This short paper studies a single folio of a 17th century Hebrew/Aramaic manuscript found in a bo... more This short paper studies a single folio of a 17th century Hebrew/Aramaic manuscript found in a bookbinding. It suggests that this manuscript contained one of the lost sources used by Rabbi Bezalel Ashkenazi in his Shiṭṭah Mequbbeẓet on b. Bava Metzia.
This contribution offers a new reading and reconstruction of an addition found in the text of Exo... more This contribution offers a new reading and reconstruction of an addition found in the text of Exod 24:18-25:1 as preserved in 4Q364 (4QRPb) 15. Alluding to Exod 25:8 (and possibly 9), it appears to elucidate the purpose of Moses’s forty days’ long stay atop Mount Sinai and serves as a nexus between Exod 24:18 and the following discussion of the Tabernacle.
This study revisits two texts classified as mezuzot, 4Q150 (4QMez B) and 8Q4 (8QMez). For 4QMez B... more This study revisits two texts classified as mezuzot, 4Q150 (4QMez B) and 8Q4 (8QMez). For 4QMez B, it offers a first attempt to decipher imprints of letters visible in between the lines. These appear to belong to the lost section of this text containing Deut 5:32-6:4. For 8QMez, this contribution suggests a first transcription and placement of several fragments which were not available to its first editor, but are now present on the recent images of 8Q4.
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 30, 2021
This note draws attention to two passages from the so-called Noachic interpolations in the Book o... more This note draws attention to two passages from the so-called Noachic interpolations in the Book of Parables where Noah traditions embedded in Qumran scrolls may provide helpful parallels. First, it suggests that the dating of the vision in 1 En. 60:1 is illuminated by a comparison to the Flood chronology in 4Q252. Second, it points out a similar use of Isa 24:18-20 in 1 En. 65:1-5, 9 and 4Q370. In both instances, the suggested parallels highlight the Parables' use of the Flood as a prototype of an eschatological judgement.
Journal of Ancient Judaism 11 (2020) 369–384, 2020
A limestone plaque KhQ2207 from Khirbet Qumran contains an inscription which has not been fully d... more A limestone plaque KhQ2207 from Khirbet Qumran contains an inscription which has not been fully deciphered. The revised transcription of the stone proposed in this study indicates that it contains a first-person address, perhaps by the deity, referring to a future judgment. As a literary text inscribed by a trained scribe, KhQ2207 stands in sharp contrast to other scribal exercises found at and near Qumran, suggesting that its initial classification as an exercise should be reconsidered.
“Kings, 1-2,” in T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, ed. Daniel Gurtner and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (London: T&T Clark, 2019), 1:315-18, 2019
Petitioners, Penitents, and Poets: On Prayer and Praying in Second Temple Judaism, ed. Ariel Feldman and Timothy Sandoval, BZAW 524; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020, 169-98, 2020
Journal of Ancient Judaism 10 (2019): 136-44, 2019
Fragment 5 of the scroll 4Q464 proved to be difficult to decipher. It is exceedingly dark and can... more Fragment 5 of the scroll 4Q464 proved to be difficult to decipher. It is exceedingly dark and can only be read with the help of infra-red photographs. Recently a new such image of this fragment became available. This photograph helps clarify much of the fragment’s difficult wording. While previous scholarship on 4Q464 assumed that fragment 5 deals with the Genesis Flood, this brief study suggests that it contains an admonition alluding to the events of Israel’s past. This new interpretation of fragment 5 supports an earlier proposal that it does not belong to 4Q464, but constitutes a fragment of a now lost text.
Mur 5, a small fragment from Wadi Murabbaʻat published in DJD 2, had not been deciphered. Given i... more Mur 5, a small fragment from Wadi Murabbaʻat published in DJD 2, had not been deciphered. Given its tiny script, the editor, Józef T. Milik, assumed that this is a mezuzah, while Hartmut Stegemann and Jürgen Becker suggested that it is a tefillah. The preliminary transcription of this fragment based on the new images reveals a text that does not match scriptural passages inscribed in tefillin and mezuzot.
