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Re: orion-list Were DSS Expansions? Was TOR in the future?
At 10:51 AM 6/11/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I think I may have posted about this a while ago, but I am still
>interested......I have long wondered how much sanctity the believers in the
>DSS ascribed to their re-worked versions of the Torah, and the
>aprocryphal/pseudipigraphical works. If they weren't valued to the same
>extent as the Torah or the rest of scripture, did those works reflect
>"commentaries" or "koines" or expansions that incorporated commentary in a
>way similar to rabbinic midrashic works?? Thus, when we find a re-worked
>version of Deuteronomy or such, was this really a competing version of the
>Bible itself, or just a "midrashic" version? Indeed, this question could be
>asked of the Samaritan Torah too; Moses Gastner argued that it was an
>expansion document that came to be the official canonized version for the
>Samaritans......
My feeling is that these distinctions that Gastner tries to make are more
relevant to Christians then within Judaism. The reason is that when one
looks at the range of Jewish religious liturature of the Rabbis and how
they are viewed, while the Tenach is viewed as 'scripture' that does not
mean that the others are 'chopped liver'. Is the talmud 'scripture'? No,
but it is within the range of the 'holy' so to speak. I think the worked
Penteteuch and other none scriptural texts were probably looked at the same
way. In fact the only works I have some uncertainty about would be Jubilees
and the like which are quoted in sectarian works authoritatively. Is that
like the talmud's quoting of Sirach? Or did they consider it equal to other
books of 'scripture'.?
>When it comes to the Damascus Document, some like Prof. Benzion Wacholder
>believe it to reflect a discussion of the messianic future rather than the
>past. I have wondered why that is still questionable....isn't the grammar
>of the DD rather obvious one way or the other?
I am not certain of his theory, but I wonder what the effect of the
halachic portions of CD has on this. They certainly don't look like it is
futuristic.
moshe shulman mshulman@ix.netcom.com 718-436-7705
http://www.chassidus.net chassidus website
For private reply, e-mail to Moshe Shulman <mshulman@ix.netcom.com>
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