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The purpose of this synopsis is to provide an overview of how I was involved in clarifying the identification of certain Qumran cave 7 fragments. These fragments included the pair known as: 7Q4,1&2; along with the individual fragments known as: 7Q8; and 7Q12. Three of these four fragments are certainly part of I Enoch 103:3-8. The fourth fragment, which is 7Q4,2, consists of only three letters and has yet to be located in the text of I Enoch with certainty. These four fragments are depicted below.
When the cave 7 fragments were first published in
1962, only fragments 7Q1,1&2 and 7Q2 were identified. In 1972 Fr. Jose O'Callaghan,
S.J. attempted to identify another nine fragments. His efforts resulted in a controversy;
as he proposed that all of these nine fragments were from the New Testament. These
controversial identifications included 7Q4,1&2 and 7Q8; as Fr. O'Callaghan thought
that 7Q4,1&2 was part of I Timothy 3:16-4:3 and 7Q8 part of James 1:23-24.
To the best of my knowledge, nobody had ventured to identify 7Q12; as it preserves only
three letters, all of them vowels. Because of their size, other scholars attempted to
identify fragments 7Q4,1 and 7Q8. None of these attempts, however, were ever regarded as
conclusive or final. One of these alternatives to Fr. O'Callaghan's identifications was
made by G. Wilhelm Nebe; and it is described in an article by him that was published in Revue
de Qumran in 1988. In this article Prof. Nebe proposed that fragments 7Q4,1&2 and
7Q8 were not part of the New Testament but part of I Enoch. He convincingly
demonstrated that fragment 7Q4,1 was part of I Enoch 103:3-4; while he thought
that fragment 7Q4,2 was part of I Enoch 98:11. With much reservation, he also
suggested that fragment 7Q8 was part of I Enoch 103:7-8. Although his
observations were contested by other scholars such as Carsten P. Thiede; they were
defended by Fr.Emile
Puech in a 1996 article in Revue Biblique.
In 1997, out of curiosity, I endeavored to use my computer to
shed some light on the controversy. I had just installed "Bible Works for Windows."
This software, which is published by Hermeneutika, can do more than simple word searches;
as it enables one to search the Greek texts of the Septuagint or the New Testament for any
sequence of letters. With these capabilities in mind I began to scan the Greek Biblical
text for possible locations or "hits" of groups of letters that are visible on
various fragments from cave 7. I began with the pair of fragments knowm as 7Q6,1&2;
and I published the results on my web site on August 19 of that year. A few days later, a
visitor to my site informed me by e-mail about the possibility that 7Q4 was part of I
Enoch. He referred to the article written by Fr. Emile Puech in 1996 that appeared in
Revue Biblique. After reading this article I learned that the attempt was
originally made by G. Wilhelm Nebe in 1988.
At about the same time, I suspected that fragments 7Q4,1 and 7Q8
were originally part of the same scroll. After closely studying photographs of these two
fragments, I noticed that the horizontal papyrus fibers on both fragments had a
characteristic downward slope to the right. I then reasoned that if Prof. Nebe was right
about 7Q4,1&2 as being part of I Enoch; then fragment 7Q8 should also be part
of it as well. After locating a copy of the Greek text of I Enoch, I observed the
locations of the Greek letters from fragments 7Q4,1 and 7Q8 in close proximity in chapter
103. In order to confirm this observation, I made photocopies of these two fragments and
superimposed them to see whether the papyrus fibers matched. Much to my surprise they did!
Furthermore, I was able to add fragment 7Q12 to the group. All three fragments fit like
pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and the position of all the letters corresponded correctly with
Greek text of I Enoch as found in the printed edition. This happened on September
16, 1997. The manner in which these three fragments are related to one another is shown in
the picture below:
All previous efforts to identify these fragments had been hampered by the assumption that these fragments were originally from different scrolls. To the best of my knowledge no one had taken into consideration the unique characteristics of the papyrus fibers. The result was an impasse, as each fragment in itself was too small to identify with certainty. If it could be shown that these three fragments were originally related to each other in the scroll; then the impasse or difficulty would be resolved. The following picture shows these three fragments in their original configuration in the scroll. Some of the papyrus fibers should be visible in this image. Because of the matching papyrus fibers, one should not attempt to identify three separate fragments but one ensemble that consists of three fragments. In essence, one is really dealing with one large fragment. This ensemble is depicted below:
In addition to the fact that the papyrus fibers match perfectly; the position of all the Greek letters corresponds correctly with that of the printed text of I Enoch. After having made this observation, I contacted five scholars that had been involved in the controversy. One of them, Fr. Emile Puech, invited me to write an article for inclusion in issue number 70 of Revue de Qumran. This issue is dated December 1977 and was printed in May 1998. It became available in June. In this issue Fr. Puech wrote a companion article which builds upon my observations. In this article he demonstrates that fragment 7Q14 is located about two inches to the left of 7Q12; in the text of I Enoch 103:4. He also suggests that fragment 7Q11 is part of I Enoch 100:12 and that fragment 7Q13 is part of I Enoch 103:15. In keeping with his 1996 article in Revue Biblique, Fr. Puech maintains that fragment 7Q4,2 is part of I Enoch 105:1; as opposed to the identification proposed by G. Wilhelm Nebe, which is correct in all other respects.
Click here to read my article in Revue de Qumran #70.
Read companion article by Fr. Emile Puech in Revue de Qumran
#70.
Click here to go to the Glossary
Click here to return to index of "Fragments of Enoch from Qumran Cave
7".
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1-22-2000