Introductory Formulas for Citation and Re-Citation of Biblical Verses in the Qumran Pesharim

Abstract

INTRODUCTORY FORMULAS FOR CITATION AND RE-CITATION OF BIBLICAL VERSES IN THE QUMRAN PESHARIM: Observations on a Pesher Technique1 MOSHE J. BERNSTEIN Yeshiva University I. Introduction: The Problems The general formulation of the question which led to this article is: can apparently insignificant formal details be meaningful in identification or clarification of literary genres? In the narrower focus: can we conclude anything at all about pesharim or related works from the employment or omission of citation formulas before their biblical quotations? But there is an even broader and seem- ingly unrelated theoretical question which we should address first: what would have