Book Reviews A New Era in the Study of the New Testament. A REVIEW ESSAY Ruairidh (Rory) Boid Recent shifts in the understanding of thing is missing: the knowledge of what the religion of Israel in the first century was on the way to becoming Christian BC and the first century AD signal the thought just before the work of John start of a new era in the understanding of the Baptist (as opposed to varieties of re­ the history of the earliest Christianity and, ligious thought that show some affinity as a consequence, in the understanding of with some aspect of Christian expres­ the New Testament. If you look at the sion). A whole discipline is missing, and first chapter of most introductions to the as a result, the treaunent of the New Tes­ New Testament, or most Church histo­ tament is unbalanced, so much that the im­ ries, you will find something about 'the balance is not noticed. Jewish background'. It is apparent, on a The kind of knowledge that is needed careful reading, that what is said there is indicated indirectly in two new publica­ does not lead on to the ~story of the tions, which will serve as pointers to a Church, or to the content of the New Tes­ change in thinking that has started to be­ tament, in any way except in matters of come apparent over tha last twenty years detail or manner of expression. As a re­ ofso. Both books are of first-rate impor­ sult, the undoubted originality of the con­ tance in their own right. tent of the New Testament seems to The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered. The become exaggerated to the point where First Complete Translation and the thoughtful reader starts to wonder Interpretation of 50 Key Documents how it was that large numbers of ordinary Withheld for Over 35 Years. people flocked to John the Baptist or Je­ Robert H. Eisenman and Michael Wise. sus, or how churches sprang up from Ara­ Element, Shaftsebury (UK), Rockport bia to Spain within living memory of the (USA), Brisbane, 1992. ix + 286 pp + 16 mission of Jesus. The Prophets took much plates. ISBN 1-85230-368-9. $39.95. longer to communicate ideas of suppos­ Although the sub-title does not make it edly much less originality, within a much clear, this book makes available a full more restricted stretch of territory. Some- transcription of all the Hebrew and Ara- Australian Religion Studies Review 77 maic texts treated, with photographic re­ (though I have to admit that theological productions of many of them and with ref­ and doctrinal considerations might be af­ erences to photographic reproductions of fecting my perception of the data); but all the texts. The translation and commen­ there is no denying that the comparisons tary can thus be checked against the origi­ they draw between the newly-published nal documents. The work is impressively texts and the New Testament are pro­ accurate (though the number of misprints fouridly significant, go well beyond what in the bibliography and commentary is would once have been conceivable, and too high, and the phonetic transcription of are too numerous and direct to be ex­ the Hebrew is a bit strange). plained away. We can now see much Technically, then, the book is highly more clearly what Catholic Christianity reliable. What about the rather sensational defuied itself against, what divided James sub-title? Well, in this case the facts jus­ from Paul, and so on(: 170-171). Martin tify quite a bit of dramatisation. It is true Luther's reservations about the Epistle of that the texts were withheld for over James tum out to have some historical thirty-five years, and they are certainly support (chapter 6). Furthermore, there key. documents. There is no need to go are glimpses of the lines of thought that into the well known history of the sordid came before both types of Christianity. monopolisation of these texts, the full I would like to make some observa­ story can be read in Eisenman and Wise's tions of my own here. Leaving aside the introductions. One point only needs to be question of the relationship of the history brought out here: the claims that the un­ of the Qumran community to the history published and inaccessible texts had noth­ of the formation of Christianity, one fact ing of interest to add to what was already remains: Christianity shows up as a natu­ known can now be seen, even to a non­ raldevelopment of its time. This means specialist, to be false. It can be seen as that what the Church had put forward as well that the descriptions of the content of doctrine, that Israel is the Church, can be the texts, to the extent that they were seen to be a proposition defensible in his­ given, were in part false to the point of torical tenns. By contrast, Pharisaism did dishonesty. not have hegemony, and has less claim to The texts published here are all from be representative than the complex move­ Cave 4. They tend to deal with theology ments that led to Christianity. more than community organisation. Mat­ The religion called Judaism in modem ters treated include revelation, inspiration, times is the descendant of Pharisaism as pre-destination, the rule of God on earth, re-organised in the second century AD. the nature of evil, the fate of the soul, and Now, it deserves to be mentioned that the soon. custodian of these texts during the years The importance of these texts for the when they were withheld from scholars present purpose is that although the Qum­ was the Department of Antiquities of the ran community was neither Christian nor State of Israel; that the conclusions that semi-Christian, it influenced Christianity could be drawn from the content of these profoundly, both directly and also by pro­ texts are in opposition to the viewpoint of voking a reaction. There is room to dis­ fundamentalist Protestant eschatological agree with Eisenman and Wise over the thinking, specially in North America, nature of the relationship to Christianity which sees the State of Israel as a fulfil- 78 Volume Six, Number 1 ment of prophecy; and that such conclu­ Ferdinand Dexinger and Reinhard Pum­ sions are in opposition, in a different way, mer (eds). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesell­ to the modernistic Vatican pronounce­ schaft, Darmstadt, 1992. VITI+ 477 pp. ments on the relationship of Jews to Chris­ ISBN 3-534-08557-4. ISSN 0509-9609. tians and Judaism to Christianity. I do not This book is intended by the editors to say that the custodians necessarily per­ be a source for all aspects of the study of ceived these connections but the texts are the Samaritans, but there is a weighting to­ there to br interpreted, and the connec­ wards the late Old Testament period, and tions are logically demonstrable. The more particularly towards the inter-Tes­ texts do not 'threaten Christianity', as has tamental and New Testament periods. For been claimed, but they have potential po­ our present purpose, the book can be litical significance. looked at from the last-mentioned aspect. The insight derived from the new ma­ First, a word on the organisation of the terial must have a pervasive effect on the book. Knowledge of the Samaritans has way that other texts from the same period been achieved very slowly, literally over are evaluated. Some of the documents of centuries. There are three main reasons diverse character conveniently labelled as for this: the difficulties in recovering and the Pseudepigrapha, such as the Jewish interpreting the primary sources in Ara­ sections (not the Christian sections) of the maic and Arabic; the fragmentariness of Sibylline Oracles, or the Testament of the sources from the ancient period; and Levi (see XVIII: 10-12) or I Enoch (see the consequent need to work backwards Book II), or II Enoch, or IV Ezra(see VI: in time from the relatively well known to 1 according to the Ethiopic version), con­ the obscure. The most important studies tain passages that seem to be 'too Chris­ on the Samaritans are not very general in tian' for Jewish texts of any period, but scope, and some of them are fairly old by which are not Christian enough to be ex­ comparison with the standard sources in plained away as Christian interpolation. A other disciplines. What Pummer and Dex­ few very recent studies, based in part on inger have done is to compose two long the Cave 4 texts, have shown that such introductory chapters to summarise the passages in the Pseudepigrapha will have present state of knowledge and orientate to be treated as authentic. On the other the reader, and then to add nineteen arti­ hand, given the diversity of thought in the cles, by various authors, setting out vari­ Qumran texts, The Pseudepigrapha, ous aspects of the subject. These nineteen Philo, and so on, it will no longer be pos­ articles are not all of equal quality, some sible to rely on Rabbinic texts for an ade­ of them were written before the publica­ quate picture of the religion of Israel in tion of some quite important texts, and the first century. The Rabbinic texts will only one short item was specially written have a place, but no more than that. for the volume. Nevertheless, the editors *** have used the only feasible method of set­ The second book to be noticed is of ting out the present state of knowledge. quite different format and purpose, but The quality of their judgment in the has the same implications for the history choice of the articles is really remarkable.