The idea that the scrolls at Qumran were associated with a differently aligned Jewish
group to those found at Masada is well established in modern scholarship.^1351 In recent
decades F. Garcia-Martinez and A.S. van der Woude have put forward a theory of Qum-
ran origins that can perhaps lay claim to being the consensus position among a slim ma-
jority of scholars.^1352 This view holds that the sectarian occupants of Qumran should be
associated with the scrolls that were found in the nearby caves, but also that many of the
scrolls that were in the possession of this sect represent works that stemmed from a pe-
riod preceding its formation. The scrolls therefore reflect a collection composed during
several stages. Some of the documents represent common Essenism, while others be-
longed to the formative group that directly preceded the sect, or to the sect itself. Yet oth-
ers reflect works that belonged to the apocalyptic tradition from which the Essene move-
ment arose and which were considered as part of their common heritage.^1353 This implies
that “all of works found in Qumran that cannot be classified as strictly sectarian must
have been composed before the split that gave rise to the Qumran group.”^1354
(^) Sheffield Academic Press, 1994) 103-51, provides a basis for differentiating between various qualities of
Aramaic scrolls in the Qumran collection, with a view to extending the model to include the Hebrew manu-
scripts. 1351
1352 See primarily M. Greenberg, "The Stabilization of the Text of the Hebrew Bible," 165-66.
See the outline of this theory in F. Garcia-Martinez, "Qumran Origins and Early History: A Gröningen
Hypothesis," The First International Colloquium on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Mogilany Near Cracow, May
31-Jun 2, 1987 (ed. Z.J. Kapera; Folia Orientalia 25; Wroclaw: Zaclad narodowy imienia Ossolinkich, wy-
dawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1989) 113-36, and F. Garcia-Martinez and A.S. van der Woude, "A
'Gröningen' Hypothesis of Qumran Origins and Early History," 1353 RevQ 14, 4 (1990) 521-41.
1354 F. Garcia-Martinez and A.S. van der Woude, "A 'Gröningen' Hypothesis'," 525.
F. Garcia-Martinez and A.S. van der Woude, "A 'Gröningen' Hypothesis'," 526.