Holy Scripture in the Qumran Commentaries and Pauline Letters

Abstract

Holy Scripture in the Qumran Commentaries and Letters, by Timothy H. lam. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997. Pp. xiv + 221. $75.00. In this revision of his 1991 Oxford dissertation, Timothy H. Lim attempts locate the position of the Qumran pesharim and letters within the continuum of biblical composition, rewritten bible, and bible interpretation that characterizes exegesis by asking to what extent Paul and the pesherists modified the wording of their scriptural quotations (p. 9). In two brief chapters of Prolegomena, Lim outlines the aims of his study and sketches the significance for his investigation of a postQumran perspective on the history of the biblical text. He places particular emphasis on the extent to which the plurality of text-types and the multitude of textual variants in existence at the turn of the era complicate any effort to establish that an exegete has modified the wording of his Vorlage rather than simply followed a textual variant already in existence. Lim seeks both to develop a method that will identify clear cases of authorial adaptation of the biblical text and to identify the underlying hermeneutical principles that motivate such alterations. Two more introductory chapters follow in which Lim explores Aspects of Ancient Bible Interpretation. Although he notes a tension in postbiblical interpreters between the desire to preserve tradition and the impulse to adapt it to the contemporary situation, Lim finds evidence of a widespread concern to safeguard the precise wording of the biblical text (chapter 3). In chapter 4, he argues that both the pesharim and Paul's letters evince a concern to preserve the exact words of scripture. In each case, he provides one example to support his contention: 1QpHab xi 8-14 and Gal 3:16 (a passage that, unfortunately, is hardly characteristic of Paul's practice of scriptural interpretation). Having laid the groundwork for his study, Lim turns in part 3 (chapters 5-7) to an examination of Exegesis and Hermeneutics and in part 4 (chapters 8-10) to a study of Pauline Interpretation of the Bible. - A final chapter draws the work to a close with a three-page comparison of Paul and the Qumran commentators. Part 3 is by far the strongest section of the book. Lim's mastery of the material is evident. His complete collation of the lemmata of the sixteen continuous pesharim with the MT (chapter 5) will be of lasting value to scholars. His discussion of the problems inherent in determining the Vorlage of the pesharim is thoughtful and judicious. Although he finds that, on average, the pesharim exhibit an 11-percent variance from the MT, Lim argues that classifying their Vorlagen as proto-Masoretic texts still does not allow one to identify exegetical modifications of the biblical text with any certainty, given the degree of textual fluidity even within the proto-Masoretic text-type. Consequently, he proposes in chapter 6 a method of identifying adaptations to the biblical text that relies entirely on evidence to the pesharim (i.e., variant readings in lemma and commentary; the internal coherence-usually grammatical-of an alleged variant with the pesher). Given this conservative methodology, Lim is able to find in the pesharim only seven instances of possible alterations to the biblical text, two of which he admits are debatable at best. When in chapter 7 Lim steps back to consider the implications of his findings for understanding the Nature of Pesherite Interpretation, his analysis is far less convincing. He takes his seven examples as evidence of a clear willingness on the part of the pesherists to cross the threshold from commentary to composition [of scripture] by modifying the wording of the biblical text (p. 110). Yet of these seven, only two (#1, #3) would appear to be compelling instances (according to Lim's criteria) of significant alterations to the wording of scripture. …