4Q375-טיבו של חוק הנביא ב

This article reexamines the reconstruction and the contents of 4Q375 (4QApocryphon of Mosesa). As presented in the editio princeps, this fragment was reconstructed from three pieces. However, one of these has no physical connection to the other two pieces and its suggested placement by John Strugnell in col. II is doubtful on contextual grounds. Furthermore, whereas Strugnell assumed that 4Q375 alludes to Deut. 13:1–6 and Lev. 16, it is proposed here that this composition rather reworks biblical passages from Deut. 13:1–6, 18:15–20, 17:8–13, 30:2–10; and Lev. 4:13–21. Using a distinctive method of scriptural interpretation, which involves the combination of certain scriptural passages, 4Q375's author offers a new understanding of the biblical laws concerning true and false prophets and suggests a way to identify a true prophet. The text of 4Q375 indicates that, due to the special role attributed to the prophet in the fulfillment of the Covenant Blessings, the clarification of the status of a true prophet was of great importance. It also suggests that the issue of the false prophet was not a theoretical one. Thus 4Q375 reflects the belief that God's prophets could still arise and that divine revelation through the institution of the prophecy had not yet ceased.