Ok, so, after posting that, I dug further and found JarModuleLoader.java, which looks like it's expecting a comma-delimited list of dependencies, not a space-deliminted list. I don't know if this code is actually what pulls out dependency info from SAR deployments (in retrospect, it probably doesn't), but it made me try adding a comma. This got me a little further except that ModuleDependencyProcessor can't handle spaces after commas. So my manifest entry needs to look exactly like this:
Dependencies: org.jboss.common-core,org.apache.log4j
And this doesn't give me an CNFEs. Mission accomplished (for now).
So, can I fix Stuart's syntax on https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/AS7/Class+Loading+in+AS7 ?
Also, can ModuleDependencyProcessor.deploy() be changed to split the dependency entry on "\\s*,\\s" instead of ","? This would make for a nicer manifest entry, IMO.