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Home , Yigael Yadin

The -Local Members of the Main Jewish Union in Late Second Temple Times

HARTMUTSTEGEMANN

Universitat Gottingen

For more than forty years, scholars have dedicated themselves to Qumran research. But the identity of the people living at Chirbet Qumran in late Second Temple times is still debated. The majority of scholars favour some kind of Qumran Essene hypothesis. Nevertheless this con­ ception is challenged from time to time by other theories, modifying or replacing it. This article describes how the Qumran Essene hypothesis started and developed in the past. Some of its implicit problems are indicated, and some of its challenges are discussed. This evaluation is followed by the main arguments in favour of an Essene hypothesis, and by a discussion of some problems which might challenge it. Finally, as a result of the previous observations and criticism, a new conception of the Essene hypothesis will be considered. 1

I. PLINY THE ELDER

On November 28, and on December 22, 1947, the late Eliezer Lipa Sukenik (1889-53), the father of Yigael Yadin (1917-1984), bought for the Hebrew University in three scrolls, or what was left of them. These scrolls are now known as lQJsaiahh, lQHodayof', and lQMilhama. Being not only a professor of archaeology, but also an experienced palaeographer, Dr. Sukenik soon recognized that the scribal hands of his manuscripts were not medieval, like those known from the Cairo Geniza, but clearly resembled some little-known finds of late Second Temple times.

1 In view of the length of this article, I have reduced its notes to the minimum of scholarly orientation. 84

A few weeks later, on February 4, 1948, in the Arab section of Jerusalem Dr. Sukenik came across three other scrolls of this kind, reportedly coming from the same source, a cave in the rocks of the , close to the north-western shore of the Dead Sea. These scrolls are now known as lQisaiah•, lQPesher Habakkuk, and lQSerekh ha-yaltad. Dr. Sukenik was not able to buy them at that time. But he studied their contents, and he was astonished by what his examination of them led him to conclude.2 All those who had previously seen those new scrolls, were unable to read Hebrew. This was no problem for Dr. Sukenik. His decisive finding, published in the first volume of his Megillot Genuzot, 1948, was that one of the additional scrolls clearly offered «a kind of book of regulations for the conduct of members of a brotherhood or sect.» This was his concise characterization of some parts of lQSerekh ha-yaltad, which he had by chance seen. He continued his statements: «I incline to hypothesize that this cache of manuscripts belonged originally to the sect of the Essenes, for, as is known from different literary sources, the place of settlement of this sectarian group was on the western side of the Dead Sea, in the vicinity of En Gedi.»3 This was the birth of the Qumran Essene hypothesis. Evidently E. L. Sukenik was led to his basic conclusions not so much by «different literary sources,» but mainly by the short report on the Essenes written by Pliny the Elder.4 While Philo Alexandrinus and Josephus Flavi us spoke of the Essenes as living together with other Jews in most of the towns and villages of Palestine, saying nothing of any special Essene settlements in the J udaean desert, Pliny, on the other hand, had heard only about Essenes living in splendid isolation on the western shore of the Dead Sea north of En Gedi. He knew nothing about Essenes in towns and villages all over the country. Perhaps Pliny got his information on the Essenes when he came to Jerusalem in the spring of70 CE as a Roman officer, together with Titus, who was engaged in the siege of the city.5 He never went down to the

2 References according to J. C. Trever, The Untold Story ofQumran (Westwood N .J. 1965) 110-113. 3 E. L. Sukenik, Megillot Genuzot I (Jerusalem 1948) 16f. The English translation is quoted from N. Golb, «The Problem of Origin and Identification of the ,» Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 124, 1980, pp. 1-24, note 1 on p. 11. 4 Pliny, Natural History V,15,73, edited by H. Rackham, Vol. 2, London/Cambridge Mass. 1961, p. 276: Esseni ... gens sola et in toto orbe praeter ceteras mira, sine ulla femina, omni venere abdicata, sine pecunia, socia palmarum.... per seculorum milia (incredibile dictu) gens aetema est in quo nemo nascitur. ... Infra hos Engada oppidum fuit, ... inde castellum. 5 According to W. Kroll, «Plinius d. A.,» in: A. Pauly/G. Wissowa, Rea/encyclopiidie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, Band 21, Stuttgart 1952, pp. 279f.