The use of Secondary Biblical Sources in Pesher Nahum

Abstract

The from Qumran are characterized by their commentary-like form-the structured treatment of sequential, explicitly-cited verses of particular biblical texts.1 By definition, Qumran pesher is a type of explicit biblical interpretation, and this attribute is especially emphasized in the continuous pesharim. It is thus well-known that the consecutive units of these pesharim are of the form citation (lemma) + introductory formula + pesher interpretation. Far less attention has been paid to the use of biblical texts other than the primary base-text in these compositions. In this paper, we draw from an aspect of Bilhah Nitzan's work on Pesher Habakkuk to investigate the implicit employment of biblical texts in Pesher Nahum. Specifically, we will examine how apparent lapses in lemma/pesher correspondence may function to signal the pesher's dependence upon a secondary biblical source. In her treatment of lQpHab, Nitzan drew attention to instances in which the pesher interpretation included words or phrases with no apparent basis in the cited base-text of Habakkuk. She referred to these cases as rnn=: FTlrnK A5t MDOT (additions without a 'peg' in the text).2 Nitzan demonstrated that these pluses may be motivated by