Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use: Qumran

Abstract

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT UseQumran Christopher T. Begg, Ian T. Kinman, Gregory Y. Glazov, William J. Urbrock, and Fred W. Guyette 698. [4QFlorilegium; yaḥad] Christopher S. Atkins, "The YAHAD as the Locus of Divine Presence: On 4QFlorilegium's Divinatory Hermeneutics," RevQ 31 (2019) 209-38. A.'s paper offers a fresh analysis of the hermeneutics of 4Q174 (Florilegium). There is no currently satisfactory consensus on the organizing principle that holds the document together as a coherent whole, or whether there is such an organizing principle. The oft-cited view that the theme of the document is eschatology or "the latter days" (ʾḥryt hymym) is not satisfactory, since it is too broad to have interpretive value. Accordingly, a reevaluation of 4QFlor is needed. Beginning with the initial unit 4QFlor 11-13, I make the case that the polemical interpretive enterprise featured in the document revolves around the authenticating presence of God in the yaḥad in the unfolding eschatological drama and that the creative contribution of 4QFlor is its defense of the yaḥad as the locus of divine presence. 4QFlor, in my view, stems from reflection on the yaḥad's typologically exilic experience and witnesses to the community's polemic against the Jerusalem temple cult. The interpretive approach taken in the document is functionally divinatory and formally deictic. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] 699. [DSS; Isaac] George J. Brooke, "Further Thoughts on Isaac in the Scrolls from the Qumran Caves," Reading the Bible in Ancient Traditions, 381-99 [see #793]. In this essay, B. continues work on the role of Isaac in Qumran literature done by Heinz-Josef Fabry, noting Isaac's limited role in that literature, compared with the other patriarchs Abraham and Jacob. B. outlines specific accounts, explicit mentions, and possible allusions to Isaac in the Qumran literature, noting that his character is mostly underdeveloped, though not entirely hidden by the texts. B. points out one interesting feature of the Isaac traditions in these texts, namely, his possible description as a founder of the Levitical priesthood in Jubilees and Pseudo-Jubilees literature, dating from the 2nd cent. b.c.e., though this understanding is absent in the more sectarian, and later, texts from Qumran.—I.T.K. 700. [Pesharim] George J. Brooke, "Textual Plurality in the Pesharim," RevQ 30 (2018) 143-57. Assuming the pesharim to be the sole unduplicated textual genre at Qumran, F. M. Cross inferred that they were handwritten by their authors. Noting that the nature of the pesharim, as the fruit of skill and imagination, problematizes this assumption, B. formulates [End Page 242] four reasons for questioning Cross's supposition about their status as autographs: (1) the lemmata and comments in the pesharim suggest ongoing awareness of textual pluralism in the base text; (2) some of the pesharim and other exegetical works display diachronic plurality; (3) synchronic plurality in the same base text could generate more than one commentary; and (4) the evidence of multiple commentaries on Isaiah, Hosea, and the Psalms. The wide range of forms of commentary and exegetical technique in the pesharim highlights the value given to ongoing exegesis of texts as opposed to the recapitulation of fixed exegetical tropes determined once and for all by some community leader.—G.Y.G. 701. [DSS; Torah] John J. Collins, "Torah as Narrative and Wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls," Reading the Bible in Ancient Traditions, 357-79 [see #793]. C. focuses on two groups of texts that rely on specific older scriptures, namely, the Torah, or their related traditions, and that are not reflective of halakic concerns. The first group are Aramaic texts from Qumran, such as the Book of the Watchers, the Genesis Apocryphon, and the Aramaic Levi Document. The second group is previously unknown DSS Hebrew wisdom texts, which offer new opportunities for noting developing relationships between wisdom and the Torah. C. points out that while halakic issues are the primary concern in the engagement with the Torah in texts from this era, the texts of his study demonstrate (p. 373) "the looser and more creative uses of scripture … [that] would continue to be a very large part...