Pesher and hypomnema : a comparison of two commentary traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman period

In Pesher and Hypomnema Pieter B. Hartog compares ancient Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Bible with papyrus commentaries on the Iliad. Hartog shows that members of the Qumran movement adopted classical commentary writing and adapted it to their own needs. Contents 6 Acknowledgements 10 Abbreviations 11 Chapter 1 Introduction 18 1 Pesher in Context 23 1.1 Jewish Parallels 23 1.2 Ancient Near Eastern Parallels 28 1.3 Greek Parallels 31 2 A Glocal Perspective 33 2.1 Channels of Knowledge Exchange 38 2.2 The Pesharim as Glocal Phenomena 43 3 Definitions 45 3.1 “Commentary” 45 3.2 “Hypomnema” 47 3.3 “Pesher” 51 4 Outline of This Book 56 Chapter 2 The Hypomnemata and the Pesharim as Expressions of Intellectual Culture 58 1 Scribes and Scholars 60 2 The Hypomnemata and Intellectual Life in Hellenistic-Roman Egypt 68 3 The Pesharim and Intellectual Life in Hellenistic-Roman Palestine 72 4 Commentaries as Scholarly Literature 76 5 Conclusion 79 Chapter 3 Textual Scholarship and the Physicality of the Hypomnemata 81 1 “Ammonius, son of Ammonius” 81 2 Dimensions 85 3 Corrections and Abbreviations 87 4 Signs 88 5 Sense Dividers 94 5.1 Types of Sense Dividers 94 5.2 Different Sense Dividers in One Manuscript 96 6 Conclusion 98 Chapter 4 Textual Scholarship and the Physicality of the Pesharim 99 1 Dimensions 99 2 Writing Divine Names 103 3 Corrections and Additions 105 4 Signs 109 5 Sense Dividers 114 6 Conclusion 116 Chapter 5 A Bifold Structure 118 1 The Rhetoric of Commentary 119 2 Structural Variety 122 3 Conclusion 124 Chapter 6 Structure and Scholarship in the Hypomnemata 126 1 Lemmata: Selection and Presentation 126 2 Interpretation Sections: Contents and Structure 129 2.1 Glosses 130 2.2 Paraphrase 133 2.3 References and Quotations 133 2.4 Formulaic Terminology 145 2.5 Multiple Interpretations 147 3 The Hypomnemata as Literary Unities 148 4 Conclusion 151 Chapter 7 Structure and Interpretation in the Pesharim 153 1 Lemmata: Selection and Presentation 153 1.1 Three Principles of Selection 154 1.2 Other Levels of Selection 158 2 Interpretation Sections: Contents and Structure 161 2.1 Glosses 161 2.2 Paraphrase 167 2.3 References and Quotations 168 2.4 Formulaic Terminology 182 2.5 Multiple Interpretations 186 3 Blurred Boundaries 187 4 The Pesharim as Literary Unities 194 5 Conclusion 198 Chapter 8 Describing Hermeneutics 200 1 A Quest for Categories 201 2 The Categories of This Study 205 2.1 Perspectivisation 206 2.2 Normativity and Application 207 2.3 Analogy 207 2.4 Structure 208 2.5 Single Words 210 3 “Etymology” 210 Chapter 9 A Hermeneutical Profile of the Hypomnemata 215 1 Perspectivisation 215 1.1 The Interests of the Commentator 220 1.2 Implicit and Explicit Assumptions 227 1.3 Technical Terminology 228 1.4 Paraphrase 230 2 Normativity 231 3 Analogy 233 4 Structure 237 4.1 Contributions of the Co-text 238 4.2 Resolving Inconsistency 245 4.3 Word Order 249 5 Single Words 250 6 Conclusion 253 Chapter 10 A Hermeneutical Profile of the Pesharim 255 1 Perspectivisation 255 1.1 The Interests of the Commentator 259 1.2 Implicit and Explicit Assumptions 262 1.3 Technical Terminology 264 1.4 Paraphrase 265 2 Application 266 3 Application and Normativity 268 4 Analogy 270 5 Structure 273 5.1 Contributions of the Co-text 273 5.2 Syntax 286 5.3 Rendering Repetition 290 6 Single Words 293 6.1 Levels of Generality 293 6.2 Stressing the Unstressed 294 6.3 Synonymy and Polysemy 295 6.4 Figurative Reading 298 6.5 Form or Appearance 301 7 Conclusion 307 Conclusion: Pesher and Hypomnema 310 Bibliography 314 Index of Modern Authors 355 Index of Subjects 361 Index of Ancient Sources 362 Plates 374 In Pesher and Hypomnema Pieter B. Hartog compares ancient Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Bible with papyrus commentaries on the Iliad . Hartog shows that members of the movement which produced and preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls adopted classical commentary writing and adapted it to their own needs. The connection between the Qumran Pesharim and Hypomnemata on the Iliad resulted from exchanges of scholarly knowledge across Hellenistic-Roman Egypt and Palestine. Analysing the effects of these knowledge exchanges, Pesher and Hypomnema demonstrates that members of the Qumran movement were thoroughly embedded within their Hellenistic and Roman environment