Commentary

Compares cuneiform commentary texts from first millennium Mesopotamia with early Jewish pesharim from Qumran, arguing that textual difficulties in the pesharim can be explained through interpretive accretion practices documented in Mesopotamian commentaries.

Uses manuscript remains of Mesopotamian commentaries from the first millennium BCE to construct a model for understanding how Qumran pesharim were composed, providing solutions to literary incongruities found in the pesharim.