The Aramaic Bible: Targums in their Historical Context

HENGEL The Scriptures in Second Temple Judaism 159
Here it is evident that, in contrast with the law and the prophets, this
third part is not yet clearly demarcated.
At Qumran also, all Old Testament texts, apart from Esther, are
attested, but owing to the great number of works written by the sect,
no fixed canon can be ascertained. Here the number of 'inspired
works' was certainly greater than in the rabbinic canon. In an analogous
manner no demarcation of a canon in early Christian scriptures
is perceptible either. One was satisfied with the formula 'the laws and
the prophets', of which the Psalter was the most important part. It is
specially to be noted that a listing of the scripture quotations in the
New Testament and of the biblical fragments from Qumran can be
seen to be very similar. The Psalms, Isaiah and Deuteronomy were
most frequent here and there. Another coincident is that for the
Qumran Essenes and for early Christianity up to the third century AD,
the Old Testament canon was still open, because for the Essenes as for
the Christians spirit-inspired revelation continued. Indeed, under the
signs of the eschatological time, revelation has intensified in quite a
new manner.
We find a totally different situation in Greek-speaking Judaism.
Although here also one speaks of a two- or threefold division, contrary
to Qumran and early Christianity, the emphasis of scripture use
is on the Pentateuch. About 96 per cent of Philo's quotations stem
from the five books of Moses, and this same central emphasis is evident
also in most of the Jewish-Hellenistic writings. Exceptions we
find only in the 'prophetic' Sibyllines and in historical works like
Eupolemus and Josephus.
In the following historical overview I will deal with scripture production
through scripture interpretation within a time span of around
500 years. Thus I cannot go into details and treat special problems
such as the authority of Hillel's seven hermeneutic rules or the 13
rules of Ishmael, especially since these were collected only after 70
CE, even if individual ones were used long before, already in Old
Testament texts. Likewise I will only go briefly into the different
exegetical methods in the last part of my paper, and finally I have to
limit myself to the exegesis in the homeland because it is there that the
scripture collection grew and developed.