DOCSLIB.ORG

4QMMT: a Letter to (Not From) the Yaḥad

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
4QMMT: a Letter to (Not From) the Yaḥad Chapter 4 4QMMT: A Letter to (not from) the Yaḥad Gareth Wearne 1 Introduction 4QMMT (hereafter MMT) occupies an important place in studies of the ori- gin and identity of the community, or communities, reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls.1 As is well known, early discussions of the text classified MMT as a hal- akhic letter or treatise, written to a royal figure as a polemical response to the views and practices of an unnamed third party.2 More specifically, based on the theological contents of the reconstructed text—and noting its apparent silence on the question of the High Priesthood—the editors, Elisha Qimron and John Strugnell, suggested that MMT may reflect a time shortly before, or in the earliest organizational stages of, the Qumran group.3 As such, Qimron identified it as a polemical letter sent from the nascent Qumran community, or its parent group, in order to persuade the current Hasmonean ruler to forsake what the writers understood to be the errant practices of an opposing party.4 Even before the official publication of MMT in DJD 10, there were signs that the editors, especially Strugnell, had begun to change their minds about its genre.5 Noting the lack of form critical parallels and formal epistolary features, Qimron and Strugnell questioned whether MMT would better be classified as a proclamation, an open letter, an epistle, or a “treatise”; however, they continued 1 My sincere thanks go to Dr Stephen Llewelyn, as well as the anonymous reader and the edi- tors of this volume for their many helpful comments and suggestions. 2 Elisha Qimron and John Strugnell, “An Unpublished Halakhic Letter from Qumran,” in Biblical Archaeology Today: Proceedings of the International Congress on Biblical Archaeology, Jerusalem, April 1984 (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1985), 400–7. 3 Elisha Qimron, John Strugnell, et al., Qumran Cave 4.V: Miqṣat Maʿaśeh Ha-Torah, DJD 10 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 121 (hereafter, DJD 10). 4 Perhaps from the “Teacher of Righteousness” himself, DJD 10:114–16, 120–21, but cf. 121 where he seemed to back away from this view. Strugnell offered a yet more cautious appraisal in his appendix to DJD 10 and idem, “MMT: Second Thoughts on a Forthcoming Edition,” in The Community of the Renewed Covenant: The Notre Dame Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. Eugene Ulrich and James VanderKam, Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity 10 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994), 57–73. 5 Strugnell, “Second Thoughts,” 72; cf. DJD 10:113–14, 121. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004393387_005 100 Wearne in the assumption that it was addressed to the Hasmonean political establish- ment and written by representatives of the early Qumran community.6 At the heart of the sectarian association lies the expression, partly restored, “we have separated from the multitude of the peo[ple],” which occurs in the parenetic epilogue at the end of the reconstructed text (see below). This cryp- tic autobiographical detail led Qimron and Strugnell to conclude that MMT originated in the early days of the schism with the Jerusalem temple.7 But if it is correct to identify MMT with a schism with the temple, then it must be noted that its tone is surprisingly eirenic—a problem already recognized in the editio maior.8 More recently, scholars have tended to move away from the question of MMT’s original purpose, and have focused instead on its intramural use within the community that preserved it. In particular, this approach was championed by Steven Fraade, who drew attention to the fact that MMT was repeatedly cop- ied over a prolonged period.9 That is, it exists in six fragmentary manuscripts (4Q394, 4Q395, 4Q396, 4Q397, 4Q398, and 4Q399), which have been dated on paleographic grounds to the early-mid-Herodian periods (i.e. mid–late first century BCE, or early first century CE).10 This is an unusually large number of copies for a non-biblical text, and suggests that MMT was of considerable im- portance for the copyists. Consequently, and in view of its halakhic contents, Fraade suggested that MMT was an intracommunal pedagogical text, used to train candidates and new initiates of the community for the purpose of “rein- forcing the process of social separation.”11 Fraade’s explanation may well be correct, and he was certainly right to draw attention to the ongoing significance of the text within the community (a point 6 For a discussion of MMT as a proclamation see Strugnell, “Second Thoughts,” 72. 7 DJD 10:109–21; Strugnell, “Second Thoughts,” 72. For a maximalist interpretation, see Hanan Eshel, “4QMMT and the History of the Hasmonean Period,” in Reading 4QMMT: New Perspectives on Qumran Law and History, ed. John Kampen and Moshe Bernstein, SBLSym 2 (Atlanta: Scholars, 1996), 53–65. 8 DJD 10:116, 121; Strugnell, “Second Thoughts,” 71; cf. Charlotte Hempel, “The Context of 4QMMT and Comfortable Theories,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Texts and Context, ed. Charlotte Hempel, STDJ 90 (Leiden: Brill, 2010), 275–92, esp. 285. 9 Steven D. Fraade, “To Whom It May Concern: 4QMMT and Its Addressee(s),” RevQ 19 (2000): 507–26. 