Early Judaism- A Comprehensive Overview

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The most important development for the study of early Judaism in the past

century was undoubtedly the discovery and eventual publication of the

Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls were found in proximity to a ruined settlement

at Khirbet Qumran, south of Jericho, by the Dead Sea. Cave 4, where the

main trove of texts was found, is literally a stone’s throw from the site. Most

scholars have assumed that the texts constituted the library of a sectarian

settlement at Qumran (VanderKam 1994: 12-27). The Roman writer Pliny

says that there was an Essene settlement in this region (Natural History

5.73), and there are extensive parallels between the rule books found at

Qumran, especially theSerek Ha-YaFad,orCommunity Rule,and the ac-

counts of the Essenes by Philo and Josephus (Beall 1988). Both the associa-

tion with the site and the identification with the Essenes have been con-

tested, often vociferously, in recent years (Galor, Humbert, and Zangenberg

2006). Norman Golb has insisted that such an extensive corpus of scrolls

could have come only from the Jerusalem Temple, and that the multiplicity

of hands belies composition in a single community (Golb 1995). With re-

gard to the identification with the Essenes, the main point in dispute has

been the issue of celibacy, which is noted by all ancient writers on the

Essenes but is never explicitly required in the scrolls. Also, the accounts of

the Essenes do not hint at messianic expectation or at the kind of apocalyp-

tic expectations found in theWar Scrolland other texts at Qumran.

The discussion has been obscured by a tendency among scholars to

think of Qumran as a single, monastery-like institution. In fact, the rule

books make clear that there was a network of communities, which could

have as few as ten people, at various locations. The accounts of the Essenes

(other than Pliny) also emphasize that they had many settlements.

Josephus notes that there were two orders of Essenes, one of which ac-

cepted marriage. One of the rule books found at Qumran, the so-called

Damascus Document,also appears to distinguish between “those who live

in camps and marry and have children” and others who presumably do

not. It is unlikely that all the scrolls were copied at Qumran. An alternative

scenario is that Essenes from other settlements fled to Qumran in face of

the advancing Romans in 68c.e.and brought their scrolls with them. This

would account for the high number of sectarian texts and also for the pres-

ence of different editions of the rule books in the caves.

In any case, it is clear that the corpus of texts found at Qumran includes

many that were not sectarian in origin, although they may been used in a

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john j. collins

EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:03:48 PM