Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

• Psalms 151, 154, 155: 11Q5
  Related, though not formally a pseudepigraphon, is the AramaicBook
  of Giants(1Q23, 1Q24, 2Q26, 4Q203, 4Q206a, 4Q530, 4Q531, 4Q532,
  4Q533, 6Q8).

Second, pseudepigraphal documents for which there has not been pre-

vious evidence have come to light through fragments from the Dead Sea:

• Traditions related to the biblical book of Daniel (Aramaic)
  Prayer of Nabonidus(4Q242)
  Four Kingdoms(4Q552, 4Q553)


• Testamentary material (Aramaic)
  Testament of Jacob(4Q537)
  Testament(orApocryphon)of Judah(4Q538)
  Testament(orApocryphon)of Joseph(4Q539)
  Testament(orApocryphon)of Levi(4Q540, 4Q541)
  Testament of Qahat(4Q542)
  Visions of Amram(4Q543, 4Q544, 4Q545, 4Q546, 4Q547, 4Q548)
  Genesis Apocryphon(Aramaic) (1Q20)
  New Jerusalem(Aramaic) (1Q32, 2Q24, 4Q554, 4Q555, 5Q15, 11Q18)

Again, related materials to these include a number of documents

which, in their preserved forms, show no evidence of being pseudepigra-

pha:Pseudo-Daniel(4Q243, 4Q244, 4Q245);Aramaic Apocalypse(4Q246);

Apocalypse?(4Q489, 4Q490);Noah(4Q534, 4Q535, 4Q536; and 1Q19, 1Q19

bis);Daniel Susanna?(4Q551); andFour Kingdoms(4Q552, 4Q553).

While these materials, preserved in manuscripts dating from the

third centuryb.c.e.until the first centuryc.e., both confirm and aug-

ment the existence of pseudepigraphal writing in Second Temple Juda-

ism, two points should be noted. First, none of them are documents

whose origins can be traced to the Qumran community, whose extant lit-

erature was invariably composed by (formally) anonymous writers. This

means that, while the collection and, possibly, copying of these materials

imply that the Qumran community did not reject them, the phenomenon

of pseudepigraphy was fairly widespread among Hebrew and especially

Aramaic-speaking Jews of the time. Second, these texts, especially those

which can be said to pre-date the Maccabean revolt(Book of Watchers, As-

tronomical Book)or contain pre-Danielic tradition(Aramaic Levi Docu-

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loren t. stuckenbruck

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:02 PM