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Re: document uniformity
The point is straightforward. The texts in question represent
practices that are condemned in Deuteronomy 18. I am abundantly aware
that the rabinnical tradition persisted in practising divination in a
variety of ways; in fact, the Babli fair runneth over with it. That's
not the point. The point is that we find in the caves the *collection* of actual
literature on how to do it alongside of the collection of material
forbidding the practices involved: an apparent heterodoxy that
requires explanation.
As I also pointed out, in virtually all "archival" finds in the ANE
we find so-called "magical" texts, meaning omen texts and
conjurations, by far the most numerous, with the exception of legal
bumpf. In Ugarit and in Qumran this was certainly not the case, and
one, again, would like to know why not...
Fred