Genres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism: Scribal Composition and Transmission by Molly M. Zahn

Abstract

Reviewed by: Genres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism: Scribal Composition and Transmission by Molly M. Zahn Jozef Tiňo molly m. zahn, Genres of Rewriting in Second Temple Judaism: Scribal Composition and Transmission (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020). Pp. xi + 264. $100. This thoroughly researched book by Molly M. Zahn follows her numerous other studies on this topic. The goal of Z.'s monograph is nothing less than a presentation of new ways for how to talk and think about rewriting in the context of Judaism of the Second Temple period (p. 5). She rightly states that this need stems from the fact that our understanding of [End Page 315] the nature and purpose of rewriting has been distorted by viewing it as a biblical phenomenon, and that study of the phenomenon has been limited to a few paradigmatic texts that have shaped our concept of a rewritten text in Judaism of the Second Temple period. She thus starts with the suggestion of a different terminology that would be heuristically useful and would avoid anachronistic and canonically inflected labels like Rewritten Bible or Rewritten Scripture. This new terminology then would serve as a basis for further systematic presentation of the phenomenon of rewriting in Second Temple Judaism in a wider perspective. In chap. 1, Z. suggests a division of the broad category of rewriting into two subcategories: revision and reuse. For Z., the term "revision" is reserved for producing a new copy of a given text in which changes are introduced to varying degrees. She states that such changes "could comprise anything from shifts in orthography or morphology to addition or omission of major sections" (p. 38). In "reuse" of textual material, the degree of reproduction varies more widely—reused texts may consist largely of older material, which Z. later refers to as "centripetal reuse"—while others may draw on only specific earlier texts at a few points, which she terms "limited reuse." Revision and reuse represent two different contexts of scribal activity with different outcomes: the former results in a new copy, while the latter yields a new work. In chap. 2, Z. explains at some length modern genre theory in order to show how it may serve to conceptualize her categories of "revision" and "reuse" as analogous to genres. Different genres here correspond to different contexts of scribal activity ("revision" and "reuse" in the case of rewriting), not to different literary genres. She also expresses her preference for viewing rewriting in the context of "discourse tied to founder," which is the concept suggested earlier by Hindy Najman (Seconding Sinai: The Development of Mosaic Discourse in the Second Temple Period [JSJSup 77; Leiden: Brill, 2003]). Somehow generically related to the rewriting, according to Z., is imitatio, that is, when a writer of a new work mimics language of the text being imitated. In this particular context, Z mentions 1QS and Hodayot, both of which contain, in addition to some portions of rewriting examined in chap. 4, imitation of the language of the Torah and Psalms, respectively. In chap. 3, instead of using "Bible" as a category in investigation of the phenomenon of rewriting, Z. applies her categories of "revision" and "reuse" to investigate more fully the extent of rewriting in the Bible itself. In chap. 4, by exploring some nonbiblical compositions, including Qumran sectarian texts (Community Rule, War Scroll, Hodayot), Z. shows that these were subject to the same sorts of revision and reuse as texts now contained in the Bible and that, therefore, rewriting cannot be regarded as primarily a biblical phenomenon. In chap. 5, Z. moves to discuss translation as a form of rewriting. Z. concentrates here on Greek translations, especially in places where translators introduced deliberate content changes, but she also examines later rabbinic targums. She places both in a category of "revision." Then she investigates the Genesis Apocryphon as a special case in which translation is employed in a new composition; therefore, unlike previous translations, 1QapGen falls into the category of "reuse." In chap. 6, Z. turns to further investigation of reuse. After the presentation in the previous chapters of diversity in the scribal approach to "reuse," she thematizes this diversity by showing various...