SEFER MOSHEH or SEFER MORASHAH? Reconsidering “the Torah” in 4QMMT

• In Event: The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Abstract

The hortatory epilogue of 4QMMT provides an important piece of evidence in debates about the stabilization of the canon. In particular, some have taken the extended phrase “in the book of Moses, in the books of the prophets, and in David” as an early reference to the tripartite canon (Torah, Prophets, and Writings). In total, the phrase SEFER MOSHEH (“the book of Moses”) has been reconstructed in five places in two different manuscripts of 4QMMT (4Q397 and 4Q398) in the standard Discoveries in the Judaean Desert publication (DJD X) and, consequentially, has been widely accepted by scholars. In this paper, I review the proposed reconstructions of SEFER MOSHEH in 4QMMT and follow up on an observation by Eugene Urlich (“The Non-attestation of a Tripartite Canon in 4QMMT,” CBQ 2003) that there is space in 4Q397 frag. 18 for additional or broader letters than the proposed four letters of MOSHEH. I argue that a better reading than SEFER MOSHEH, here and elsewhere in 4QMMT, is SEFER MORASHAH (“the book of inheritance”) because of these space considerations and contextual reasons. This phrase is likely an allusion to Deut 33:4: “Moses has given teaching (TORAH) to us, an inheritance (MORASHAH) to the congregation of Jacob.” In light of this proposed allusion, the phrase SEFER MORASHAH could either be construed as a reference to all five books of the Torah or specifically the book of Deuteronomy. In three of the four places that this reconstructed phrase appears in the composite text of 4QMMT (lines 6, 10, 17, and 21), it specifically precedes a quotation from Deuteronomy (7:26; 32:7; and 30:1). In this regard, the phrase should be more specifically understood as an exegetical introduction to specific verses rather than as an allusion to the shape of the canon. This new reading thus contributes to deepening our appreciation for the interpretive practices found in this section of 4QMMT.

author

• Jonathan Kaplan, University of Texas at Austin