Nahum Commentary Explained

The Nahum Commentary or Pesher Nahum, labelled 4QpNah (Cave 4, Qumran, pesher, Nahum) or 4Q169, was among the Dead Sea Scrolls in cave 4 of Qumran that was discovered in August 1952. The editio princeps of the text is to be found in DJD V., edited by John Allegro. The text is described thus: 'one of the "continuous pesharim" from Qumran, successive verses from the biblical Book of Nahum are interpreted as reflecting historical realities of the 1st century BCE."^[1]

Text

The most clearly historical references in the text can be found in Fragments 3-4 Column 1, which cites Nahum 2:11b, "Where the lion goes to enter, there also goes the whelp..." and provides the commentary,

"[This refers to Deme]trius, king of Greece, who sought to enter Jerusalem through the counsel of the Flattery-Seekers; [but it never fell into the] power of the kings of Greece from Antiochus until the appearance of the rulers of the kittim...."^[2]

According to Larry R. Helyer (as well as to many other scholars), Demetrius in this text is Demetrius III Eucaerus (95-88 BCE), the Seleucid king who defeated Alexander Jannaeus in battle, but was forced to withdraw back to Syria. ^[3]

The text refers to the biblical passages from Nahum 1:3-6; 2:12-14; 3:1-5, 6-9, 10-12, 14.^[4]

See also

• The Seekers after Smooth Things

Bibliography

• Allegro, John M., Qumran Cave 4, I (4Q158-4Q186) DJD V. (Oxford, 1968) editio princeps, pp. 37–42.
• Berrin, Shani L., The Pesher Nahum Scroll from Qumran: An Exegetical Study of 4Q169. (Leiden: Brill, 2004)
• Berrin, Shani L., "Pesher Nahum" in Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls, eds Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. VanderKam, Volume 2. (Oxford, 2000), pp. 653–655.
• Doudna, Gregory, 4Q Pesher Nahum: A Critical Edition. (Sheffield Academic Press, 2002)
• Charlesworth, James H., Henry W. L. Rietz, Casey D. Elledge, and Lidija Novakovic. Pesharim, Other Commentaries, and Related Documents. The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations 6b. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002. (More recent publication of the Hebrew text and English translation on facing pages)
• Cross, Frank Moore. The Ancient Library of Qumran. 3d ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995. (General reading on the Dead Sea Scrolls in general, their discovery, and contents)
• Ingrassia, David,(2002)CLASS 3 Biblical Commentaries:Pesharim. Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible.
• http://www.preteristarchive.com/BibleStudies/DeadSeaScrolls/4Q169_pesher_nahum.html

External links

• 4Q169 at the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library

Notes and References

1. Book: The Pesher Nahum Scroll from Qumran: An Exegetical Study of 4Q169. Shani L. Berrin. Brill. 2004. 1.
2. Translation by E.M. Cook in Book: The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation. registration . Michael Wise . Martin Abegg Jr . Edward Cook. HarperSanFrancisco. 1996. 217.
3. Larry R. Helyer, Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period. InterVarsity Press, 2002
4. Book: Fitzmyer, Joseph A.. Joseph Fitzmyer

   . A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Joseph Fitzmyer . William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2008 . 49 . 9780802862419 . Grand Rapids, MI . February 15, 2019.