.' But one corresponded to the Paschal offering, and one [was] to make for him [Isaac] savory meat to eat" (Pirqe R. El. 32 [ed. Luria 73b-74a]). In Tg. Ps.-J. Gen 27:9, Rebekah says to her son Jacob, *6 101 NJ^Jp TVlb fTO bVK noDTi into rWnn pnn^ tipki xxn ^p nwb im nnva nwb in prow ptp ""u *"?ri form


Critical Notes 179

Thus, on the strength of 4Q225's shared motifs with Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan and its habit of presenting apparently well-known exegetical motifs ellip

tically, I offer the following reconstruction of line 2 (with line 1 provided for complete ness).

wn? [u;a]jn roon n[wyb bm nosn nwi ro]n[ xb jra] l nj[w] o^nwp pnn n[w *o Vm np*m ]ro?[p mpn] 2

Like the reconstruction of line 1, this one also fills the lacuna comfortably; more signifi

cantly, it integrates the language of Num 9:13 into the reference to Jacob, using 9:13's bin

with an infinitive,20 and it provides an explanation for the reference to Jacob's sojourn in

line 2: having once observed the Passover, he was nonetheless excused for the following two decades because he was TTT1, on the road in Haran.

Altogether, then, 4Q225 2 i 1 confirmed Jubilees' insistence that one who is "not

traveling" observe the Passover feast at the Jerusalem temple on its appointed day (Num

9:13; Jub. 49:9,21). The second line reinforced that assertion by observing that Jacob was

permitted to blT\, "cease," after having once observed the feast only because he was "p"T2, "on the road," during his twenty-year stay in Haran. Then the rest of the surviving text

goes on to recall two significant moments in Israel's history associated with Passover and

replay them in such a way as to prove that, although in both instances the promises of

God were endangered by the actions of Prince Mastemah, God prevailed.

4Q225 in Its Compositional and/or Receptive Context

Apart from evidence that there was some reason to urge the Qumran covenanters to

observe Passover at the temple, the foregoing reconstruction of 4Q225 2 i 1-2 remains

difficult to embrace. Fortunately, there are hints in the scrolls at least licensing suspicion that such urging was necessary

4Q265 3:3 reads, noun ?[nn] ntfJWl ?l?pT "ipJ blXV [bx], "Let [not] a young boy or woman eat the Passover [sacrifice." The passage's concern is for the meal's purity,

OTTI H, "Go now to the sheep shed and bring me from there two fat kids, one for the Passover and one for the festival offerings, and I will make of them dishes for your father, such as he loves." Here the explanation of the second lamb is actually different, relying as it does on the rabbinic prescrip tion of a second lamb as "supplementary meat for the Passover meal" (m. Pesah. 6.3; see Per ?.

Bengston, Passover in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Genesis: The Connection of Early Biblical Events with Passover in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan in a Synagogue Setting [Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 2001], 72 n. 344). Note also that Jacob's trickery is linked to the binding of Isaac in Pirqe R. El. 32 (ed. Luria

73b) as a way of explaining Isaac's poor eyesight, which aided the success of the deceit. When Isaac was bound, he looked to the heavens and saw the Shekinah, and, rather than allow Isaac to die out

right upon seeing God (cf. Exod 33:20), God spared him and afflicted him instead only with dimin ished eyesight in old age. 20 For other uses of the verb in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see 1QS5T7; 1QM4:3; lQHa3.T5;4Q431 1:2; and 11Q19 53:12.



likely a pertinent issue only if temple, not home, observance were the normative prac tice.21 One may conclude from this that the covenanters considered themselves bound to

observe the Passover sacrifice at the temple. Surely complicating that experience, though, were the variant mandates of 1 lQT* 17:6-9 requiring them to make the sacrifice before the

evening offering, to restrict participants in the sacrificial meal to men over twenty years of age, and to consume the meal that night within the sanctuary courtyards (cf. Jub. 49:1,

12, 17). It would not be surprising if, under such conditions, which set them so vividly apart from their nonsectarian co-religionists, observing Passover had grown difficult for

community members. We may even speculate that, given such difficulties, some were sim

ply retreating to Qumran at Passover to exercise the "Jacob exception" provided by the

memory of Jacob's cessation of observance while "on the road" in Haran, a practice

acknowledged in 4Q225 2 i 1-2.

