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“WALKING in the FESTIVALS of the GENTILES:” 4Qphoseaa 2:15–17 and JUBILEES 6:34–38*

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“WALKING in the FESTIVALS of the GENTILES:” 4Qphoseaa 2:15–17 and JUBILEES 6:34–38* CHAPTER twenty-nine “WALKING IN THE FESTIVALS OF THE GENTILES:” 4QpHOSEAa 2:15–17 AND JUBILEES 6:34–38* 1. The Pesher and Its Problems The last piece of pesher in 4QpHoseaa (4Q166) is col. 2, ll. 15–17, following והשבתי כול משושה ח]גה חד[שה ושבתה וכול the citation of Hosea 2:13 The general sense of the pesher is fairly clear, but it is somewhat 1.מועדיה difficult to establish its exact meaning because of its slightly fragmentary nature. 15. פשרו אשר 16. ]את המו[עדות יוליכו במועדי הגואים ו]כול[ 17. ]שמחה[ נהפכה להם לאבל2 22 | Horgan renders, “The interpretation of it is that they make [the fe]asts go according to the appointed times of the nations. And [all joy] had been turned for them into mourning.”3 * My thanks to Professors Devorah Dimant, Lawrence Schiffman, Richard Steiner, James C. VanderKam, and Richard White for their observations and suggestions on earlier drafts of this essay. as has been noted ,מועדיה The citation matches MT, with the exception of the plural 1 by earlier commentators. 2 First published in J. Allegro, “A Recently Discovered Fragment of a Commentary on Hosea from Qumran’s Fourth Cave,” JBL 78 (1959): 142–47, the pesher’s “official” publica- tion is in J. Allegro, ed., Qumran Cave 4,1 (4Q158–4Q186) (DJD 5; Oxford: Clarendon, 1968), 32. I follow, for the moment, the plausible restorations made by M.P. Horgan in Pesharim: Qumran Interpretations of Biblical Books (CBQMS 8; Washington, DC: Catholic Biblical Association, 1979), Part I: The Texts [Hebrew; bound and paginated independently], 39. J. Strugnell, “Notes en Marge du Volume V des “Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jor- .with the first kaph doubtful ,וכ]ול שמחחם[ נהפכה dan,” RevQ 7 (1969–71): 200, suggests The left margin is not preserved anywhere in this column. D.C. Carlson, “An Alternative Reading in 4QpOseaa II, 3–6,” RevQ 11 (1983): 417 n. 3, claims (in supporting his reconstruc- tion of a text from this pesher in a limited space) that “it is clear from the left hand margin of column I that irregular extension beyond the margin is a stylistic characteristic of the author.” It does appear from the published photographs that the scribe did on occasion go beyond his ruled margin in col. 1, and this may be of significance in my later discussion. It וחרפה לעיני הגואים of this passage and הגואים appears that there is no connection between .of 1:13 earlier in the pesher אשר נשענו עליהם 3 Ibid., Part 1 (English volume), 141. “walking in the festivals of the gentiles” 675 While this appears straightforward, there are several nagging difficul- ties with both text and translation.4 First, the restoration at the beginning -object preced + את of 1:16 produces a somewhat forced word order with which must מועדי and מועדות ing the verb, as well as the juxtaposition of be considered either very clever or very careless, depending on whether it is treated as conscious artistic variation between terms of the same root, or the awkward collocation of alternative forms.5 Secondly, the verb appears in the hiphil only | here in Qumran literature, according to 23 הלך the Historical Dictionary of the Hebrew Language6 and its meaning is not במועדי obvious, particularly in conjunction with the preposition bet in is rather יוליכו . נהפכה Thirdly, the sequence of tenses in 7.הגואים 4 Horgan, Pesharim, p. 146, admits that “the reading, restoration, and translation of the beginning of this interpretation are uncertain, but it is clear that the lines refer in some way to the calendrical differences between the Qumran community and the Jews in Jeru- salem.” She does not refer to the lack of sequence in tense between the verbs. .in 25 of 26 scriptural occurrences; only at 2 Chron מועדים is מועד The biblical plural of 5 found. At first glance, the variation may be explained by assuming that the מועדות is 8:13 as appears to be the case ,מועדי and the construct is מועדות absolute form of the plural is in rabbinic literature. But according to K.G. Kuhn, Konkordanz zu den Qumrantexten (Göt- tingen: Vandenhœck & Ruprecht, 1960), 117, of 26 virtually certain occurrences of the plural in the Qumran literature published to that date, excluding this uncertain text, all מועד of and the index in DJD VII, 326, supplies almost as many) ־ים but two form their plurals in ולשמור את יום השבת כפרושה ואת The exceptions are CD 6:18 .(־ים further examples, all in -According to the pri .וכל אשר יתעה לחלל את השבת ואת המועדות and 12:3–4 ,המועדות Since .מועדות vately circulated Stegemann concordance, there are no other appearances of in rabbinic literature is overwhelmingly מועד CD is a medieval copy, and the plural of out of 22 cases in pre-300 ce literature according to the Historical Dictionary of 21) מועדות המילון ההיסטורי = the Hebrew Language of the Academy of the Hebrew Language in Israel ,([Jerusalem, 1988] ללשון העברית. חומרים למילון—סדרה א': מן 200 לפה״ס עד 300 לספירה was מועדים there is at least a possibility that the otherwise ubiquitous (at Qumran) form .in 4QDc 3 i 19 (B.Z ואת המו]עדות[ altered in the course of transmission. The restoration of Wacholder and M. Abegg, eds., A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts from Cave Four. Fascicle One [Washington, DC: Biblical Archaeology Society, 1991], 26; now = 4QDf [4Q271] 5 i 19 in J.M. Baumgarten ed., Qumrân Cave 4. XIII: The Damascus Document [4Q266–273] [Oxford: Clarendon, 1996], 181) on the basis of the reading in CD is thus very questionable. This distribution ought to be a factor when dealing with restoration of the lacuna at the beginning of 1. 16, and perhaps should addition: The Dead Sea Scrolls 2012] .מו[עדות raise some reservations about the reading Concordance (ed. M. Abegg et al.; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 1.431–32, confirms the near ubiquity disturbing the pattern ולכול ימי המועדות ולים הכפורים with only 11Q5 XXVII:8 ,מועדים of delineated above.] 6 Historical Dictionary, fiche #037, pp. 7420–457. (Confirmed 7/29/12 at current online version, Ma’agarim, http://hebrew-treasures.huji.ac.il/ and by the DSS Concordance, s.v., (.24–221 ,הלך יוליכו does not occur in the Hebrew Bible. The idiom מועדי הגוים The collocation 7 e.g., Lev. 20:23) הלך בחקות הגוים is clearly modeled on the biblical phrase במועדי הגואים and 2 Kgs. 17:8) which leaves its mark at Qumran in CD 9:1 (= 4QDb 17 ii 9 and 4QDe 10 iii 16, according to Wacholder and Abegg; now = 4QDa [4Q266] 8 ii 9 and 4QDe [4Q270] .
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