INTERPRETATIVE AUTHORITY IN THE COMMUNITY RULE TRADITION

Abstract

* A version of this paper was presented at the Annual Mid-Atlantic SBL Meeting in Baltimore on 14 March 2002. I am grateful to Profs John Yieh and Jin Hee Han for their constructive comments in response to my paper and to S. Metso for an update of her own bibliography on the Serekh. I It is not possible to list a comprehensive bibliography here, but the subject has been dealt with by, among others, M.J. Bernstein, of Scriptures, Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (eds L.H. Schiffman and J.C. VanderKam; New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) 1.376-83; idem, Pentateuchal Interpretation at Qumran, The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment (eds P.W. Flint and J.C. VanderKam; Leiden: Brill, 1998) 1.128-59; 0. Betz, Offenbarung und Schriftforschung in der Qumransekte (WUNT 6; TUbingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1960); G.J. Brooke, Interpretation in the Scrolls and the New Testament, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty Years After Their Discovery. Proceedings of the Jerusalem Congress, July 20-25, 1997 (eds L.H. Schiffman, E. Tov, and J.C. VanderKam; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society in cooperation with the Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, 2000) 60-73; D. Dimant, Qumran Sectarian Literature, Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period: Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Sectarian Writings, Philo, Josephus (ed. M.E. Stone; CRINT 11.2; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984) 483-550, esp. 503-14; M. Fishbane, Use, Authority and Interpretation of Mikra at Qumran, Mikra: Text, Translation, Reading and Interpretation of the Hebrew in Ancient Judaism and Christianity (ed. M.J. Mulder; CRINT 11.1; Assen: Van Gorcum, 1988) 339-77; J. Maier, Early Jewish Biblical Interpretation in the Literature, Hebrew BiblelOld Testament: The History of Its Interpretation, vol. 1: From the Beginnings to the Middle Ages (Until 1300) (ed. M. Seb0; Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996) 108-29; M.E. Stone and E.G. Chazon (eds), Biblical Perspectives: Use and Interpretation of the in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Proceedings of the First International Symposium of the Orion Center, 12-14 March 1996 (STDJ 28; Leiden: Brill, 1998); G. Vermes, Bible Interpretation at Qumran, Yigael Yadin Memorial Volume (eds A. Ben-Tor, J.C. Greenfield, and A. Malamat; Erlsr 20; Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1989) 184'-91*.