Book Reviews ∵

Dead Sea Discoveries 23 (2016) 233–264 brill.com/dsd Book Reviews ∵ John J. Collins Scriptures and Sectarianism: Essays on the Dead Sea Scrolls. WUNT I.332. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014. Hardcover. Pp. xiv + 329. € 119. ISBN 978-3-16-153210-8. John Collins’s most recent collection of essays contains articles that were writ- ten between 2003 and 2013, which originally appeared as journal articles or in Festschriften and other collections. Since some of these articles may become difficult to obtain over the years, it is helpful to have them together in one volume. All of the essays exhibit Collins’s clear prose and cogent argument, as well as his meticulous use of primary and secondary sources. While the essays focus on the Qumran Scrolls in particular, they also demonstrate his command of the wider field of Second Temple literature and history. The result is a volume that is essential reading for scholars of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. The volume is divided into three parts: 1) Scripture and Interpretation; 2) History and Sectarianism; and 3) The Sectarian Worldview. It is preceded by an introductory essay that has not appeared in print elsewhere, and con- cludes with an epilogue that illustrates the relevance of the Qumran Scrolls for the study of early Christianity. Finally, it includes a bibliography, an index of ancient names and sobriquets, an index of modern authors, and an index of Scripture and other ancient sources. The introduction, subtitled “What Have We Learned from the Dead Sea Scrolls?,” gives an overview of issues in the field, including Collins’s own posi- tions and overarching theory concerning Qumran origins. He notes that, while the designation “library” for the Qumran Scrolls has been common since the days of Cross, Milik, and Stegemann, a library of that size by the shores of the Dead Sea is an anomaly and must be explained (2). He rejects the theory of Norman Golb and others that this is simply a Jerusalem (temple) library, brought to the caves in the vicinity of Qumran at the beginning of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome, noting that, while many of the scrolls could be characterized as general Jewish literature of the period, many of the scrolls © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��6 | doi �0.��63/�5685�79-��34�39� �34 book reviews are clearly sectarian in character and critical of the Jerusalem temple and priesthood (2). Thus he sides with the majority of Scrolls scholars who see the Qumran collection as the particular collection of a particular Jewish group, with ties of some sort to the settlement at Qumran. He then lays out his particular interpretation of the evidence, which he has previously published (3): The sect pictured in the Scrolls, especially in the Community Rule and the Damascus Document, was not limited to nor isolated at Qumran. Qumran was merely one settlement of this sect, which had settlements elsewhere in Palestine, each with their own collection of (sectarian) scrolls. “These scrolls represent many libraries, but sectarian libraries; the libraries of many settlements of the sect or movement” (3). These libraries were brought together during the Great Revolt, when members of the sect fled to Qumran (either because of its isolation, or because it was a “motherhouse”). This scenario, Collins argues, explains variations in the rule books, and the number of scribal hands found in the Scrolls. He further states that the sect is still most plausibly identified as Essene (see also 160). Collins’s thesis nicely accounts for the variations among the manu- scripts of the rule books, and takes into account the testimony of Philo and Josephus that there were many communities of Essenes. He does not focus on the archaeological evidence, but seems to accept the consensus view that the Scrolls are connected to the ruins of Qumran and somehow belonged to its inhabitants. He goes on to argue that disputes about religious law were the primary fac- tor in the separation of the sect, basing his conclusion primarily on 4QMMT (10). He suggests that 4QMMT reflects the historical circumstances of the reign of Alexandra Salome (and the high priesthood of her son Hyrcanus II), when the queen swung the policies of the monarchy heavily in favor of the Pharisees, who appear to be the “they” of 4QMMT. 4QMMT is thus the appeal of a sectarian leader to the High Priest (“you”; Hycanus II) to adopt the legal rulings of his group (“we”) rather than those of the Pharisees (11). Collins, in this argument and others, rejects the old consensus view that the sect formed as a result of altercations over the high priesthood at the time of Jonathan and Simon; he tends to favor later dates for most of the compositions found at Qumran (with the exception of what later became the biblical books, which he does not date). I found the introductory essay to provide a very useful overview of the major issues in Scrolls scholarship, presented in a balanced and judicious way; it would be useful for any classroom introduction to the Scrolls, as well as form- ing a fitting introduction to the volume as a whole. Collins returns to themes laid out in the introduction in the subsequent chapters, often fleshing out his proposals in more detail. For example, in the essay “The Transformation of the Torah in Second Temple Judaism,” he begins Dead Sea Discoveries �3 (�0�6) �33–�64.

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