Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Stephen Goranson <goranson AT duke.edu>]

"Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls" shown on National Geographic channel is 
available on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQIb13roRYA

The show gives rise to many significant pros and cons. Early on (in the 
second minute) it states that de Vaux claimed 60 years ago that the scrolls 
were “*all* [my emphasis] written...by the Essenes” by the Dead Sea. But that 
is false, an unfortunate hearsay myth strawman. Where were National 
Geographic fact checkers? Also, some mss are older than the Hellenistic era 
settlement at Qumran, so were obviously composed and penned earlier and 
elsewhere. Further, who wrote (composed and penned) the scrolls is obviously 
not the “only” question, as the show oddly framed itself. It’s good that the 
ink analysis was noted, showing penning near the Dead Sea. Good that the skin 
DNA studies were mentioned; they involve Nubian ibex, native to the Qumran 
area and not Jerusalem. And good that NAA analysis of the clay was included; 
but it should have been added that Gunneweg finally obtained clay to test 
from Peleg’s pool and, with his big database, has falsified Peleg’s pottery 
proposal. The claim that a Jerusalem jar inscription is  key to the Qumran 
scrolls is not merely flimsy and idiosyncratic and unpublished, but 
contradicted by evidence gathered by many scholars (Tov, Tigchelaar, and 
others--including the speculator himself on sectarian, Essene texts). 
Stephen Goranson 
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

________________________________________
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] 
On Behalf Of Stephen Goranson [goranson AT duke.edu]
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 8:30 AM
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] was Qumran Cave 11 a Zealot library?

The Qumran Cave 11 manuscripts--remains of a Zealot library?

Such is the proposal in Pfann, Stephen J. "Reassessing the Judean Desert 
Caves: Libraries, Archives, 'Genizas' and Hiding Places." Bulletin of the 
Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 25 (2007) 147-170 Available at
http://www.uhl.ac/articles/

A CTVC program (not yet scheduled, as far as I know) apparently will advocate 
this proposal, at least, based on descriptions at CTVC:
http://www.ctvc.co.uk/scrolls.html
and on Dr. Robert R. Cargill's website:
http://robertcargill.com/ Feb. 3 and March 15 posts

Some comments and questions:

 Tov characterized 11Q as most consistently written in Qumran scribal 
practice. Tov, Emanuel. "The Special Character of the Texts Found in Qumran 
Cave 11." In Things Revealed: Studies in Early Jewish and Christian 
Literature in Honor of Michael E. Stone, ed. E. Chazon, et al., 187-196. 
JSJSS 89. Leiden: Brill, 2004. What would a "Zealot library" look like (e.g. 
consistently produced?)? Would zealots defending the existing temple be 
hoping for its destruction to allow for a different temple? Were zealots 
known for their linens? Did Josephus say zealots took scrolls or something 
else?

11Q29 Fragment Related to Serek ha-Yahad. An S-Qumran connection. Tigchelaar, 
Eibert J. C. "A Newly Identified 11QSerekh ha-Yahad Fragment (11Q29)?" In The 
Dead Sea Scrolls: Fifty Years after Their Discovery. Proceedings of the 
Jerusalem Congress, July 20-25, 1997, ed. L. Schiffman et al., 285-292. 
Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society in cooperation with the Shrine of the 
Book, Israel Museum, 2000.

11QSefer ha-Milhama.

11QcrypticA Unidentified text. Did Zealots use crypticA? Who did (cf. 4Q)?  
How could that be bracketed off?

Ada Yardeni observed that dozens of texts come from one "Qumran scribe," 
including texts from Caves 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8-- and Cave 11. Yardeni, Ada. "A 
Note on a Qumran Scribe." In New Seals and Inscriptions: Hebrew, Idumean, and 
Cuneiform, ed. Meir Lubetski, 287-298. Hebrew Bible Monographs 8. Sheffield: 
Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007. Unless she is mistaken, or unless one posits 
that zealots shared this scribe, how can her observations fit the 11Q as 
zealot hypothesis? Abraham Schalit in the Namenwörterbuch zu Flavius Josephus 
p.34, 46, 66 noted that "John the Essene" is likely a misreading for John of 
Essa.

 Weston Fields DSS; A Full History vol. 1 (Leiden, 2010) gives reasons to be 
cautious about cave assignments of some purchased mss. If appreciable numbers 
of mss are incorrectly assigned, cave assemblages may be significantly 
affected.  Caves that have few mss, such as 3Q, make arguments from silence 
even more iffy, and why ignore a probable 3Q pesher and angel texts? If the 
3QCu burials are in the Sokakah Qumran area, then that's something possibly 
relevant with those in the area, if they were keeping things for a temple, 
not from a temple.

Stephen Goranson
http://www,duke.edu/~goranson
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