The Dead Sea Scrolls Today Book

Preface to the Second Edition xii

Preface to the First Edition xiv

1 Discoveries 1

A Introduction 1

B The Qumran Discoveries 2

1 The First Cave 2

a The Seven Original Scrolls 2

b The Cave Itself 2

2 The Other Caves 13

3 The Ruins of Qumran 20

a The de Vaux Excavations and Interpretations 21

1 The Buildings 21

2 The Cemeteries 25

b Subsequent Studies and Interpretations 26

1 The Buildings 26

2 The Cemeteries 31

4 Methods for Dating the Discoveries 33

a Methods for Dating the Texts 33

1 Paleography 33

2 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry 35

3 Internal Allusions 39

b Methods for Dating the Other Archeological Remains 41

1 Carbon 14 41

2 Pottery 41

3 Coins 41

2 Survey of the Manuscripts 47

A Biblical Texts 47

1 Biblical Scrolls 48

2 Targums 50

3 Tefillin and Mezuzot 51

B Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Texts 52

1 Apocrypha 52

a Tobit 52

b Sirach (Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira) 53

c Letter of Jeremiah (= Baruch 6) 54

d Psalm 151

2 Pseudepigrapha 54

a Enoch or 1 Enoch 55

b Jubilees 57

c Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 58

d New Pseudepigrapha 60

C Other Texts 61

1 Commentaries on Biblical Material 62

a Continuous Commentaries 62

1 The Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab) 64

2 The Nahum Commentary (4Q169) 67

3 The Commentary on Psalms (4Q171, 173) 69

b Thematic Commentaries 70

1 Florilegium (4Q174) 70

2 The Testimonia (4Q175) 70

3 The Melchizedek Text (nQMclch) 73

4 A Commentary on Genesis (4Q252) 74

2 Paraphrases 75

3 Legal Texts 75

a The Damascus Document 76

b The Rule of the Community 77

c The Temple Scroll 80

d Some of the Works of the Torah (4QMMT) 81

4 Writings for Worship 83

a The Cycle of Worship 83

1 Liturgical Texts 84

2 Calendrical Texts 85

b Poetic Compositions 86

1 The Thanksgiving Hymns 86

2 Other Poems 87

5 Eschatological Works 88

a The War Rule 88

b Texts about the New Jerusalem 90

6 Wisdom Texts 90

a 4Q184 Wiles of the Wicked Woman 91

b 4Q185 Sapiential Work 91

c Instruction 91

7 The Copper Scroll (3Q15) 92

8 Documentary Texts 93

3 The Identification of the Qumran Group 97

A The Case for the Essene Hypothesis 97

1 The Evidence from Pliny the Elder 97

2 The Contents of the Qumran Texts and Essene Beliefs and Practices 101

a Theology 102

1 Determinism 102

2 The Afterlife 105

b Practice 107

1 Nonuse of Oil 108

2 Property 108

3 The Pure Meal 111

4 Bodily Functions 112

5 Spitting 113

B Problems With the Essene Hypothesis 114

1 Entry Procedures 114

2 Marriage 116

3 The Name Essene 118

C Other Theories 119

1 Sadducees 119

2 Jerusalem Origins 122

4 The Qumran Essenes 127

A A Sketch of the Qumran Group's History 127

1 The Pre-Qumran Period 128

2 The Qumran Period 133

a Phase I 133

b Phase II 136

B A Sketch of Qumran Thought and Practice 137

1 Predeterminism 137

2 The Two Ways 138

3 The Community of the New Covenant 139

4 Scriptural Interpretation 141

a The Latter Days 141

b Special Laws 141

c The Universe 142

5 Worship 144

6 The End and the Messiahs 145

C The Qumran Essenes and Their Place in Judaism 147

5 The Scrolls and the Old Testament 157

A The Text of the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament 157

1 The Period of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 158

2 The Pre-Qumran Textual Witnesses 159

a The Masoretic Text 159

b The Septuagint 160

c The Samaritan Pentateuch 161

3 Qumran Contributions 162

a The Great Isaiah Scroll 162

b Qumran Agreements with the Septuagint against the Masoretic Text 163

1 Minor Examples 163

2 Major Examples 164

a Jeremiah 164

b Samuel 166

c An Unusual Case 167

d Theories about Textual Development 168

1 A Theory of Local Texts 168

2 A Theory of Textual Plurality and Variety 169

3 Successive Literary Editions 171

B New Information About the History of Some Texts 171

1 The Book of Psalms 172

2 Daniel 4 176

C A Canon of Scripture 178

1 Evidence outside Qumran 178

a The Prologue to Sirach (the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira) 179

b 2 Mace 2:13-15 181

c Philo, On the Contemplative Life 25 182

d Luke 24:44 182

e Matt 23:35 183

f 4 Ezra 14:23-48 184

g Josephus, Against Apion 1.37-43 185

2 Evidence from Qumran 186

a Criteria

b Authoritative Books 188

1 Books Quoted as Authorities 188

2 Other Authoritative Books 190

a Jubilees 191

b 1 Enoch 192

c The Temple Scroll 193

6 The Scrolls and the New Testament 197

A Introduction 197

B Similarities Between the Scrolls and the New Testament 201

1 Language and Text 201

a Language 201

1 The Many 202

2 The Guardian 203

3 Other Examples 203

b Text 204

1 New Testament Papyri in Cave 7? 204

2 Qumran Words and Phrases in the New Testament 204

3 The Sermon on the Mount 205

2 Characters 206

a John the Baptist 206

b Others 209

3 Practices 210

a Shared Property 210

b The Meal 211

c Calendar 214

4 Eschatology 215

a Messianism 215

b Biblical Interpretation 219

c Teachings 222

C Conclusions 224

7 Controversies about the Dead Sea Scrolls 227

A Editing and Publishing the Scrolls 227

B Events Since 1989 233

Postscript 243

Index 249*******************