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Re: Nehemiah among the Scrolls



On Mon, 13 May 1996, Jim West wrote:

> It has been a working assumption of scholars of the Hebrew Bible for a long
> time now that Ezra and Nehemiah constitute one book.
> 
> Yet a fragment of Ezra has been identified at Qumran- but Nehemiah is as
> absent as Esther.
> 
> So can it be said that the evidence from Qumran shows that Ezra and Nehemiah
> were separate works;
> or is this simply the argument from silence rearing its ugly head once again?

Maybe my answer to this question is too simplistic, but I don't see how 
finding a fragment of Ezra but not Nehemiah at Qumran is an argument to 
support their being separate works. Portions rather than entire books of 
many/most biblical works have been found at Qumran. Following the logic 
of this question one could say that if only chapters 1-4 of Judges (or 
any book) were found, the remaineder of the would be considered a 
separate work. The portion of Ezra/Nehemiah discovered at Qumran being 
only from the poriton we identify as Ezra seems a very weak argument to 
support the notion of separate works, IMHO.
Teresa Brown
GTU
Berkeley, CA
> > > Thanks, > > Jim West > >