Meghillot: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls 14, 2019
4QJosha 21 preserves faint traces of letters in its right margin. This contribution suggests that... more 4QJosha 21 preserves faint traces of letters in its right margin. This contribution suggests that these are imprints of words found in this very fragment. A crease running through the middle of the fragment indicates that the imprints result from folding. Two other fragments of 4QJosha, frags. 17 and 19, exhibit similar phenomena. All the three fragments containing Josh 10 clearly belong to the same column that got folded. It is possible that this column got detached from the scroll and then was folded. Yet, it is just as likely that it was folded while still a part of the original scroll. The two columns of a rolled scroll that are most susceptible to folding are the ones found on the outside and the inside of the scroll. A beginning of a given scroll could become folded due to a mishandling. The last column might got folded if the scroll was not rolled tightly and then squeezed. Signs of cracking found elsewhere in 4QJosha suggest that at some point it was indeed under pressure. In any case, whether this scroll was rolled with the column containing Josh 10 inside or outside, it appears that it was the last column of the scroll. In other words, 4QJosha possibly contained no more than the first ten chapters of Joshua.
Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 138, No. 2 (2019), pp. 365-376, 2019
This note revisits a psalm addressing Zion from Mur 6, a scroll found in the caves of Wadi Murabb... more This note revisits a psalm addressing Zion from Mur 6, a scroll found in the caves of Wadi Murabbaʿat. It offers a revised edition of the psalm based on the recent infrared images and attempts to place it within the wider group of Second Temple texts addressing Jerusalem.
This contribution is the first attempt at deciphering a miniature opistograph 4Q148 included in J... more This contribution is the first attempt at deciphering a miniature opistograph 4Q148 included in Józef T. Milik’s DJD 6 edition of tefillin and mezuzot from Qumran Cave 4. It proposes that the partially folded recto of this tiny fragment contains a non- scriptural text. A handful of legible words may suggest a prayer. Its verso, inscribed by a different hand, appears to be a legal text, evoking monetary amounts, perhaps related to inheritance. Folded and fastened similarly to tefillin, 4Q148 might have been a legal document re-used to produce an amulet.
This short paper studies a single folio of a 17th century Hebrew/Aramaic manuscript found in a bo... more This short paper studies a single folio of a 17th century Hebrew/Aramaic manuscript found in a bookbinding. It suggests that this manuscript contained one of the lost sources used by Rabbi Bezalel Ashkenazi in his Shiṭṭah Mequbbeẓet on b. Bava Metzia.
This contribution offers a new reading and reconstruction of an addition found in the text of Exo... more This contribution offers a new reading and reconstruction of an addition found in the text of Exod 24:18-25:1 as preserved in 4Q364 (4QRPb) 15. Alluding to Exod 25:8 (and possibly 9), it appears to elucidate the purpose of Moses’s forty days’ long stay atop Mount Sinai and serves as a nexus between Exod 24:18 and the following discussion of the Tabernacle.
This study revisits two texts classified as mezuzot, 4Q150 (4QMez B) and 8Q4 (8QMez). For 4QMez B... more This study revisits two texts classified as mezuzot, 4Q150 (4QMez B) and 8Q4 (8QMez). For 4QMez B, it offers a first attempt to decipher imprints of letters visible in between the lines. These appear to belong to the lost section of this text containing Deut 5:32-6:4. For 8QMez, this contribution suggests a first transcription and placement of several fragments which were not available to its first editor, but are now present on the recent images of 8Q4.
Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 30, 2021
This note draws attention to two passages from the so-called Noachic interpolations in the Book o... more This note draws attention to two passages from the so-called Noachic interpolations in the Book of Parables where Noah traditions embedded in Qumran scrolls may provide helpful parallels. First, it suggests that the dating of the vision in 1 En. 60:1 is illuminated by a comparison to the Flood chronology in 4Q252. Second, it points out a similar use of Isa 24:18-20 in 1 En. 65:1-5, 9 and 4Q370. In both instances, the suggested parallels highlight the Parables' use of the Flood as a prototype of an eschatological judgement.
Journal of Ancient Judaism 11 (2020) 369–384, 2020
A limestone plaque KhQ2207 from Khirbet Qumran contains an inscription which has not been fully d... more A limestone plaque KhQ2207 from Khirbet Qumran contains an inscription which has not been fully deciphered. The revised transcription of the stone proposed in this study indicates that it contains a first-person address, perhaps by the deity, referring to a future judgment. As a literary text inscribed by a trained scribe, KhQ2207 stands in sharp contrast to other scribal exercises found at and near Qumran, suggesting that its initial classification as an exercise should be reconsidered.
