162 REVIEWS

prophetic status by its very outlandishness and to mimic Israel’s

apostasy, but also to satirize the priests for failing to observe
their own stereotypical validating behaviour, which involved
maintaining purity in all sorts of ways, including their
selection of marriage partners. However, criticizing abuses of a
position of authority is very diVerent from advocating the
elimination of that position altogether, and in none of these
essays is the view substantiated that the prophets seriously
contemplated a religious life without priests and a cult of some
kind. The collection thus certainly fulfils the remit set out

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by Grabbe in the Introduction: it ‘serve[s] as a witness to a
sea change in attitudes about the relationship between
priests and the temple cult, on the one hand, and prophets on
the other’ (p. 11).
In view of this generally positive assessment, it is a
shame that there are some niggles to note about the quality
of the book’s production. There are a number of typos and
omissions of words which bespeak over-hasty proofreading; the
use of punctuation is quite erratic and at times confusing; and
there is no consistency between essays in the use of Hebrew
script or transliteration—some transliterate according to their
own individual systems, some use unpointed Hebrew, and some
use pointed Hebrew. Additionally, I found the essay by Ben Zvi
extremely tortuous to read, as it combines overly long and
complex sentences with poor punctuation and some non-
standard English usage. It is disappointing when unnecessary
errors and glitches such as these impose themselves between
the reader and the content, which I found to be the case in this
volume.

doi:10.1093/jts/fll022 DEBORAH ROOKE

Advance Access publication 6 June 2006 King’s College London
deborah.rooke@kcl.ac.uk

Targum and Translation: A Reconsideration of the Qumran

Aramaic Version of Job. By DAVID SHEPHERD. Pp. 317.
(Studia Semitica Neerlandica, 45.) Assen: Van Gorcum,
2004. ISBN 90 232 4017 0. E79.50.
THIS volume is a revised Edinburgh doctoral thesis and oVers
a detailed assessment of the relationship between the Qumran
Aramaic translation of Job found in Cave 11 (11Q10), the
ß The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
 REVIEWS 163
Peshitta of Job, and the Rabbinic Targum of Job. The book
comprises an introduction, three main parts dealing with
‘Omission’, ‘Transposition’, and ‘The Treatment of the Waw
Conjunction’ respectively, as well as a conclusion, a bibliography,
and a number of indexes. The introduction includes a review
of scholarship tracing previous treatments of 11Q10 in relation
to the Masoretic text, the sectarian texts (an avenue that
bore little fruit), the Septuagint, the Peshitta, and the Rabbinic
Targum of Job. Shepherd also oVers a nuanced discussion
of the question of terminology, noting an increasing dissatisfac-

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tion with classifying 11Q10 as a ‘Targum’ (Brock, Samely,
Weitzman).
Building on the work of earlier scholarship Shepherd sets out
to oVer a twofold contribution. Firstly, his study conducts
‘a systematic, synoptic three-way comparison’ (p. 21) between
11Q10, Peshitta-Job, and the Rabbinic Targum of Job. Such
a comparison is confined to those parts of Job preserved in all
three witnesses. The advantage of such a three-way comparison
is that all diVerences or agreements will be apparent rather
than only those between a given base text and the witness that
sheds most light on the base text in any given passage. Secondly,
the author endeavours to supply ‘textual substantiation’ for the
claim that 11Q10 should not be referred to as a ‘Targum’.
Shepherd’s detailed examination of the relationship of these
three texts is timely because he is able to draw on the recently
published critical editions of the Peshitta of Job and the
Rabbinic Targum of Job. The introduction closes with a brief
discussion of the Vorlage of 11Q10 and matters of language
and style.
As far as the question of the Vorlage of 11Q10 is concerned,
Shepherd takes the view in the introduction that 11Q10 broadly
used an MT-type text but allows for the possibility that for
individual readings the Vorlage may have diVered from MT.
This rather straightforward supposed situation is addressed
again in the conclusion, where the discussion is much more
extensive and nuanced. The conclusion is clearly not the best
place to discuss such a serious methodological issue, which has
a crucial impact on the way in which the study has progressed
since, as the author is also aware. If diVerences between the MT
and 11Q10 go back to 11Q10’s Hebrew Vorlage then this might
undermine much of the discussion on matters of translation.
It would have been preferable, therefore, to be aware of this
possibility throughout the study or to have dealt with it more
comprehensively at the outset. The discussion of possible
164 REVIEWS
divergence from MT is frequently somewhat MT-centric by
referring to diVerent Vorlagen as either reflecting an updating
or adjusting of MT (pp. 265, 266). One is also surprised to read
‘it is worth remembering that to suggest that the Qumran and
Syriac versions were reliant on a non-MT type Vorlage is not the
same as suggesting that such a Vorlage be necessarily pre-MT’
(p. 282 n. 91). This may not be unrelated to the fact that
important studies on the history of the biblical text in the light
of the Qumran discoveries by Shemaryahu Talmon, Emanuel
Tov, and Eugene Ulrich are absent from the bibliography.

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The only publication from the productive and influential
scholarly output of Ulrich is a progress report on the publication
of biblical scrolls from 1989. Talmon fares worse and is not
mentioned at all.
In his detailed synoptic comparison of omission, transposition,
and the treatment of the waw conjunction, Shepherd identifies
a higher degree of overlap between 11Q10 and the Peshitta
over against the Rabbinic Targum of Job. In sum, this volume
oVers a helpful and detailed comparative examination of three
Aramaic versions of the Book of Job that discourages all of us
from referring to 11Q10 as a Targum in an unqualified manner.
Because of the fragmentary nature of the Qumran witness
and the ongoing reassessment of the history of the text of
the Hebrew Bible in the light of the scrolls, the topic dealt
with is extremely complex. In the end the author addresses
this challenge though at times this appears almost as an
afterthought.

doi:10.1093/jts/fll077 CHARLOTTE HEMPEL

Advance Access publication 2 September 2006 University of Birmingham
c.hempel@bham.ac.uk

Vetus Latina: Die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel. 11/2. Sirach

(Ecclesiasticus). Edited by WALTER THIELE. 7. Lieferung.
Pp. 481–560. Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 1998. ISBN
3451004304. Paper. N.p.

Vetus Latina: Die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel. 11/2. Sirach

(Ecclesiasticus). Edited by WALTER THIELE. 8. Lieferung.
Pp. 561–640. Freiburg: Verlag Herder, 2001. ISBN
3451004385. Paper. N.p.

ß The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
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