62
Albert L.A. Hogeterp
as a non-sectarian parabiblical text, in view of the absence of any identifiable sectarian community terminology and the use of the tetragrammaton (13) This pre- or non-Qumranite characterization of Pseudo-Ezekiel has been argued by many scholars (14). At the same time, the composition was apparently of interest to the Qumran community as ‘adopted text’, in view of the late firstcentury BCE dates which have been palaeographically assigned to the other Pseudo-Ezekiel manuscripts (15). The importance of Pseudo-Ezekiel as ‘adopted text’ has been compared to that of Jubilees or the Animal Apocalypse in 1 Enoch 85-90 by Strugnell and Dimant in their preliminary publication of data about this composition (16). More recently, Dimant observed about Pseudo-Ezekiel that origin, background, and ‘precise relationship to the Qumran com-munity’ is “still a matter of debate” (17). Pseudo-Ezekiel’s classification among ‘parabiblical, pseudo-prophetic texts’ denotes the hybrid character of the text, incorporating both biblical text and elaboration on the biblical text. Pseudo-Ezekiel has also been taken to be a specimen of the observer’s category if not genre ‘Rewritten Bible’ with regard to the latter prophets (18). II. 4QPseudo-Ezekiel and the Biblical Text of Ezek 37 1. 4Q385 2 // 4Q386 1 i // 4Q388 7 For the sake of discussion, reconstructed text and translation of the fragment which introduces the prophecy of the dry bones in Pseudo-Ezekiel, as edited by Dimant, are quoted below (19). 4Q386 1 i (// 4Q385 2 2-10, 4Q388 7 4-7) top margin ˚mç ta w[bha rça larçym µybr ytyar hwhy hrmaw] µdsj wmltçy hkh[w wyhy ytm hlaw ˚bl ykrdb wklyw] w[dyw larçy ynb t[a hara yna yla hwhy rmayw vacat
1 2 3
(13) The tetragrammaton is extant in 4Q385 frg. 2 lines 3-4, 8-9; frg. 3 (olim frg. 12) lines 2-4; frg. 4 (olim frg. 3) lines 4 and 7; 4Q386 1 ii 2-3 and 1 iii 1; 4Q385b 1; 4Q388 frg. 7 (olim frg. 8) line 6; as edited in DJD 30. (14) STRUGNELL and DIMANT, “4Q Second Ezekiel”, 45-58 at 57-8; PUECH, La croyance des Esséniens en la vie future. 2, 605: “pourrait être préqumrânienne, mais cela reste à démontrer” and n. 2 with reference to the article by STRUGNELL and DIMANT; J.J. COLLINS, “Review: É. Puech, La croyance des Esséniens en la vie future”, DSD 1 (1994) 246-52 at 251: “clear indication of sectarian provenance is lacking, and indeed the original editors, Strugnell and Dimant regarded the text as ‘pre-Qumranian’”; ID., Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls, 124-8 on 4Q385 under the rubric ‘Resurrection in Scrolls That Are Not Clearly Sectarian’; GARCÍA MARTÍNEZ, “The Apocalyptic Interpretation of Ezekiel in the Dead Sea Scrolls”, 176: “4QPseudo-Ezekiel does not show signs of having been written by sectarian authors”. (15) DIMANT, DJD 30, 7-9. (16) STRUGNELL – DIMANT, “4Q Second Ezekiel”, 58. (17) Dimant (“Resurrection, Restoration, and Time-Curtailing”, 529) makes these observations about both 4Q521 and Pseudo-Ezekiel. (18) See G.J. BROOKE, “Rewritten Bible”, Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (eds. L.H. SCHIFFMAN – J.C. VANDERKAM) (Oxford 2000) II, 777-781 at 779. (19) DIMANT, DJD 30, 60-61.