The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Study of the Humanities: Method, Theory, Meaning. Proceedings of the Eighth Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies (Munich, 4–7 August, 2013)

233 Pages·2018·1.059 MB·English

by  Pieter B. Hartog

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Study of the Humanities
Studies on the Texts of the
Desert of Judah
Edited by
George J. Brooke
Associate Editors
Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar
Jonathan Ben-Dov
Alison Schofield
VOLUME 125
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/stdj
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the
Study of the Humanities
Method, Theory, Meaning: Proceedings of the Eighth
Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran
Studies (Munich, 4–7 August, 2013)
Edited by
Pieter B. Hartog
Alison Schofield
Samuel I. Thomas
LEIDEN | BOSTON
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2018024147
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Contents
Introduction vii
Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar and Pieter B. Hartog
Sources, Fragments, and Additions: Biblical Criticism and the Dead Sea
Scrolls 1
Reinhard G. Kratz
Post-Colonialism, Hybridity, and the Dead Sea Scrolls 28
Samuel L. Adams
The Social Milieu of 4QJera (4Q70) in a Second Temple Jewish Manuscript
Culture: Fragments, Manuscripts, Variance, and Meaning 53
Kipp Davis
Male and Female, Heaven and Earth: Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Structuralist
Approach to Myth and the Enochic Myth of the Watchers 77
Matthew Goff
Pesher as Commentary 92
Pieter B. Hartog
4QCantb—Ein dramatischer Text 117
Matthias Hopf
Scribal Approaches to Damaged Manuscripts: Not Just a Modern
Dilemma 141
Drew Longacre
Das Jubiläenbuch als Erzählung, Mose als Schreiber: Diachrone
Beobachtungen zu einem synchronen Ansatz 165
Simone Paganini
Reading Sectarian Spaces: Critical Spatial Theory and the Case of the
Yahad 176
Alison Schofield
vi CONTENTS
Sociolinguistics and the Misleading Use of the Concept of Anti-Language
for Qumran Hebrew 195
Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar
Index of Modern Authors 207
Index of Ancient Sources 211
Introduction
Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar and Pieter B. Hartog
The eighth meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies
(IOQS) was held jointly with the meeting of the International Organization
for the Study of the Old Testament (IOSOT) in Munich from 4–7 August, 2013.
For this meeting, the secretary and steering committee of the IOQS invited
papers on any topic relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls that explicitly addressed,
or reflected upon, issues of methodology and theory, whether classical, mod-
ern, or post-modern. In the area of classical methods, this could involve how
methods that are used in biblical scholarship, such as textual criticism and its
objectives or redaction and recension criticism, have to be rethought in light of
the scrolls—or, reversely, how more recent developments of those methods in
biblical and literary scholarship could (or should) affect the study of the Dead
Sea Scrolls.
As regards new methods, the call for papers suggested that papers could
reflect on the application of literary and linguistic methods—e.g., mod-
ern genre theory, semantics, or metaphor study—to the scrolls. One could
also think of theories and approaches drawn from the social sciences. Other
approaches that gradually are being applied in the study of the scrolls include
cognitive science, performance theory and ritual studies. Post-modern
approaches, lastly, could include insights from gender studies, including mas-
culinist studies, or post-colonialism.
Behind this theme lay the question how the study of the humanities can
contribute to the study of the scrolls, and how scrolls studies participate in the
modern study of the humanities. The organizers strongly expressed the wish
that papers include more than a discussion of method or theory and move
beyond theory to offer readings of particular texts.
Papers at the Meeting
Some of the papers at the meeting dealt with issues of literary methods as applied
in biblical scholarship and Qumran studies, and how these two could have an
impact on one another. Reinhard G. Kratz delivered the keynote lecture for
this meeting. His paper “Sources, Fragments, and Additions: Biblical Criticism
and the Dead Sea Scrolls” is included in this volume. Hindy Najman covered
the names and designations of scrolls, observing that these often use terms
that express relationships to the corpus of the Hebrew Bible. In an attempt to
viii Tigchelaar and Hartog
sidestep some of the problems with the concept “Rewritten Scripture”—most
notably the fact that the concept mixes up reception and composition—Hans
Debel explored the possibilities of Gérard Genette’s notions of hypotext and
hypertext. Hanne von Weissenberg reflected on the terminology of “authorita-
tive” texts, and Armin Lange discussed his and Russell Fuller’s joint work on the
textual criticism of allusions and quotations in the scrolls. Corrado Martone
revisited and assessed Dominique Barthélemy’s theory that the Naḥal Ḥever
