Thanks to Joseph Lauer's excellent list for the information. In Haaretz June 2 
(registration or subscription required) some new readings of 4Q180, based on 
enhanced photos, are reported. The readings are by Elisha Qimron, Hanan Ariel 
and Alexy Yuditsky.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/scholars-owe-new-dead-sea-scrolls-reading-to-google.premium-1.527210#

Excerpts:
"...The word “El” appears close to the phrase “tent of Shem,” and might 
indicate that the intent was to “Hashem” as a synonym for God. By comparing 
this text with another of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the scholars have come up with 
another interpretation. The scholars believe that the word “tent” can be 
interpreted as “land,” and that the text may mean that Hashem ‏(God‏) lives in 
the “land of Shem.” Thus, Canaan invaded a land that was not his, and that was 
the reason his descendants were exiled, not because of his father’s sin.
This interpretation is also known from the Apocryphal Book of Jubilees,....

The passage after the Noah story goes on to describe Abraham’s visit by three 
messengers, who tell him Sodom and Gomorrah are to be destroyed. All attempts 
to connect the passages into a continuous story have failed, leading scholars 
to conclude that this was originally a collection of interpretations of Genesis 
stories.

Yuditsky goes even further, suggesting that “all these segments talk about 
places where the bad guys lose. In their time, the Judean Desert people saw as 
the victors their enemies, the Pharisees and the Sadducees whom they believed 
were distorting the true Torah. This text might have been to prove that the bad 
guys might have good periods, but in the end they are punished.”


Stephen Goranson

www.duke.edu/~goranson

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