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MICHAEL OWEN WISE, Thunder in Gemini and Other Essays on the History, Langunge and Literature of Second Temple Palestine (JSPSup 15; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1994). Pp. 265. L25, $37.50.
Michael Wise is one of today's most innovative scholars in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He is perhaps best known for his research on the Temple Scroll and his collection of translated texts (with Robert H. Eisenman, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered [Shaftesbury, UK/Rockport, MA: Element, 1992]). The six essays in this book, focused on the later part of the Second-Temple period, cover wide intellectual territory.
In three of the pieces W. deals with calendrical themes and presupposes the 364-day solar calendar. In the first, "Thunder in Gemini: An Aramaic Brontologion (4Q318) from Qumran"(pp. 13-50), W. offers the first analysis of an important astrological document which specifies when thunder is heard in relation to zodiacal signs such as Gemini and Leo (a "brontologion" is a manual interpreting thunder as a means of forecasting the future). Here we are reminded that astrology was known and practiced in Second-Temple Judaism, both at Qumran (see also 4Q186 and 4Q561) and elsewhere (see Josephus J.W. 5 secs214, 217; 6 sec291).
In the next piece, "Primo Annales Fuere: An Annalistic Calendar From Qumran"(pp. 186-221), W. explores historical references in several mismarot (4Q322-24) which he views as copies of a single calendrical document, a "Hasmonean chronicle." Analysis of the text and a careful historical review lead him to identify in this work events involving Salome Alexandra in 72 B.C.E., the rebellion of Hyrcanus II against Aristobulus in 66...