From kraft Mon Jan 23 01:24:50 1995
Subject: Re: Origin of DSS
To: dss
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 01:24:50 -0500 (EST)
In-Reply-To: <199501230553.FAA24781@mail2.sas.upenn.edu> from "Christine  Boulos" at Jan 23, 95 00:53:44 am
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>                      I was wondering if you could clarify something I 
> came across in my reading of Vanderkam. He mentions that the majority of 
> the theories support the idea that a predominate number of the QS were 
> either copied or written at Qumran. He also mentions that some of the scrolls 
> were not written there, but he does not elaborate on where these scrolls may 
> have originated. Are there any theories that correspond with the already 
> established history of Qumran and the scrolls about where the other 
> scrolls may have originated?

In asking questions, please be as specific as possible about the source
of your information -- in this case, where in VanderKam? I do find on
p.29, right at the start of his ch.2, the statement that not all of the
texts found in the Qumran caves could have been written/copied at
Qumran, since some of them predate the first period of occupation of
that site. I suppose that the pre-Qumran history of the occupants,
assuming that they constituted a group with a connected history, could
supply us with clues to the origins of such early texts (did they come
from Damascus, or is "Damascus" a symbol for some other location?). But
I doubt that there is enough consensus on that issue to say more. As
with many such materials, we can only make what seem to us intelligent
guesses. Even the identification of any of the fragments with the Qumran
site is conjectural, although it has come to be taken for granted by
most commentators (that is, it seems reasonable to them). Now if some
scraps of writing had been found in the room with the inkwells, we might
be able to get farther on this.

RAK