10 DJD 10:3–6, 14, 16–18, 21–25, 29–34, 38–39. On Ada Yardeni’s contribution to the paleo- graphic dating of the fragments, see DJD 10:9. Regarding the earliest hand, she wrote: “A comparison of the skeleton forms of the letters in 4Q398 to the skeleton forms of the letters in the different stages of development of the cursive and semi-cursive Jewish scripts suggests that the script of 4Q398 belongs to the period of transition from the Hasmonean to the Herodian styles [i.e. mid–1st century BCE],” DJD 10:29. 11 Fraade, “To Whom It May Concern,” 507–26..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Frank Moore Cross's Contribution to the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Classics and Religious Studies Department 2014 Frank Moore Cross’s Contribution to the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls Sidnie White Crawford University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/classicsfacpub Part of the Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, and the Jewish Studies Commons Crawford, Sidnie White, "Frank Moore Cross’s Contribution to the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (2014). Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department. 127. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/classicsfacpub/127 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classics and Religious Studies at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Frank Moore Cross’s Contribution to the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls Sidnie White Crawford This paper examines the impact of Frank Moore Cross on the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since Cross was a member of the original editorial team responsible for publishing the Cave 4 materials, his influence on the field was vast. The article is limited to those areas of Scrolls study not covered in other articles; the reader is referred especially to the articles on palaeography and textual criticism for further discussion of Cross’s work on the Scrolls. t is difficult to overestimate the impact the discovery They icturedp two columns of a manuscript, columns of of the Dead Sea Scrolls had on the life and career of the Book of Isaiah .
    [Show full text]
  • The Covenant Renewal Ceremony As the Main Function of Qumran
    religions Article The Covenant Renewal Ceremony as the Main Function of Qumran Daniel Vainstub Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near East, Ben‑Gurion University, Beer Sheva 8410501, Israel; [email protected] Abstract: Unlike any other group or philosophy in ancient Judaism, the yahad sect obliged all mem‑ ˙ bers of the sect to leave their places of residence all over the country and gather in the sect’s central site to participate in a special annual ceremony of renewal of the covenant between God and each of the members. The increase of the communities that composed the sect and their spread over the en‑ tire country during the first century BCE required the development of the appropriate infrastructure for hosting this annual gathering at Qumran. Consequently, the hosting of the gathering became the main function of the site, and the southern esplanade with the buildings surrounding it became the epicenter of the site. Keywords: Qumran; Damascus Document; scrolls; mikveh 1. Introduction The subject of this paper is the yearly gathering during the festival of Shavuot of all members of the communities that composed the yahad sect.1 After close examination of the Citation: Vainstub, Daniel. 2021. The ˙ evidence for this annual gathering in the sect’s writings and analysis of the archaeological Covenant Renewal Ceremony as the data on the development of the site of Qumran, it became evident that in the generation Main Function of Qumran. Religions 12: 578. https://doi.org/10.3390/ following that of the site’s founders, the holding of the annual gathering became the main ¶ rel12080578 raison d’ tre of the site and the factor that dictated its architectural development.
    [Show full text]
  • Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls: a Question of Access
    690 American Archivist / Vol. 56 / Fall 1993 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/56/4/690/2748590/aarc_56_4_w213201818211541.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Question of Access SARA S. HODSON Abstract: The announcement by the Huntington Library in September 1991 of its decision to open for unrestricted research its photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls touched off a battle of wills between the library and the official team of scrolls editors, as well as a blitz of media publicity. The action was based on a commitment to the principle of intellectual freedom, but it must also be considered in light of the ethics of donor agreements and of access restrictions. The author relates the story of the events leading to the Huntington's move and its aftermath, and she analyzes the issues involved. About the author: Sara S. Hodson is curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington Library. Her articles have appeared in Rare Books & Manuscripts Librarianship, Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, and the Huntington Library Quarterly. This article is revised from a paper delivered before the Manuscripts Repositories Section meeting of the 1992 Society of American Archivists conference in Montreal. The author wishes to thank William A. Moffett for his encour- agement and his thoughtful and invaluable review of this article in its several revisions. Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls 691 ON 22 SEPTEMBER 1991, THE HUNTINGTON scrolls for historical scholarship lies in their LIBRARY set off a media bomb of cata- status as sources contemporary with the time clysmic proportions when it announced that they illuminate.
