03_Samet_375_375_390 04/11/15 15:10 Pagina 389 389 THE GILGAMESH EPIC AND THE BOOK OF QOHELET: A NEW LOOK 389 version of the Gilgamesh epic, whose existence is revealed to us only through indirect biblical testimony. III. Concluding Methodological Observations Since its infancy, the comparative study of the Bible and the an- cient Near East has sought to use the comparative method as a means for dating biblical texts. Examples cover almost every bibli- cal book and genre, from the dating of the patriarchal narratives on the basis of legal texts, through the dating of Pentateuchal sources in light of diplomatic and royal materials, to the dating of wisdom and psalmody on the grounds of Egyptian and Mesopotamian par- allels. Such attempts, however, often tend to overestimate the value of comparative study as a tool for dating, especially when taking into account our partial knowledge of this ancient literature. The case of Qohelet and Gilgamesh teaches us an important lesson in this respect. If we attempted to date Qohelet on the basis of the parallels to Gilgamesh, we might have concluded that it is a very early text. However, when consulting the more reliable methodo- logy of linguistic dating, such a hypothetical dating is refuted. The Book of Qohelet refuses to obey the implicit scholarly expectation that history should be neatly organized. Given the post-exilic date of Qohelet as reflected in its dialect, we might have expected the book to reveal a variety of parallels to Hellenistic literature. In- stead, what we actually find are parallels to second millennium Mesopotamian traditions. This unexpected state of affairs calls for special caution when analyzing parallels between biblical and an- cient Near Eastern texts. Extra-biblical sources can teach us a great deal about the biblical world, including its historical setting, but the issue of dating should be dealt with using a more reliable methodology. Bar-Ilan University Nili SAMET IL–Ramat-Gan 52900 (Israel)