T & T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls

Abstract

The editors, George J. Brooke (Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis Emeritus at the University of Manchester) and Charlotte Hempel (Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Birmingham) both bring valuable experience in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls to their collaboration. Brooke has been a common name in this area for about 30 years, and Hempel was the Executive Editor of Dead Sea Discoveries Series. In shaping this book, they have tapped into mostly a new generation of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars from a wide range of disciplines and have produced a very valuable resource.The book is divided into six different sections: part 1: “Background,” part 2: “Context,” part 3: “Methods,” part 4: “Key Texts,” part 5: “Types of Literature,” and part 6: “Issues and Topics.” Do not miss the appendixes, which are packed with important information: “Appendix A: Timeline of Events,” a detailed timeline helpful for orientating the events surrounding Qumran Scrolls; “Appendix B: Principle Printed Editions,” including the primary edition of the texts found in the Judaean Desert, titled the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD), which contains 40 volumes covering works published over a 54-year period (from 1955 to 2009); editions outside the DJD Series are also mentioned; “Appendix C: Electronic Resources,” containing undoubtedly some of the most remarkable tools for Dead Sea Scrolls studies; “Appendix D: Major Reference Works”; “Appendix E: Translations”; and “Appendix F: Introductory Works.” While each article in this work includes an up-to-date bibliography for its specific topic, the bibliographies in this appendix are extremely useful for finding more general works on the Dead Sea Scrolls.The first third of the book treats more general topics related to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some of the articles one would normally expect to be found in an overview of the Dead Sea Scrolls (articles relating to the discovery, archaeology, and acquisition/publication of the scrolls). Each provides an excellent overview and is well-researched. Some contain little-known information (see especially the article on the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Hand Debel). But some of the articles are not generally found in introductions to the Scrolls and help provide both the ancient and present-day context for them (i.e., “Ethnicity: A Fresh Religious Context for the Scrolls,” “The Regional Context of the Dead Sea,” “Qumran and the Ancient Near East,” and “Postmodern Questions and Sexuality Studies”).The next third of the book provides in-depth articles on key texts or types of texts from the Dead Sea Scroll library. Key texts include, for example, the Copper Scroll, Damascus Document, Milḥamah (War Rule), and the Temple Scroll. Different types of texts include parabiblical texts / Rewritten Scripture, Halakhah (Jewish law), calendars, and Wisdom.Each article offers valuable information, but several are particularly outstanding. As I have already mentioned, the article entitled “Discoveries” by Hans Debel is a particularly useful and insightful account of the discovery of the various Dead Sea Scrolls materials. For example, he relates how, after the initial discovery of the scrolls, three additional scrolls were later offered to an Armenian antiquities dealer who showed them to Eleazar Sukenik in late November 1947 (p. 8); and how John C. Trevor was allowed to photograph the Isaiah Scroll (p. 9); and that it was Sukenik who, after reading an article in the New York Times and the London Times (April 11, 1948) about some scrolls that purportedly had lain hidden for many centuries in St. Mark’s Monastery, questioned the account, because he knew about the scrolls that had just been found in the Judaean Wilderness. Thus, he wrote an article announcing the discovery of the cache of manuscripts found near the Dead Sea and suggested that the scrolls mentioned in the New York Times and the London Times may have had the same provenance (p. 9).Another particularly useful article, “Scientific Technologies” by Ingo Kottsieper, discusses methods of dating and accessing the scrolls, including chemical analysis, radiocarbon dating, and digital imaging (pp. 179–83). Kottsiper also discusses some reasons for the significant discrepancies sometimes seen between the archaeological dating and the radiocarbon dating of sites.There was one statement that I would take issue with. In the article “Scrolls and Early Christianity,” Albert L. A. Hogeterp states: “The Scriptures as transmitted among the Dead Sea Scrolls reflect a measure of pluriformity, which indicates the absence of a fully closed canon at the time of Jesus” (p. 133). While there is undoubtedly a measure of pluriformity, this does not necessarily demand the absence of a fully closed OT canon in Jesus’s time; other logical explanations can be offered. For example, the Samaritan Pentateuch had theological reasons for modifying the OT text, and there are times that the editors of the Septuagint significantly expanded the OT text. Neither of these suggest that there was not a fully formed canon of the OT at this time, but that these groups that maintained these forms of the OT text had some reason for modifying it.This volume is one of a new series whose purpose is to provide well-researched overviews on a variety of areas important to postgraduate study. Other volumes already published include volumes on liturgy, Reformation theology, sin, Methodism, and the Bible and film. It is encouraging to see a new generation of scholars in Qumran studies who continue to delve into one of the most important finds for biblical studies in the 20th century. Hopefully, their research will prove helpful in better understanding the back-ground and importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Despite its cost, I would definitely recommend this resource for one’s library.