Reading for Resonance

Annie Calderbank

doi:10.1163/15685179-bja10024

Abstract

Abstract This article offers a hermeneutic approach attentive to the tangled idiomatic and literary interconnections among biblical texts and other Second Temple literature. It focuses on the expressions of divine presence in the Temple Scroll and their prepositions; the divine presence is ‘upon’ the temple and ‘in the midst’ of the people. This prepositional rhetoric engages recurrences and interconnections within and beyond the Hebrew Bible. It thus evokes multiple interlocking resonances and offers a window onto concepts of temple presence across biblical texts and traditions.

Highlights

This article examines the expressions of divine presence in the Temple Scroll as a window onto hermeneutics
I suggest that the expressions of divine presence in the Temple Scroll reflect the scroll’s participation in ongoing idiomatic and literary discourses that are partially represented in extant texts from both within and beyond the Hebrew Bible
This article has explored the richness of the Temple Scroll in terms of the interlocking resonances of its expressions of divine presence, and in particular their use of prepositions

Summary

Introduction

This article examines the expressions of divine presence in the Temple Scroll as a window onto hermeneutics. I suggest that the expressions of divine presence in the Temple Scroll reflect the scroll’s participation in ongoing idiomatic and literary discourses that are partially represented in extant texts from both within and beyond the Hebrew Bible. In terms of line 6, the restoration of ‫ כבודו‬reflects a sense of resonance with Isa 60:2 where the glory appears over Zion.[44] Below I discuss further possible instances in the Dead Sea Scrolls that describe manifestation of the divine glory, often including the preposition ‫על‬. If the restorations in terms of divine presence are correct, this provides a close analogy to the resonance of the preposition ‫ על‬across the name and glory formulas of the Temple Scroll.

In the Midst of the People

Idealisation and Eschatology

Conclusion