Read in this light, the first two lines of 4Q225 become an exhortation to keep Passover according to sectarian policy?at the temple?and not to use self-imposed exile,

perhaps to Qumran itself, as a legal loophole through which to escape one's Passover obli

gation.22 The following narrative focuses attention, then, on two episodes from Israel's

past that are inextricably intertwined with Passover?the Aqedah and the exodus?

retelling them in such a way as to heighten the sense in which they were both moments

when evil, embodied in Prince Mastemah, threatened to overthrow God's promises, yet God prevailed. Thus, the covenanters should never, out of weariness in waiting for God to vindicate them or unease in exhibiting their difference before others, neglect their Passover obligations; they should never fail to observe the central rite of liberation, the

feast of the Passover, lest they incur the penalty pronounced by Num 9:13 and dishonor

the faith of Abraham and the memory of those who escaped from Egypt to celebrate the first Passover.

21 Preceding the prohibition of lads and women eating the Passover sacrifice is a quotation of

Mai 2:10 (4Q265 3:1-2). The manuscript's editor, Joseph Baumgarten, suggests that the quotation indicates that the author witnessed lax practices among some men wherein they shared their meal

portions with wives and children, whose purity could not be guaranteed, resulting in the contami nation of the communal meal for all men through the act of one or several (see Joseph Baumgarten, "265. 4QMiscellaneous Rules," in Qumran Cave 4.XXV: Halakhic Texts [ed. Joseph Baumgarten et al.; DJD 35; Oxford: Clarendon, 1999], 63-64).

22 That the site enjoyed by the Qumran community qualified as a place akin to the biblical

wandering of the people in the wilderness is widely recognized by even casual readers of the scrolls; see, e.g., lQS8:12b-14.

^wiura iro*? n^N nrnm 12 anwn Dm na dw nua1? -imo*? roV? biyn win nuno "jinn trm n^n nriiDnn 13

irm^ n^DQ nDnyn nur? "" *rm us nman dihd -iwnd 14

This passage is the denouement of a section of the Community Rule commonly viewed as the group's (earliest?) manifesto; if that is correct, the community constituted itself from the beginning as a gath ering removed from the mainstream.


Critical Notes 181

Conclusion

While the foregoing reconstruction of 4Q225 2 i 1-2 is certainly plausible, as is the

explanation of it in the context of the remains we have dubbed 4Q225, there is much here as well that serves as a caution to the scrolls specialist who would seek to fill out the mar

gins of fragments. The reconstruction of line 1 provided here certifies the loss of a pre

ceding column; if correct, it is a sober reminder of the harsh reality that scrolls scholars are forever doomed to work with uncommonly fragmentary evidence. Even a cursory

glance back at the preceding paragraphs reminds one that the reconstruction and expla nation proposed here, like so many others that emerge from the studies of scrolls schol

ars, are woven from multiple fragile threads that at times barely reach far enough to join

together, let alone produce a full piece of cloth?invalidate any one of the threads, and

the whole fabric might dissolve. For these reasons this note should be taken not only as

an example of what we might make of a fragmentary scroll with a little effort, but also as

a cautionary tale for the scrolls specialist: those who still seek clarity in and from the scrolls

of Qumran should never forget that they have only the fragments of Qumran to work

with in achieving that goal.

Robert Kugler

kugler @lclark. edu

Lewis & Clark College, Portland, OR 97219


Article Contentsp. 172p. 173p. 174p. 175p. 176p. 177p. 178p. 179p. 180p. 181

Issue Table of ContentsJournal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 126, No. 1 (Spring, 2007), pp. 1-191Volume InformationFront MatterPresidential Address by Robert A. Kraft: [Introduction] [pp. 3-4]Para-mania: Beside, Before and Beyond Bible Studies [pp. 5-27]The Tower of Babel and the Origin of the World's Cultures [pp. 29-58]"So Shall God Do...": Variations of an Oath Formula and Its Literary Meaning [pp. 59-81]The Deconstruction of Job's Fundamentalism [pp. 83-97]Using the Master's Tools to Shore up Another's House: A Postcolonial Analysis of 4 Maccabees [pp. 99-127]Paul as a Child: Children and Childhood in the Letters of the Apostle [pp. 129-159]Critical NotesThe Preposition Hebrew in the Hebrew Pericopes [pp. 161-163]Bedan: A Riddle in Context [pp. 164-167]Elisha's Deceptive Prophecy in 2 Kings 3: A Response to Raymond Westbrook [pp. 168-171]4Q225 2i 1-2: A Possible Reconstruction and Explanation [pp. 172-181]Karl Polanyi, Marshall Sahlins, and the Study of Ancient Social Relations [pp. 182-191]

Back Matter

4q225 2i 1-2 - a possible reconstruction and explanation.pdf

Documents