    [Show full text]
  • The Concept of Atonement in the Qumran Literature and the New Covenant
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Liberty University Digital Commons Liberty University DigitalCommons@Liberty University Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Graduate Faculty Publications and Presentations School 2010 The onceptC of Atonement in the Qumran Literature and the New Covenant Jintae Kim Liberty University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_fac_pubs Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Ethics in Religion Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, History of Religions of Western Origin Commons, Other Religion Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Kim, Jintae, "The oncC ept of Atonement in the Qumran Literature and the New Covenant" (2010). Faculty Publications and Presentations. Paper 374. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lts_fac_pubs/374 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Graduate School at DigitalCommons@Liberty University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications and Presentations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Liberty University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. [JGRChJ 7 (2010) 98-111] THE CONCEPT OF ATONEMENT IN THE QUMRAN LITERatURE AND THE NEW COVENANT Jintae Kim Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Lynchburg, VA Since their first discovery in 1947, the Qumran Scrolls have drawn tremendous scholarly attention. One of the centers of the early discussion was whether one could find clues to the origin of Christianity in the Qumran literature.1 Among the areas of discussion were the possible connections between the Qumran literature and the New Testament con- cept of atonement.2 No overall consensus has yet been reached among scholars concerning this issue.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dead Sea Scrolls
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Maxwell Institute Publications 2000 The eD ad Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints Donald W. Parry Stephen D. Ricks Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi Part of the Religious Education Commons Recommended Citation Parry, Donald W. and Ricks, Stephen D., "The eD ad Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints" (2000). Maxwell Institute Publications. 25. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi/25 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maxwell Institute Publications by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Preface What is the Copper Scroll? Do the Dead Sea Scrolls contain lost books of the Bible? Did John the Baptist study with the people of Qumran? What is the Temple Scroll? What about DNA research and the scrolls? We have responded to scores of such questions on many occasions—while teaching graduate seminars and Hebrew courses at Brigham Young University, presenting papers at professional symposia, and speaking to various lay audiences. These settings are always positive experiences for us, particularly because they reveal that the general membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a deep interest in the scrolls and other writings from the ancient world. The nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls are of great import because they shed much light on the cultural, religious, and political position of some of the Jews who lived shortly before and during the time of Jesus Christ.
    [Show full text]
  • Book Reviews
    Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 2011 Volume 29 Book Reviews Yossi Garfinkel, D. Ben-Shlomo, D. and N. Korn, Sha’ar HaGolan 3: The Symbolic Dimensions of the Yarmukian Culture: Canonization in Neolithic Art. The Institute of Archaeology and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Co- operation with the Israel Exploration Society, 2010. Jerusalem. Pp. xv + 353. $68. ISBN: 9789652210814. This book is the third in a series of seven intended monographs describing the site and material culture of Sha’ar HaGolan, the type-site for the Yarmukian culture. Its subject is the figurines from the site, made famous by a travelling exhibition and a popular illustrated book. The first volume, Neolithic Art in Context was published in 2002 and the second, The Rise of Urban Concepts in the Ancient Near East, in 2009. Four further volumes are planned, covering pottery and lithics, among other subjects. The subject of figurines has been given some previous attention in the first monograph, and in Garfinkel’s more populist tome, The Yarmukians, but most of what is contained in this publication, which focuses purely on figurines, is novel material. The structure of the book is very straightforward. The introduction starts by setting out the authors’ theoretical basis for their ideas about canonisation in Levantine Neolithic art in general. This revolves around population pressures and the need for planning in society, which led to standardisation of belief and artistic endeavour, as well as organised settlements. This is followed with a brief, but comprehensive description of trends in finds from Sha’ar HaGolan, from the excavations, and also from the informal finds curated by the local kibbutz.
