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University of Groningen Pseudepigraphy and a Scribal Sense of the Past in the Ancient Mediterranean Popovic, Mladen Published in: Is There a Text in This Cave? Studies in the Textuality of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Honour of George J. Brooke IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Final author's version (accepted by publisher, after peer review) Publication date: 2017 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Popovic, M. (2017). Pseudepigraphy and a Scribal Sense of the Past in the Ancient Mediterranean: A Copy of the Book of the Words of the Vision of Amram. In A. Feldman, M. Cioată, & C. Hempel (Eds.), Is There a Text in This Cave? Studies in the Textuality of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Honour of George J. Brooke (pp. 308-318). (Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah; Vol. 119). 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Download date: 28-09-2021 Pseudepigraphy and a Scribal Sense of the Past in the Ancient Mediterranean: A Copy of the Book of the Words of the Vision of Amram Mladen Popović, Qumran Institute, University of Groningen 1. Introduction Why does the Aramaic text Visions of Amram open with an incipit that communicates of the book (4Q543 1 a–c 1) instead (פרשגן) to its intended reader that this is a copy of just saying that this is the book of the words of the vision of Amram?1 A comparison between the longwinded opening statement of Visions of Amram with the tentative reconstruction of the opening of the so-called Pseudo-Ezekiel text may be instructive. The Hebrew text Pseudo-Ezekiel opens with what seems an introductory title: “[And these are the wor]ds of Ezekiel” (4Q385b 1).2 What, if any, is the added meaning of “copy” in Visions of Amram? Explanations for the use of the word “copy” in Visions of Amram were offered before, also drawing the concept of pseudepigraphy into the discussion. In this brief article I wish to add to some of these explanations by taking the use of “copy” in Visions of Amram as point of departure in order to rethink the production and transmission of ancient Jewish pseudepigraphic texts within the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern contexts. Here I will focus on a so-called scribal sense of the past and investigate notions of original and copy. This contribution may add the notion of antiquarianism as a scribal sense of the past as an extra feature to take into consideration in recent discussions in the field about pseudepigraphy. in the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls (פרשגן) ”Copy“ .2 is a Persian loanword in Aramaic texts meaning “copy.” In פתשגן/פרשגן The term in Deut 17:18 (Tg. Onq.) and משנה is used to translate פרשגן targumim and Peshitta Josh 8:32 (Tg. Ps.-J.) and in 1 Macc 11:31 and 12:7 Peshitta translates ἀντίγραφον is משנה With regard to Deut 17:18, it is interesting to note that the term .פרשגן with lacking in 11Q19 56:21.3 1 The research for this article was carried out within the ERC Starting Grant of the European Research Council (EU Horizon 2020): The Hands that Wrote the Bible: Digital Palaeography and Scribal Culture of the Dead Sea Scrolls (HandsandBible #640497). It is a pleasure and honour to dedicate this article to George Brooke. George’s great knowledge and mastery of the fields of ancient Judaism and early Christianity and beyond, his kindness and his wonderful sense of humour are beacons for younger scholars. The initial idea for this brief article occurred to me in May 2016 during the presentation by Barry Hartog and Hanna Tervanotko on encyclopaedism and book culture in the Dirk Smilde Research Seminar in Groningen. I thank them and all other participants in the seminar for the initial discussion. I also thank Mirjam Bokhorst, Irene Peirano, Eibert Tigchelaar, Caroline Waerzeggers, Daniel Waller, and Jason Zurawski for their suggestions and discussion when developing further the initial idea. 2 Devorah Dimant, DJD 30:73; Mladen Popović, “Prophet, Books and Texts: Ezekiel, Pseudo-Ezekiel