Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Schweich Lectures

202 Pages·2013·22.76 MB·English

A R C H A E O L O GY
A ND T HE
D E AD SEA S C R O L LS

ARCHAEOLOGY
AND THE
DEAD SEA SCROLLS
BY
R. DE VAUX
O.P.
THE SCHWEICH LECTURES
OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY
1959
LONDON
PUBLISHED FOR THE BRITISH ACADEMY
BY THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1973
Oxford University Press, Ely House, London W. i
GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON
CAPE TOWN IBADAN NAIROBI DAR ES SALAAM LUSAKA ADDIS ABABA
DELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI LAHORE DACCA
KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE HONG KONG TOKYO
ISBN O 19 72593I 6
© The British Academy, 1Q73
Published in French in ig6i; reissued with
revisions in an English translation in ig?2
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Press, Oxford
by Vivian Ridler
Printer to the University
FOREWORD
F
R. ROLAND DE VAUX, whose Schweich Lectures
delivered in December 1959 before the British Academy
are here published, albeit somewhat altered and expanded,
requires no introduction. His distinguished record of work in
Palestinian archaeology, whether in the field or in the study, is
well known to a wide circle of readers in England and else
where, and any attempt to appraise his achievement can be but
an impertinence. All that needs to be said, then, is that Fr. de
Vaux as Director of the ficole Biblique et Archeologique in
Jerusalem has been closely connected with the Judaean Scrolls
found in the caves round Qumran from the first discovery in
1947 and that he has presented reports, which are models of
accurate scholarship, of the progress of the work carried out by
himself and his team of colleagues at regular intervals. Here he
sums up what has been done up to date.
The importance of the task can hardly be overrated; for,
however much scholars may differ on minute points of inter
pretation, the significance of this or that detail or the exact
date to which the documents or each document ought to be
attributed, all (or almost all) are agreed that the group of
Scrolls as a whole must be assigned to the most momentous
period of human history, approximately that between the
second century B.C. and the first or perhaps the second century
A.D., between the Maccabaean age and the formative years of
the early Christian Church. What enhances their importance,
great as it is for the Jewish history of the period, is that, although
contemporary Greek and Latin documents abound, no written
Jewish works (other than a few inscriptions on tombs, an odd
papyrus, and so on) survive in their original Hebrew form
between the Book of Daniel and the Mishnah; all that is extant
of Jewish literature is in translation.
The quality of Fr. de Vaux's work is apparent on every page.
The lectures stand out as containing a fair and accurate
statement of the facts as well as a sober appreciation of the
interpretation that may be put on them; and, if nothing
vi FOREWORD
sensationally new appears in them, the absence of such matter
may be taken as a guarantee of objective truth, so that they
may be recommended to all who are interested in the subject as
a safe guide through, and a great enrichment of, knowledge in
a new field of historical research.
G. R. DRIVER
Magdalen College
Oxford, ig6i
FOREWORD TO THE REVISED ENGLISH
EDITION
I
T is sad that Roland de Vaux did not live to see the trans
lation of his Schweich Lectures appear. Qumran and the
Dead Sea Scrolls occupied his attention for many years. I
hesitate to say that the subject was his favourite one, for he
entered into so many scholarly studies with tremendous en
thusiasm; nevertheless, it was very near his heart.
All who heard him give the Schweich Lectures in 1959 will
have no doubt of this enthusiasm. He lectured in English with
enormous verve and fluency, with occasional engaging mis
pronunciations at which he would laugh as well as anyone. They
were the only Schweich Lectures that I can remember which
were crowded at the first lecture and more crowded by the end.
This publication of his lectures is a monument to his skill as
an excavator, as a historian, and as an authority on the Scrolls
themselves. It is a completely authoritative statement of the
archaeological evidence, and this to an archaeologist seems
conclusive for the dating of the Scrolls.
His death has deprived Palestinian archaeology and Biblical
studies of a man of ripe wisdom and very great charm.
KATHLEEN M. KENYON
Oxford, igj2
PREFACE
AT the beginning of the summer of 19471 the first 'Dead Sea
A-\ Scrolls' were accidentally discovered by some Bedouin
1- A. shepherds in a cave situated near the north-western
shores of the Dead Sea. This cave was identified by an officer
of the Arab Legion and subsequently excavated by an expedition
jointly undertaken by the Department of Antiquities of Jordan,
the Palestine Archaeological Museum, and the ficole Archeo-
logique Franchise de Jerusalem at the beginning of 1949.* At the
time, although a surface survey in the site of the Khirbet Qumran
ruins had been undertaken, it had not seemed to have any evi
dent connection with the discoveries in the cave. However, at the
end of 1951 representatives of the same institutions returned
there and the soundings which they made brought to light
pottery which was identical with that which had been discovered
in the first cave, and also coins which established its approximate
date.3 Thereupon it was decided to undertake a complete
excavation of the ruins, and this was continued in four further
1 According to a statement attributed to one of the Bedouin, Muhammed
edh-Dhib, the actual date of the discovery was 1945, W. H. Brownlee, Journal
of Near Eastern Studies, xvi, 1957, pp. 236-9. This assertion was made in reply
to questions put in 1956, and it cannot be allowed to invalidate the informa
tion supplied far earlier and spontaneously by the Bedouin and his com
panions, cf. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, 1, Qymran Cave I, 1955, p. 5;
