Conjectures sur la Bible (review)

Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 172 Reviews critical editions of the QT. A list of abbreviations frequently used in the apparatus of the Biblia Hebraica (BH and BHS) is attached and the tenns explained. This brief outline of its contents cannot do justice to the extraordinary qualities of this book, which was written by an excellent teacher and outstanding scholar. Its style is lucid, and the subject matter is presented in a didactically solid way. Along with the presentation of the aim, it describes the problems and methods of textual criticism and sketches the discipline's history. General statements are always supported by several pertinent examples. The biographical lists heading each chapter are practically exhaustive. Five indices (Bible verses, rabbinical references, Qumran documentation, authors, and topics) facilitate the search for specific infonnation. One may hope-and expect-that this book will shortly be translated into European languages and thus find the broader audience it deserves. It is safe to predict that it will become the standard reference book on the subject of textual criticism. Benjamin Kedar-KopJstein Haifa University Haifa 31999 Israel CONJECTURES SUR LA BIBLE. By Marco Treves. Pp. 347. Quvrage en souscription, 1990. Paper. Upon receipt of this book, I made a curious discovery. The late author (d. November, 1990) prefaces his volume with the following statement: "Ceux qui croient qu'un mort puisse ressuciter, qu 'une vierge puisse enfanter, qu'un homme puisse parler avec Ie bon Dieu, je les prie de ne pas lire ce livre." Disregarding this monitum, I, who confess to believe all three of Treves' propositions, proceeded with my perusal and emerged with credulity intact. Such is the power of invincible ignorance! Treves' work comprises some fifty-five short essays (several cover less than a page), ranging over the writings of the OT (proto- and deuterocanonical ) and NT, as well as the Qumran documents. Most are in French; three in English; and one in Italian, Treves' native language. In date they extend over almost forty years from the early 1950s to the late 1980s (in 1988 Treves published a small book, The Date oj the Psalms). Several of them appeared originally is such reputable biblical journals as JBL and VT. Hebrew Studies 33 (1992) 173 Reviews Unfortunately, the volume fails to provide the sort of complete publication data concerning the component essays that is usual in such collections. Although not without its intellectual forebears (Treves explicitly acknowledges his debt to, for example, R. H. Kennett, H. S. Reimarus, and J. Turmel), Treves' conjectures can certainly claim a high degree of novelty in the current exegetical context. That novelty is above all a matter of Treves' dating of the biblical material, wherein vast portions of the OT (Prov 1-9, numerous psalms, Obadiah, Isa 40-66*, Job, Canticles, Qoheleth) stem from the second century BC, while the Letter to the Hebrews originated c. 150 AD. But the surprises Treves has in store for readers by no means end here. Such readers will further discover that the suffering servant of Isaiah 53 is the High Priest Onias III, the so-called "wonderful counselor" of Isa 9:6 is a young Davidic pretender of the year 164 BC, while the depiction in Wisdom 1-5 of the conflict between the righteous and his impious persecutors has in view tensions between John the Baptist and Herod Antipas. Indeed, the (second century BC) Decalogue stands under the influence of a Buddhist monastic rule! The novelty and surprising nature of Treves' conjectures, it must be said immediately, far exceed the solidity of the case made for them. Here, the basic problem is Treves' summary, "once over lightly" mode of presentation . His "Observations sur Ie livre d'Isai'e," for instance, consist of little more than a series of jottings in which Treves sets down his impressions about the date of this or that passage for readers to take or leave. Thus, for example, Isa I:3-9 "seems to be" a description of the great apostasy of the years 167-164 BC (p. 57). That is all. Not so much as a word acknowledges the fact that to the majority of exegetes the passage "seems" to reflect conditions of 701...