G — Biblically Based Apocryphal Works

List of False Prophets (4Q339)

1This is a brief list of false prophets, recorded in Aramaic and palaeographically Herodian in date. The first six names come from the Bible. The last two lines are completed by the editor as '[Hananiah son of Az]ur' (Jer. xxviii, 1) and '[a prophet from Gib]eon', interpreted as the continuation of the description of Hananiah (see ibid.). One may object to this reconstruction that all the previous names occupy a single line. The name of Yohanan ben Shim'on, i.e. John Hyrcanus I, son of Simon Maccabaeus, has been suggested by A. Rofe and E. Qimron. Hyrcanus I was thought to have been endowed with prophetic gifts (cf. Josephus, Jewish War I, 68-9; Antiquities XIII, 300), but the anti- Hasmonaean Qumran sect would have condemned him as a false prophet. This identification is distinctly possible, but owing to the fragmentary state of the line the reading is purely conjectural. For the editio princeps, see M. Broshi and A. Yardeni, DJD, XIX, 77-9.

2The lying prophets who arose in [Israel: Balaam [son] of Beor (Num. xxii-xxiv); [the] elder from Bethel (1 Kgs xiii, 11-31); [Zed]ekiah son of Ke[n]aanah (1 Kgs xxii, 11); [Aha]b son of K[o]liah (Jer. xxix, 21); [Zed]ekiah son of Ma[a]seiah (ibid.); [Shemaiah the Ne]hlemite (Jer. xxix, 24); ... ur; ... 'on.