and the Authoritativeness of Ezekiel Traditions in Early Judaism,” in Authoritative Scriptures in Ancient Judaism, ed. Mladen Popović, JSJS 141 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 227–51 (239). However, note that apart and perhaps Jer 29:1 (דברי determines האחרונים from 2 Sam 23:1 (which is already different because (also a different kind of clause) there are no close correspondences to this reconstruction in 4Q385b 1. Reconstructions such as “From the book of the wor]ds of Ezekiel” or “This is a copy of the wor]ds of Ezekiel” may also be considered. in 3Q15 12:11. I thank Mirjam Bokhorst and Eibert משנא הכתב הזא See below for a brief discussion of 3 Tigchelaar for calling my attention to these references. 1 occurs seven times in the Hebrew Bible.4 From the פתשגן/פרשגן The term context of its use it becomes clear that the term could take on the added sense of refers to a copy of a letter (in 4:11 and 5:6 פרשגן signalling authoritative value. In Ezra is used, cf. egertu in Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian, while in 4:23 and 7:11 אגרת refers to a copy of a written פתשגן In Esther .(נשתון ,another Persian loanword is used The narrative .(פתשגן כתב_דתה :and in 4:8 ;פתשגן הכתב להנתן דת :decree (in 3:14 and 8:13 contexts in Ezra and Esther, which have a Persian setting, explain the use of the an original letter or decree was disseminated and read :(פתשגן/פרשגן) ”term “copy through multiple copies. Also, in the contexts of Ezra and Esther the reference is evidently to copies of communications by a person or a body of authority. occurs at least four and maybe six פרשגן In the Dead Sea Scrolls the term times. In the Visions of Amram there is the longwinded opening statement in the incipit stating “Copy of the book of the words of the vision of Amram, son of [Qahat, In addition to 4Q543 1 a–c 1 and its .(פרשגן כתב מלי חזות עמרם בר[ קהת בר לוי) ”son of Levi parallel in 4Q545 1 a i 1, Daniel Machiela suggests that in the Genesis Apocryphon The closest 5.(כתב מלי נוח) ”preceded “the book of the words of Noah [רפ]ש[ג]ן in 5:29 parallel to the incipit of Visions of Amram in the scrolls may be the reconstructed reference in 1QapGen 5:29, although the reconstruction is based on 4Q543. In a manuscript of the Book of the Giants there is a reference to a copy of the cf. Ezra 4:11 and 5:6 above), in the dissemination ;יא[גרתא) second tablet of the letter of which Enoch functions as a scribe of interpretation (4Q203 8 3).6 Thus, the reference is clearly to a copy of a communication by a person of authority, namely Enoch. And the same inference applies to the reconstructed text in 1QapGen 5:29, where the authoritative figure is Noah. In 4Q465 1 3 there is another reference to a copy of a letter but the reference and not of much use except as ,(פר]שגן האגר[ת) is reconstructed and very fragmentary a parallel occurrence of the phrase in Ezra 4:11, 5:6, and 4Q203 8 3.7 Finally, the reference to “copy” in 4Q550 6 7 is mostly reconstructed in the lacuna and not of much use for our purposes here.8 in Visions of Amram פרשגן Explanations of the Use of .3 in Ezra and Esther where it פתשגן/פרשגן Taking as point of reference the use of describes important and authoritative documents and decrees, Blake Jurgens argued signified a manuscript’s permanent authoritative value, either as פרשגן that the use of a legal decree or otherwise. Accordingly, in Visions of Amram the signalling function is to establish that the following copied content is inherited from the original פרשגן of words of Amram.9 Adopting Moshe Bernstein’s differentiation between various 4 Émile Puech, DJD 31:293. Henryk Drawnel, “The Initial Narrative of the Visions of Amram and its Literary Characteristics,” RevQ 24/96 (2010): 517–54 (527) and Blake A. Jurgens, “Reassessing the Dream-Vision of the Vision of Amram (4Q543–547),” JSP 24 (2014): 3–42 (8–9) list six occurrences. See also Andrew B. Perrin, “Capturing the Voices of Pseudepigraphic Personae: On the Form and Function of Incipits in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls,” DSD 20 (2013): 98–123 (104 and 113 n.