Minor Prophets scroll is the missing link between pre-masoretic fluidity and
masoretic uniformity. Kipp Davis and Torleif Elgvin presented Schøyen frag-
ments and correlated this to issues of multiple literary editions and the process
of canonizing the Megillot. Davis’s paper on 4Q70 (4QJera) is included in this
volume. Andrea Ravasco surveyed methods in the reconstruction of 4QSama.
Matthias Hopf proposed a reading of 4QCanticlesb as a dramatic text on the
basis of the signs in the manuscript (see the paper included in this volume).
Larry Schiffman, finally, reflected broadly on the fundamental methodological
issues involved when one comes to study a non-biblical Dead Sea Scrolls text.
Many scholars dealt with new methods, both literary and linguistic ones, or
the use of theories or categorizations in scrolls scholarship. Martin Abegg pre-
sented a generative syntactic analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Eibert Tigchelaar
surveyed the application of the concept anti-language to Qumran Hebrew.
Drew Longacre dealt with the treatment of defective exemplars in past and
present. Elisa Uusimäki demonstrated the value of material construction as
applied to 4QBeatitudes. Bennie H. Reynolds raised the problem of the cat-
egory “demons.” Matthew Goff examined to what extent anthropological and
religious studies approaches to “myth” could contribute to interpreting the
“myth of the watchers” in the scrolls and 1 Enoch. Bärry Hartog explored how
a discourse-focused approach to commentaries could further our understand-
ing of the pesharim. Revised versions of Tigchelaar’s, Longacre’s, Goff’s, and
Hartog’s papers are included here.
Modern approaches, including social-scientific ones, were applied by Jutta
Jokiranta and Samuel Thomas. Jokiranta focused on ritual theories drawn from
the cognitive science of religion, Thomas on metaphor and ritual in Qumran
liturgical texts. Samuel Adams demonstrated the relevance of post-colonial
theory for understanding the scrolls, and Ana Barbulescu applied Peter L.
Berger’s sociology of knowledge to the Damascus Document. Alison Schofield
applied critical spatial theory to the Yahad. Adams’s and Schofield’s papers fea-
ture in this volume.
Several lectures did not address method or theory directly, but offered
other studies on the scrolls. Ananda Geyser-Fouche spoke on Chronicles and
Qumran. Simone Paganini dealt with the book of Jubilees as narrative (see his
paper in this volume). Paul Heger addressed the question whether women were
INTRODUCTION ix
members of the Edah-Yahad. Marcus Tso compared virtue ethics in 4Q298 and
Galatians. Yoram Erder spoke on Karaite biblical exegesis and the Qumran sect.
Liora Goldman argued that the Damascus Document can be defined as a the-
matic pesher. John Kampen addressed the relation between sectarianism and
wisdom. Devorah Dimant talked about pesharim terminology in the Hodayot.
Shani Tzoref surveyed exegetical representations of “gentiles” in the pesharim.
Annette Steudel reflected on the relationship between D and S. Finally, Ulrich
Dahmen and Heinz-Josef Fabry presented some theological and lexicographic
results of their work on the Theologisches Wörterbuch zu den Qumrantexten.
This Volume
Only a handful of the papers presented at the IOQS meeting have found their
way into this volume. In the period between the meeting in Munich and the
appearance of this volume, many scholars have included the work they pre-
sented in Munich in other publications. The original team of editors of this
volume—consisting of George Brooke, Alison Schofield, Samuel Thomas, and
Eibert Tigchelaar—has peer-reviewed and given feedback to all the papers
submitted to this volume. All papers have subsequently been revised by their
authors. Thanks are due to Maartje van Veluw, who assisted in preparing the
indices to this volume.
The result is a multi-faceted volume, which captures the breadth of top-
ics addressed and methodologies presented at the Munich conference.
Unsurprisingly, the connection between Qumran studies and traditional meth-
ods in biblical studies is well-represented, with Kratz, Davis, and Longacre all
addressing methodological aspects of textual criticism. Adams, Goff, Schofield,
and Tigchelaar address the advantages and pitfalls of applying approaches
common in the humanities, but comparatively new in the study of the scrolls
(post-colonial theory, structuralist analysis, spatial theory, and sociolinguis-
tics), to the Qumran corpus. Hartog and Hopf, finally, take their cue from the
study of specific types of text in classical studies and the humanities (com-
mentaries and dramatic texts) and attempt to integrate texts from the Qumran
corpus within this wider framework.
The papers in this volume offer an invitation to cross-fertilization, addressed
to Qumran scholars and scholars in adjacent fields like classics, archaeology,
ancient history, literary studies, and others. The study of Qumran has long
been isolated from academic debates within the humanities and social sci-
ences. Ahead of Qumran scholarship lies the task to remedy this situation and
to demonstrate the importance of the scrolls for the study of culture and reli-
gion more broadly.