“Kings, 1-2,” in T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism, ed. Daniel Gurtner and Loren T. Stuckenbruck (London: T&T Clark, 2019), 1:315-18, 2019
Petitioners, Penitents, and Poets: On Prayer and Praying in Second Temple Judaism, ed. Ariel Feldman and Timothy Sandoval, BZAW 524; Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020, 169-98, 2020
Journal of Ancient Judaism 10 (2019): 136-44, 2019
Fragment 5 of the scroll 4Q464 proved to be difficult to decipher. It is exceedingly dark and can... more Fragment 5 of the scroll 4Q464 proved to be difficult to decipher. It is exceedingly dark and can only be read with the help of infra-red photographs. Recently a new such image of this fragment became available. This photograph helps clarify much of the fragment’s difficult wording. While previous scholarship on 4Q464 assumed that fragment 5 deals with the Genesis Flood, this brief study suggests that it contains an admonition alluding to the events of Israel’s past. This new interpretation of fragment 5 supports an earlier proposal that it does not belong to 4Q464, but constitutes a fragment of a now lost text.
Mur 5, a small fragment from Wadi Murabbaʻat published in DJD 2, had not been deciphered. Given i... more Mur 5, a small fragment from Wadi Murabbaʻat published in DJD 2, had not been deciphered. Given its tiny script, the editor, Józef T. Milik, assumed that this is a mezuzah, while Hartmut Stegemann and Jürgen Becker suggested that it is a tefillah. The preliminary transcription of this fragment based on the new images reveals a text that does not match scriptural passages inscribed in tefillin and mezuzot.
Meghillot: Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls 14, 2019
4QJosha 21 preserves faint traces of letters in its right margin. This contribution suggests that... more 4QJosha 21 preserves faint traces of letters in its right margin. This contribution suggests that these are imprints of words found in this very fragment. A crease running through the middle of the fragment indicates that the imprints result from folding. Two other fragments of 4QJosha, frags. 17 and 19, exhibit similar phenomena. All the three fragments containing Josh 10 clearly belong to the same column that got folded. It is possible that this column got detached from the scroll and then was folded. Yet, it is just as likely that it was folded while still a part of the original scroll. The two columns of a rolled scroll that are most susceptible to folding are the ones found on the outside and the inside of the scroll. A beginning of a given scroll could become folded due to a mishandling. The last column might got folded if the scroll was not rolled tightly and then squeezed. Signs of cracking found elsewhere in 4QJosha suggest that at some point it was indeed under pressure. In any case, whether this scroll was rolled with the column containing Josh 10 inside or outside, it appears that it was the last column of the scroll. In other words, 4QJosha possibly contained no more than the first ten chapters of Joshua.
Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 138, No. 2 (2019), pp. 365-376, 2019
This note revisits a psalm addressing Zion from Mur 6, a scroll found in the caves of Wadi Murabb... more This note revisits a psalm addressing Zion from Mur 6, a scroll found in the caves of Wadi Murabbaʿat. It offers a revised edition of the psalm based on the recent infrared images and attempts to place it within the wider group of Second Temple texts addressing Jerusalem.
This contribution is the first attempt at deciphering a miniature opistograph 4Q148 included in J... more This contribution is the first attempt at deciphering a miniature opistograph 4Q148 included in Józef T. Milik’s DJD 6 edition of tefillin and mezuzot from Qumran Cave 4. It proposes that the partially folded recto of this tiny fragment contains a non- scriptural text. A handful of legible words may suggest a prayer. Its verso, inscribed by a different hand, appears to be a legal text, evoking monetary amounts, perhaps related to inheritance. Folded and fastened similarly to tefillin, 4Q148 might have been a legal document re-used to produce an amulet.
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Papers by Ariel Feldman
a future judgment. As a literary text inscribed by a trained scribe, KhQ2207 stands in sharp contrast to other scribal exercises found at and near Qumran, suggesting that its
initial classification as an exercise should be reconsidered.
a future judgment. As a literary text inscribed by a trained scribe, KhQ2207 stands in sharp contrast to other scribal exercises found at and near Qumran, suggesting that its
initial classification as an exercise should be reconsidered.