    [Show full text]
  • Theme and Genre in 4Q177 and Its Scriptural Selections
    THEME AND GENRE IN 4Q177 AND ITS SCRIPTURAL SELECTIONS Mark Laughlin and Shani Tzoref Jerusalem 4Q1771 has conventionally been classified as a “thematic pesher,”2 or, more recently as “thematic commentary,”3 or “eschatological midrash.”4 It is one of a group of Qumranic compositions in which the author cites and interprets biblical texts, applying them to the contemporary experience of his community, which he understands to be living in the eschatological era. Unlike the continuous pesharim, thematic pesha- rim are not structured as sequential commentaries on a particular 1 John M. Allegro first pieced together the thirty fragments that he identified as comprising 4Q177, which he labeled 4QCatena A. Cf. John M. Allegro and Arnold A. Anderson. Qumran Cave 4.I (4Q158–4Q186) (DJD V; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 67–74, Pls. XXIV–XXV. John Strugnell subsequently added four additional fragments, and suggested improvements to Allegro’s readings and reconstructions (“Notes en marge,” 236–48). Annette Steudel re-worked the order of the material in 4Q174 and 4Q177, and argued that the two manuscripts should be regarded as parts of a single composition, which she termed 4QMidrEschat. See George J. Brooke, “From Flori- legium or Midrash to Commentary: The Problem of Re/Naming an Adopted Manu- script,” in this volume. Cf. Annette Steudel, Der Midrasch zur Eschatologie aus der Qumrangemeinde (4QMidrEschata,b): Materielle Rekonstruktion, Textbestand, Gattung und traditionsgeschichtliche Einordnung des durch 4Q174 (“Florilegium”) und 4Q177 (“Catenaa”) repräsentierten Werkes aus den Qumranfunden (STDJ 13; Leiden: Brill, 1994). The current discussion will touch upon the relationship between 4Q177 and 4Q174 but is primarily concerned with the composition of 4Q177 itself.
    [Show full text]
  • Pesher and Hypomnema
    Pesher and Hypomnema Pieter B. Hartog - 978-90-04-35420-3 Downloaded from Brill.com12/17/2020 07:36:03PM via free access Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah Edited by George J. Brooke Associate Editors Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar Jonathan Ben-Dov Alison Schofield VOLUME 121 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/stdj Pieter B. Hartog - 978-90-04-35420-3 Downloaded from Brill.com12/17/2020 07:36:03PM via free access Pesher and Hypomnema A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman Period By Pieter B. Hartog LEIDEN | BOSTON Pieter B. Hartog - 978-90-04-35420-3 Downloaded from Brill.com12/17/2020 07:36:03PM via free access This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hartog, Pieter B, author. Title: Pesher and hypomnema : a comparison of two commentary traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman period / by Pieter B. Hartog. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2017] | Series: Studies on the texts of the Desert of Judah ; volume 121 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
    [Show full text]
  • 4Qmmt) and Its Addressee(S)
    CHAPTER FOUR TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: MIQSAṬ MAʿAŚE HA-TORAH (4QMMT) AND ITS ADDRESSEE(S) 1. Introduction Long before its official publication in 1994,1 and even before its debut in 1984,2 4QMMT had been characterized as a polemical communi- cation (or “letter”) between the sectarian leadership of the Qumran community, or some precursor, and the mainstream priestly or Phari- saic leadership in Jerusalem.3 This framing of the document overall 1 Elisha Qimron and John Strugnell, Qumran Cave 4. V: Miqsaṭ Maʿaśe Ha-Torah (DJD X; Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), henceforth referred to as DJD X. 2 See articles jointly authored by Qimron and Strugnell in next note. 3 For a concise statement of the generally held view of 4QMMT, see James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994), 59–60. The earliest notices of 4QMMT are as follows: Pierre Benoit et al., “Editing the Manuscript Fragments from Qumran,” BA 19 (1956): 94 (report of John Strugnell, August 1955; the same in French in RB 63 [1956]: 65); Józef T. Milik, Ten Years of Discovery in the Wilderness of Judea (trans. J. Strugnell; London: SCM, 1959; French orig., 1957), 41, 130; idem, “Le travail d’édition des manuscrits du Désert de Juda,” in Volume du Congrès, Strasbourg 1956 (VTSup 4; Leiden: Brill, 1957), 24; idem, in DJD III (1962): 225; Joseph M. Baumgarten, “The Pharisaic-Sadducean Controversies about Purity and the Qumran Texts,” JJS 31 (1980): 163–64; Yigael Yadin, ed., The Temple Scroll (3 vols.; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1983), 2.213; Elisha Qim- ron and John Strugnell, “An Unpublished Halakhic Letter from Qumran,” in Biblical Archaeology Today: Proceedings of the International Congress on Biblical Archaeology, Jerusalem, April 1984 (ed.
