G — Biblically Based Apocryphal Works

A Moses Apocryphona (4Q375)

1In a style imitating the Pentateuch, and recalling the Sayings of Moses from Cave 1 (1Q22), 4Q375, fr. 1, col. I lays down instructions regarding the treatment of a person who claims to be a prophet. Should he exhort people to commit apostasy, he is to be executed. However, his tribe may come to his rescue and lodge an appeal with the anointed priest in the city of the sanctuary. The very damaged col. 11 contains a sacrificial ritual employing the terminology of the Day of Atonement from Lev. xvi. The script is early Herodian, i.e. late first century BCE. For the editio princeps,see John Strugnell, DJD, XIX, 111—19. Fr. 1 I ... [You will do all that] your God has commanded you from the mouth of the prophet. You will keep [all] these [pre]cepts and you will return to the Lord your God with all [your heart and al]1 your soul. And your God will desist from the wrath of his great anger [to save you] from your misery. And the prophet who will arise and speak defection in your midst, turning you away from your God, shall be put to death. But if the tribe from which he originates stands up (for him) and says, 'Let him not be put to death, for he is righteous; he is a [trus]tworthy prophet', you, your elders and your judges will come with that tribe [t]o the place which your God will choose within one of your tribes (to appear) before [the] anointed priest on whose head the oil of anointing has been poured.