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Re: 4Q Therapeia



In a message dated 96-09-24 14:00:51 EDT, Ita Sheres writes:

<< While Naveh's interpretation (and that's all that it is) is interesting,
 there are still others who see the text as a legitimate "therapeutic" one
 including for example Charlesworth who is a fairly conservative "reader" of
 the scrolls. Indeed, the question of "scribing exercises" is not very well
 known though one should assume (I suppose) that it existed.
  >>

Charlesworth has recanted his opinion on 4QTherapeia being a medical text;
cf. his "A Misunderstood Recently Published Dead Sea Scroll," _Explorations_
(American Institute for the Study of Religious Cooperation, Philadelphia), p.
2.

Any text that consists of two lines of the alphabet, a series of proper
names, and a string of non-words is clearly a scribal exercise.  There are
lots of them known from the ANE. 

Ed Cook
HUC-JIR
Cincinnati