[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Arabic at Qumran?
On 10 April Jim West wrote:
> In a message dated 96-04-10 10:44:48 EDT, you write:
>
> >Arabic as we know it today did not exist, orthographicaly, at the time
> >the DSS were composed. Although S. Arabic (as opposed to North, or what
> >came to be Qur'anic Arabic) did have a script, it was not part of the DSS
> >tradition (sic.). The development of N. Arabic script occured in the
> >seventh century.
>
> Sir,
> Then why is a document in Arabic script deposited among the Wadi Murabbaat
> documents from the time contemporaneous with Qumran?
>
> Cf. PAM 42.089
> PAM 42.090
The Wadi Murabba'at finds come from a range of periods, even within a
single cave (documents were recovered from three). Cave 2, which
held the Arabic documents (dated to the 9th-10th centuries C.E. by
the editors), held Greek documents from the same period, as well as a
number of interesting documents from the period of the Second Revolt.
Hardly "contemporaneous with Qumran". Clearly, the caves were used
by various groups over a long period of time.
All the best,
Richard Weis
*******************************************************************************
Richard D. Weis rweis@rci.rutgers.edu
New Brunswick Theological Seminary phone: 1-908-246-5591
17 Seminary Place FAX: 1-908-937-8185
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1196 USA
*******************************************************************************