Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later; Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24–26 October 2017 ed. by Henryk Drawnel

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later; Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24–26 October 2017 ed. by Henryk Drawnel Michael DeVries henryk drawnel (ed.), Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later; Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24–26 October 2017 (STDJ 133; Leiden: Brill, 2020). Pp. xiii + 478. €132/$159. This volume consists of a collection of conference papers delivered at the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin, Poland, in honor of the seventieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Broad in scope, these contributions explore an array of themes within Qumran scholarship and are divided into five main thematic groupings: the text critical intersection between the Hebrew Bible and Qumran manuscripts (part 1), Qumran literature against the historical backdrop of the Second Temple period (part 2), issues of philology and paleography (part 3), wisdom and religious poetry (part 4), and studies addressing a singular issue within particular texts (part 5). Part 1 begins with two contributions from Adrian Schenker. The first, "Are There Mastercopies for Genealogically Related Biblical Texts in Qumran? The Question of Archetypes and Lineages of Biblical Text Witnesses," argues for the presence of unifying efforts within circles charged with the transmission of those texts that would later constitute the Hebrew Bible in the direction of a textual forerunner of the MT. The second, "Room for Further Investigation Opened by BHQ: Three Examples (Genesis 33:18, 20 and 35:7)," suggests understanding the differing OG readings as representing an earlier reading of the text in relation to the MT, which shows evidence of theologically driven corrections. Finally, Emanuel Tov, in "The Background and Origin of the Qumran Corpus of Scripture Texts," proposes that only one-third of the "biblical" texts at Qumran were copied locally while the remainder originated from outside Khirbet Qumran, further suggesting that texts with an affinity to either the MT, LXX, or SP derive from outside Khirbet Qumran. Opening part 2, Bartosz Adamczewski ("Are the Dead Sea Scrolls Pharisaic?") examines evidence for a possible connection between the Qumran and Pharisaic movements, if not a potential Pharisaic origin of at least some of the manuscripts at Qumran. Kenneth Atkinson ("The Changing Views of the Hasmoneans in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Examining Seventy Years of Research") surveys the scholarly debate regarding the relationship between the scrolls and the Hasmoneans, particularly with reference to paleography, archaeology, and history. In "The Wicked Priest, the Righteous Teacher, and the Yahad," Vasile Babota revisits the relationship of the "Teacher of Righteousness," the "Wicked Priest," and the emergence of the yahad. Claude Cohen-Matlofsky ("Women at Qumran? Reconsidering the Textual and Archaeological Data") reassesses the available evidence regarding the [End Page 155] presence of women at Qumran, concluding that the paucity of gendered material at Qumran, in line with other sites in the region, should not discount the potential presence of women at the Qumran site. Lastly, John J. Collins, ("The Historical Context of the Teacher and His Movement") suggests a date post-Alexander Jannaeus for the conflict between the Teacher and the Wicked Priest and thus a late second century b.c.e. date for the origin of the Qumran movement, which, according to Collins, lies within the growing sectarian disputes regarding Torah interpretation in the Hasmonean period, starting with the reign of John Hyrcanus. In part 3, Jeff S. Anderson ("Assembled Israel: Performativity in Rewritten Bible at Qumran") proposes that the performativity of the rewritten speeches of Moses constructs a shared communal identity as the fulfillment of the Mosaic covenant in the present age. Donald W. Parry ("Late Hebrew Forms in 1QIsaa") identifies thirty categories of linguistic elements in which Late Biblical Hebrew, Qumran Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew is reflected in 1QIsaa, which, according to Parry, reveal the milieu and linguistic environment of the scribe at or near the time of the copying of the text (ca. 125-100 b.c.e.). Surveying past studies and suggesting areas of future engagement, Femke Siebesma-Mannens ("Qumran Hebrew from the Perspective of Verbal Valence Patterns...