pesher

plural pesharim · plural peshers

1. An interpretive commentary on scripture, especially one in Hebrew.

   The Pesher on Zephaniah (1Q15)⁴⁵ interprets Zeph 1:18 and 2:2 as referring to "all the inhabitants of the Land of Judah" (i.5).

   2001, Graham Harvey, The True Israel: Uses of the names Jew, Hebrew, and Israel in Ancient Jewish and Early Christian Literature, page 33

   5 more examples

   In 1807, Manasseh Illier sought in his Pesher Dabar (Solution to the Problem) to bring unity into the ranks of Jewry by reconciling all the factions of the conflicting schools of thought through the harmonization of reason and faith.

   1944, Louis Greenberg, The Jews in Russia: The Struggle for Emancipation, page 68

   In commenting upon lQ28b, Abbe Milik referred to this fragment as a pesher on the Psalms, but since that time the document has been augmented by new fragments, and it appears certain that it is, in fact, a commentary on Isaiah.

   1954, The Biblical Archaeologist, volumes 17-20, page 91

   Of all the Dead Sea texts it is the Habakkuk pesher (1QpHab) that, by common consent, exhibits the most impressive agreements with a Targum text.

   1994, Robert P. Gordon, Studies in the Targum to the Twelve Prophets, from Nahum to Malachi, page 83

   The classification of the Qumran commentaries by Jean Carmignac into the continuous and thematic pesharim is based upon typological issues rather than such concerns as the dates of publication: for former more or less follows sequentially continuous biblical passages while the other draws its proof-texts from a variety of biblical books around a particular theme.

   1997, Timothy H. Lim, Holy Scripture in the Qumran Commentaries and Pauline Letters

   A similar method is followed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, particularly in those documents we have already described as peshers — but in the latter not quite so blatantly, as the ethos of the interpretation generally remains the same as that of the interpretation generally remains the same as that of the underlying passages

   1998, Robert H. Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls