Microsoft Word - Revised dissertation2.docx

According to E. Ulrich, there is no evidence that suggests that there was a concern for the
standardisation of the text in the middle of the Second Temple period.^44 Rather, the col-
lection that is known as the (proto-) MT

“was a haphazard collection of disparate texts and text-types, gathered only near the close

of the Second Temple period. It was not a unit or a unity but rather resulted from the pre-

sumably chance (as opposed to critically selected) collection of one text per book. The

category of the (proto-) MT makes sense only from afterward – after the collection has

been gathered and used exclusively, in contrast to other text forms, over a period of

time.”^45

Ulrich views the variant forms of the Pentateuchal texts exemplified in the finds from the
western shore of the Dead Sea in terms of different literary traditions, of which there
were “at least two, and possibly three, editions ... circulating in general Judaism at the
end of the Second Temple period.”^46 As can be seen from the collection of texts uncov-
ered at Qumran, concepts such as ‘canon’ and ‘scripture’ were not defined in the period

(^44) See E. Ulrich, "The Qumran Biblical Scrolls - The Scriptures of Late Second Temple Judaism," (^) The
Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Historical Context (eds T.H. Lim, L.W. Hurtado, A.G. Auld, and A. Jack; Edin-
burgh: T&T Clark, 2000) 67-73. 45
See E. Ulrich, "The Qumran Biblical Scrolls," 72, and E. Ulrich, "The Absence of 'Sectarian Variants' in
the Jewish Scriptural Scrolls Found at Qumran," The Bible as Book: The Hebrew Bible and the Judaean
Desert Discoveries (eds E.D. Herbert and E. Tov; London: The British Library & Oak Knoll Press, 2002)

180. 46
     E. Ulrich, "The Qumran Biblical Scrolls," 76. In this way Ulrich adds to Talmon’s tripartite system of
     inversion, reiteration and conflation by posing a forth class of multiple literary editions of biblical texts. On
     this see E. Ulrich, "The Canonical Process, Textual Criticism, and Later Stages in the Composition of the
     Bible," "Sha'arei Talmon": Studies in the Bible, Qumran and the Ancient Near East Presented to She-
     maryahu Talmon (eds M. Fishbane and E. Tov; Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1992) 277.