    [Show full text]
  • BSBB9401 DEAD SEA SCROLLS Fall 2018 Dr. R. Dennis Cole NOBTS Mcfarland Chair of Archaeology Dodd Faculty 201 [email protected] 504-282-4455 X3248
    BSBB9401 DEAD SEA SCROLLS Fall 2018 Dr. R. Dennis Cole NOBTS Mcfarland Chair of Archaeology Dodd Faculty 201 [email protected] 504-282-4455 x3248 NOBTS MISSION STATEMENT The mission of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is to equip leaders to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandments through the local church and its ministries. COURSE PURPOSE, CORE VALUE FOCUS, AND CURRICULUM COMPETENCIES New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary has five core values: Doctrinal Integrity, Spiritual Vitality, Mission Focus, Characteristic Excellence, and Servant Leadership. These values shape both the context and manner in which all curricula are taught, with “doctrinal integrity” and “characteristic academic excellence” being especially highlighted in this course. NOBTS has seven basic competencies guiding our degree programs. The student will develop skills in Biblical Exposition, Christian Theological Heritage, Disciple Making, Interpersonal Skills, Servant Leadership, Spiritual & Character Formation, and Worship Leadership. This course addresses primarily the compentency of “Biblical Exposition” competency by helping the student learn to interpret the Bible accurately through a better understanding of its historical and theological context. During the Academic Year 2018-19, the focal competency will be Doctrinal Integrity.. COURSE DESCRIPTION Research includes historical background and description of the Qumran cult and problems relating to the significance and dating of the Scrolls. Special emphasis is placed on a theological analysis of the non- biblical texts of the Dead Sea library on subjects such as God, man, and eschatology. Meaningful comparisons are sought in the Qumran view of sin, atonement, forgiveness, ethics, and messianic expectation with Jewish and Christian views of the Old and New Testaments as well as other Interbiblical literature.
    [Show full text]
  • The Oriental Institute News & Notes No
    oi.uchicago.edu THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE NEWS & NOTES NO. 165 SPRING 2000 © THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO AS THE SCROLLS ARRIVE IN CHICAGO... NormaN Golb, ludwig rosenberger Professor in Jewish History and Civilization During the past several years, some strange events have befallen the logic as well as rhetoric by which basic scholarly positions the storied Dead Sea Scrolls — events that could hardly have on the question of the scrolls’ nature and origin had been and been foreseen by the public even a decade ago (and how much were continuing to be constructed. During the 1970s and 1980s, the more so by historians, who, of all people, should never at- I had made many fruitless efforts in encouragement of a dialogue tempt to predict the future). Against all odds, the monopoly of this kind, but only in the 1990s, perhaps for reasons we will on the scrolls’ publication, held for over forty years by a small never fully understand, was such discourse finally initiated. And coterie of scholars, was broken in 1991. Beginning with such it had important consequences, leading to significant turning pioneering text publications as those of Ben-Zion Wacholder in points in the search for the truth about the scrolls’ origins. Cincinnati and Michael Wise in Chicago, and continuing with One of the most enlightening of these came in 1996, when the resumption of the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series England’s Manchester University hosted an international confer- of Oxford University Press, researchers everywhere discovered ence on a single manuscript discovered in Cave III — a role of how rich these remnants of ancient Hebraic literature of intert- simple bookkeeping entries known as the Copper Scroll.
    [Show full text]
  • The Qumran Collection As a Scribal Library Sidnie White Crawford
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Sidnie White Crawford Publications Classics and Religious Studies 2016 The Qumran Collection as a Scribal Library Sidnie White Crawford Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/crawfordpubs This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classics and Religious Studies at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sidnie White Crawford Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. The Qumran Collection as a Scribal Library Sidnie White Crawford Since the early days of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship, the collection of scrolls found in the eleven caves in the vicinity of Qumran has been identified as a library.1 That term, however, was undefined in relation to its ancient context. In the Greco-Roman world the word “library” calls to mind the great libraries of the Hellenistic world, such as those at Alexandria and Pergamum.2 However, a more useful comparison can be drawn with the libraries unearthed in the ancient Near East, primarily in Mesopotamia but also in Egypt.3 These librar- ies, whether attached to temples or royal palaces or privately owned, were shaped by the scribal elite of their societies. Ancient Near Eastern scribes were the literati in a largely illiterate society, and were responsible for collecting, preserving, and transmitting to future generations the cultural heritage of their peoples. In the Qumran corpus, I will argue, we see these same interests of collection, preservation, and transmission. Thus I will demonstrate that, on the basis of these comparisons, the Qumran collection is best described as a library with an archival component, shaped by the interests of the elite scholar scribes who were responsible for it.
    [Show full text]