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Hebrew Studies 36 (1995) 218 Reviews (n:lum) to him "as righteousness" (np~, 4QMMT C 31). It would appear that Paul and Qumran theology were in a face-off. Deborah DimanCs article, "The Character of the Writings of the Judaean Desert as a Key to its Origin and Beginnings," is a call for a reevaluation of the process of formulation of the sectarian works at Qumran, a process which she suggests would require more than a generation or two to produce the wealth of materials discovered. She proposes a detailed evaluation of the relationship between Qumran literature, pseudepigrapha , and Apocrypha must be carried out before we renew our efforts in determining the questions of origin, character, and history of the sect. The fact that four of the ten articles printed here (fully 60% of the text) have appeared elsewhere in translation notably reduces the value of this book for the English reader. The remaining articles are, however, of high quality and a welcome addition to the understanding of the Qumran library and its place in Second Temple literature. Martin G. Abegg, Jr. Trinity Western University Langley, B.C. CANADA V3A 6H4 SAGES, STORIES, AUTHORS, AND EDITORS IN RABBINIC BABYLONIA. By Richard Kalmin. Brown Judaic Studies 300. Pp. xvi + 340. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994. Paper, $59.95. I cannot begin to indicate how vitally significant this book is. It represents the first serious scholarly challenge both to Neusner's important skepticism anent the reliability of the Talmud for historical information (by which I mean historical information about the discourse itself) as well as to the extreme and exaggerated conclusions that he had come to as a result of his skepticism. Kalmin more than rises to the challenge, developing not only the resources to answer the call, but also what is virtually a new and highly convincing methodology with which to do so. I will provide some detailed support for this judgment. The first point that needs to be made in evaluating the importance of this book is that Kalmin does not conclude or assume that our judgment of the question of the "authenticity" of attributions need be either one extreme or the other, thus departing from both the school of thought that everything is to be be- Hebrew Studies 36 (1995) 219 Reviews lieved if it is not contradicted by "common sense" and the Neusnerian school of thought that everything in the Talmud is to be attributed historically to its last editors. As I have shown in a review essay, Neusner's position is, in fact, no more historically scientific than the former, for it makes equally strong assumptions without attempting to ground the judgments in argument. Kalmin addresses the unfounded assumptions of both schools by providing a method for distinguishing in many cases between what can be known about the texts from what cannot be known, such that there are circumstances (limited ones to be sure) within which one can make historical adjudications and others within which one is prevented from the same, and one has criteria to tell the difference between these circumstances. This is a sort of Anonymity Anonymous for talmudic studies. I emphasize that in any case, even after Kalmin's achievement, the only history we can write is history of discourse, as Kalmin understands perfectly, but R'il 'nil!l" M"'C 'R". This book, which I have been waiting for avidly, will have an immediate effect on my current research, for which questions of the provenance of stories in the Bavli about Palestinian Amoraim are very significant. Let me give one instructive example. In my Carnal Israel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993) I discussed a sequence of aggadot in the Bavli that relate to the practice of rabbis spending extended periods of time away from their wives (pp. 146-156). I came to the conclusion that the Talmud records (almost against its will) the fact there was enormous conflict over this innovation and that it was associated with the figure of Rava. Kalmin's careful scholarship and analysis suggest that much more could have been learned from this textual material, however, namely that the conflict was between the schools of Maboza and Pumbedita. Rather...

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