Notes and observations on a newly published divorce bill from the Judaean Desert

Harvard Theological Review

Volumn 89, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 195-202

  Ilan, Tal ^a  

^a HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61949089061     PISSN: 00178160     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0017816000031989     Document Type: Review

References (26)

1. See the entire volume of The Jewish Law Annual 4 (1981).
2. And see also Ze'ev W. Falk, The Divorce Action by the Wife in Jewish Law (Jerusalem: Institute for Legislative Research and Comparative Law, 1973) [Hebrew].
3. Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, vol. 2: Contracts (Jerusalem: Akademon, 1989) 30-33; 60-63, 78-83.
4. Mark 10:11-12.
5. Josephus Ant. 15.259-60.
6. Reuven Yaron, Introduction to the Law of the Aramaic Papyri (Oxford: Clarendon, 1961) 53; 127-28.
7. See, for example, Joseph Fitzmyer, "The Matthean Divorce Text and Some New Palestinian Evidence," TS 37 (1976) 205;
8. Evald Lovenstam, "Divorce and Remarriage in the New Testament," Jewish Law Annual 4 (1981) 47-65, esp. p. 60.
9. See, for example, Alfredo M. Rabello, "Divorce of Jews in the Roman Empire," Jewish Law Annual 4 (1981) 92-93.
10. Roland de-Vaux, Jozef T. Milik and Pierre Benoit, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, vol. 2: Les grottes de Muraba'ât (Oxford: Clarendon 1961) 104-9.
11. Jozef T. Milik, "Le travail d'édition des manuscript du Désert de Juda," VTSup 4 (Leiden: Brill, 1956) 21.
12. For a discussion of the documents' real provenance see Jonas C. Greenfield, "The Texts from Nahcombining dot belowal Scombining dot belowe'elim (Wadi Seiyal)," in Julio Trebolle Barrera and Luis Vegas Montaner, eds., The Madrid Congress: Proceedings of the International Congress on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Madrid 18-21 March, 1991 (2 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1992) 2. 661-66.
13. Ernst Bammel, "Markus 10, 11f. und das jüdische Eherecht," ZNW 61 (1970) 95-101.
14. Bernadette J. Brooten, "Konnten Frauen im alten Judentum die Scheidung betreiben? Überlegung zu Mk 10, 11-12 und 1 Kor 7, 10-11," EvTh 42 (1982) 65-80
15. and see also idem, "Zur Debatte über das Scheidungsrecht der jüdischen Frau," EvTh 43 (1983) 466-78.
16. Ada Yardeni, Nahcombining dot belowal Scombining dot belowe'elim Documents (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society and Ben Gurion University in the Negev Press, 1995) 55 [Hebrew]. The translation is mine.
17. The politics behind this sort of apologetic reading have been amply demonstrated by Bernadette Brooten; see her Women Leaders in the Ancient Synagogue: Inscriptional Evidence and Background Issues (BJS 36; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982) 30-32.
18. The only English translation of this text appears in Leone J. Archer, Her Price Is beyond Rubies: The Jewish Woman in Greco-Roman Palestine (JSOTSup 60; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990) 298-99. In my translation, I have consulted her work. The translation of Papyrus Scombining dot belowe'elim 13 is my own, though I have relied heavily on Yardeni's linguistic notes.
19. In view of the Masada get, the Aramaic word could mean "wife." Yardeni, however, translated the word "you," and I follow her reading.
20. I take to mean "husband" with the definite article. It could also be read as "her husband," although that meaning is less appropriate in the context.
21. On the translation of the last two lines, see Jonas C. Greenfield, "'Because He/She Did Not Know Letters': Remarks on a First Millennium C.E. Legal Expression," JNES 22 (1993) 39-44, esp. 40 n. 8.
22. I am grateful to Ada Yardeni for pointing this out to me.
23. Hannah M. Cotton, "A Cancelled Marriage Contract from the Judaean Desert," JRomS 84 (1994) 64-85.
24. Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, vol. 1: Letters (Jerusalem: Akademon, 1986) 68-76.
25. Josephus Ant. 15.259.
26. Idem, Vita 12.