Revue biblique, LXVI, 1959, p. 88, n. 3. These doubts have been shared by
J. G. Trever, 'When was Qumran Cave I Discovered?', Revue de Qumran, in. 1,
February 1961, pp. 135-41. In his reply W. H. Brownlee makes certain con
cessions: 'Edh-Dheeb's Story of his Scroll Discovery', ibid., m. 4, October
1962, pp. 483-94; 'Some New Facts Concerning the Discoveries of I Q', ibid.,
iv. 3, October 1963, pp. 417-20. After a long inquiry J. C. Trever proposes
as the date of the first discovery Nov.-Dec. 1946 or possibly Jan.-Feb. 1947,
The Untold Story of Qumran, 1965, pp. 103 f., 169 f., 174. The Syrian Arch
bishop, Athanasius Yeshue Samuel has given his version of the story, Treasure
of Qumran. My Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1966, pp. 141 ff.; it was during
Holy Week of 1947, cf. p. 137, that he heard the manuscript spoken of for
the first time. I would now be inclined to correct the phrase 'at the beginning
of the summer of 1947' to cat the beginning of the year 1947'.
2 Revue biblique, LVI, 1949, pp. 234-7; 586-609; D. Barthelemy and J. T.
Milik, Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, 1, Qumran Cave I, 1955.
3 Revue biblique, LX, 1953, pp. 83-106.
viii PREFACE
campaigns from 1953 to 1956.1 In the last of these campaigns
the search was extended to cAin Feshkha, three kilometres to the
south, where a building was located which had been completely
buried. This, together with its annexes, was laid bare in 1958.2
In the meantime the discovery of a second cave with manuscripts
by the Bedouin in 1952 had led to a systematic exploration of
the rocky cliffs above Qumran by the Palestine Archaeological
Museum, the American School of Oriental Research at Jerusa
lem, and the ficole Archeologique Frangaise.3 Shortly after
wards, but still in 1952, the Bedouin opened up a new cave, this
time in the marl terrace, and this prompted the archaeologists
to return to Qumran. They emptied this cave of its contents and
found another cave nearby, likewise containing fragments of
manuscript.4 Finally, at the beginning of 1956, the Bedouin
penetrated into a cave in the cliffs, the entrance of which had
become blocked, and took several important manuscripts from it.
This cave was cleared of its contents by the archaeologists in the
course of the final season of excavations at Khirbet Qumran.5
All these discoveries have aroused enormous interest, and it is
justifiable that interest in them should be concentrated above all
on the texts which have in this way been made available to us.
But the archaeologist can make a contribution to the under
standing of the texts by indicating the nature of the setting in
which they were discovered and so perhaps making it possible to
reconstruct the character of the human group from which they
emerged. It is for this reason that when the British Academy did
me the honour of inviting me to give the Schweich Lectures in
December 1959 I chose as my title 'Archaeology and the Dead
Sea Scrolls5. In the three lectures I gave I dealt only with the
archaeological aspects of the discoveries. I sought to avoid draw
ing any premature conclusions, and so to set forth as objectively
as possible first the results of the excavations at Khirbet Qumran
(the first lecture) and then those of the researches undertaken in
the Qumran region as far as f Ain Feshkha (the second lecture).
1 Revue biblique, LXI, 1954? pp. 206-36; LXIII, 1956, pp. 533-77.
2 Ibid., LXVI, 1959, pp. 225-55.
3 Ibid., LX, 1953, pp. 540-61; M. Baillet, J. T. Milik, R. de Vaux, O.P.,
Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, m, Les 'Petites Grottes* de Qumran, pp. 3-17.
4 Cf. Revue biblique, LX, 1953, p. 86; Discoveries . . ., m, p. 26.
5 Cf. Revue biblique, LXIII, 1956, pp. 573-4.
PREFACE ix
It was only after this (in the third lecture) that a connection was
established between the manuscripts discovered in the caves and
the ruins which were excavated in the area. An attempt was also
made to arrive at an historical explanation of the archaeological
findings and to establish the extent to which they can throw light
upon the interpretation of the texts. In these lectures only the
discoveries made in the Qumran region were taken into con
sideration. Those made in the caves of Murabba'at and in other
caves situated further to the south in the desert of Judaea, as also
the discoveries at Khirbet Mird to the west of Qumran, have
deliberately been omitted both from the lectures and the present
volume. Their significance is different from that of the discoveries
at Qumran. Those of Murabba'at and the southern area are
essentially connected with the Second Jewish Revolt, while those
at Khirbet Mird relate to the Christian and Arab epochs. Every
thing is to be gained by according a separate treatment to these
other 'Dead Sea Scrolls' and so avoiding the confusions which
are sometimes introduced.
In this volume the text of the original lectures has been repro
duced with only slight development of their original form.
Advantage has however been taken of certain observations which
have been made to me, as well as of some more recent studies,
notably some new identifications of the coins of Qumran and
Feshkha made by Fr. A. Spijkerman, O.F.M., who is preparing
the definitive catalogue of them. Some notes have been added in
order to provide the relevant references to the archaeological
material and the literary sources which have been used. It was
the wish of the British Academy that fairly plentiful illustrations
should be provided to take the place of the lantern-slides that
were used at the actual lectures. The book makes no pretence to
be anything more than a synthesis, or to provide more than a
general orientation arising from the preliminary reports which
have appeared in the Revue biblique between 1949 and 1959.
Meanwhile we await the definitive report on the excavations at
Qumran and Feshkha, which it is planned to publish in the
series entitled Discoveries in the Judaean Desert.
R. V.
Jerusalem, Easter, ig6o