Geza Vermes Replies

I warmly welcome Professor Tabor’s courteous criticism of the summary of my Journal of Jewish Studies paper, “Seminar on the Rule of War from Cave 4 (4Q285),” renamed by BAR as “The ‘Pierced Messiah’ Text—An Interpretation Evaporates.” His rejoinder allows me to clarify the situation.

It is rare that absolute certainty can be attained in the interpretation of an ancient Jewish text, and in the case of a fragment, such assurance is never possible. What we are dealing with are varying degrees of probability.