לשון הקודש באחרית הימים לאור קטע מקומראן

Text 4Q464 is a fragmentary scroll, written in the formal hand of the Herodian type. It deals with a number of events relating to the lives of the Patriarchs. In Fragment 3 two fragmentary columns are preserved, both of which seem to refer to Abraham. In column A the word נבלת is mentioned, probably derived from the root בל"ל meaning 'to confuse'. In the next line the phrase לשון הקודש ('the holy language') occurs. Later Abraham is mentioned and the fragment ends with a quotation from Zephaniah 3:9. In our view, this fragment is an eschatological prophecy, relating to the reversal of the curse of the Tower of Babel. Then all nations will speak a pure (i.e. single) tongue, namely Hebrew – the language of the Holy One. The mention of Abraham recalls the tradition that God created the world in Hebrew (see: Genesis Rabba, 18), that Hebrew was lost during the time of the Tower of Babel and that Abraham learned it anew. This tradition is found in Jubilees 12:26. It seems that the author of 4Q464 quoted Zeph. 3:9 rather than Isa. 19:18 because the Isaianic prophecy mentions only five cities of Egypt which will speak 'the language of Canaan'. Zephanaiah's prophecy has a clearly universal import including the eschatological conversion of the Gentiles, which makes the citation of this verse unusual when compared with the sectarian documents from Qumran. The connection between the Tower of Babel, the Hebrew language, and the eschatological re-unification of human speech as Hebrew is also made in Midrash Tanḥuma–Yelammedenu, 28, fol. 28b. The Midrash ties this last idea exegetically to Zeph. 3:9. It seems likely that 4Q464 also made this connection, and so it is the oldest text attesting to the combination of the three elements. This fragment is, apparently, the first to include the expression לשון הקודש. The second column refers to a promise made to Abraham, the prophecy of the Covenant between the Pieces, mentioning the death of Abraham and some sort of pesher, starting with the words פשר ע[ל – perhaps of the biblical promise. Unfortunately this pesher was lost. It should be remarked that there are a number of similarities between Exposition on the Patriarchs (4Q464) and Pesher on the Periods (4Q180) including the formula פשר על. Finding a Qumran scroll where the tradition that Hebrew will become the universal language at the end of days, and calling Hebrew לשון הקודש, may indicate why the members of the sect, who believed that they were living in the end of days, insisted on writing their sectarian compositions in Hebrew. This fragment probably testifies that the tradition preserved in Midrash Tanḥuma– Yelammedenu originated during the Second Temple period.