================================================================== @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ Farji @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ Spring on Cross @ @ @ @ 1995 @ @ @ @ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ ================================================================== R E V I E W S ================================================================== Dead Sea Scroll Book Reviews, for Religious Studies 225 University of Pennsylvania, Robert Kraft, Spring Term 1995 Copyright by the respective authors; reproduction with appropriate credits is permitted. [[NOTE: The assignment was to summarize the reviewed book and to compare it especially with the textbooks used in the course, by James VanderKam The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Eerdmans/SPCK 1994) and Joseph Fitzmyer Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Paulist Press 1992). As with this note, any comments by the course instructor are enclosed in double brackets below.]] ----- Frank Moore Cross, Jr., The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Studies . New York: Doubleday, 1958. Pp. ix + 196. Reviewed by Karen Farji kfarji@sas.upenn.edu <0.1> Written only ten years after the initial discovery of the scrolls, this book is an early attempt to explore some of the key issues related to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. [[Add something about who the author is?]] C.'s main interest is in finding a series of connections that bring us to a further understanding of the textual history of the OT and the NT and of the origins of Christianity. C.'s theories are clearly expressed, yet they do not hold sufficient proof to back them. After expressing his point of view on the issues dealt with, C. defensively states that no theory can be secured until further evidence is found, yet by treating the issues as given later in the book, he reaffirms his views. Unfortunately, the book lacks cohesiveness and looks more like a compilation of footnotes drawn from a variety of sources. <1.1> Chapter 1 deals with the story of the discovery of the scrolls in the same clear-cut way as found in VanderKam and Fitzmyer. Yet in writing about Cave 4, Cross carelessly states how "it seems clear that the great library once housed in the Essene Community center was abandoned" there. C. fails to give proof of the Essene theory which he has just affirmed and only takes up the issue in the following chapter. The rest of the chapter lists and comments on the fragments found up to that moment. <1.2> Chapter 2's title, "The Essenes, the People of the Scrolls" is highly suggestive of C.'s view on the matter. He draws on archeological data (identical pottery found in Khirbet Qumran and Cave I) and on the parallels drawn from classical sources to reassert his point. Furthermore, no other settlement has been found in the area which fits Pliny's description. Ironically, C. does say that "if the people of the scrolls were not the Essenes, they were a similar sect, living in the same center, in the same era," yet throughout the rest of the book he relies solely on the Essene theory. On describing the Qumran site, C. expresses his theories on the different findings: the northwest quadrant of the main building was a fortified tower for defense; the large water system cannot be explained only on the basis of liturgic function; the animal bones are clearly the remains of the sacramental feasts of the community. The extensive archeological description of the site diverts the attention of the reader away from the main theme of the book. Discrepancies between Josephus and Philo's accounts and the DSS can be explained by the Hellenizing tendencies of these classical authors who idealized what they saw. <1.3> Since there is no hint in classical sources of Essenes dwelling outside Palestine, it raises a problem about he meaning of the term "the land of Damascus" in CD. C.is inclined to those views which hold that the term was the prophetic name applied to the desert of Qumran. <1.4> The third chapter attempts to overcome the limitations posed by classical sources, by examining the Qumran fragments and reconstructing through them the history of its people.Two major assumptions characterize apocalyptic exegesis: all biblical prophecy is taken to have eschatological meaning and secondly, that every apocalyptist understood himself to be living in the last days. C. sets various examples clarifying this ideology, yet gives some exhaustive conclusions, i.e. that the absence of sectarian manuscripts of the Archaic period suggests that the composition of early sectarian works did not commence until the second half of the second century BC. He frames the earliest installations at Qumran no earlier than the reign of Simon (142-134 BCE) and no later than the reign of John Hyrcanus I (134-104 BCE). <1.5> In discussing who the Teacher of Righteousness and Wicked Priest might have been, C. provides an extensive chronology of the Zadokite high priests and the Maccabean rulers, but is unable to make specific identifications; the main data for this reconstruction is found in the commentary on Habakkuk. He does suggest indirectly that the Wicked Priest was either Jonathan or Simon. C. holds the view that Essene sectaries found their roots in the congregation of Hasidim heard from for the first time in the early days of the Maccabean revolt. Support for this view may be found in CD 1:5-12. <1.6> Chapters 4 & 5, "The Old Testament at Qumran" and "The Essenes and the Primitive Church" respectively, deal with the DSS as essential tools for the reconstruction of the textual history of the OT and the background of the NT. Chapter 4 shows the convincing parallels which sometimes bring the Septuagint closer to the DSS than to the Masoretic Hebrew recension. Before their discovery it was thought that the discrepancies between the Septuagint and the Masoretic texts were due to problems in the Greek translation; now we may think they were due to differences in the Hebrew texts from which the Greeks were translating. C. believes the Egyptian textual tradition behind the Septuagint and the proto-Masoretic tradition separated as early as the fifth century BCE. <1.7> Chapter 5 suggests that earliest Christianity did not crystallize out of Pharisaism, but out of the apocalyptic ideology of the Essenes. Proof for this view lies in the theological language common to the Essene and Christian sects, in the common eschatological doctrines (both thought of themselves as the people of the New Convenant) and in the related organizational and liturgical institutions belonging to both (i.e., baptism and communal meals). <1.8> In the postscript C. underscores the importance of the fact that for the early Christians this New Age has already arrived with Jesus, while the Essenes' apocalypticism still awaits this event. With this in mind, the parallels brought up in Chapter 5 no longer seem so significantnt. Furthermore, while the Essenes waited for two different Messiahs, one priestly and one royal, for the Christians Jesus encompassed both. <00.1> C.'s book opens up different paths to examine the Qumran scrolls, mostly based on ancient history from the OT and NT.He often goes too far back into history which does not proof to give a solid base for his arguments. Yet, C.'s book provides a number of interesting footnotes for the avid researcher, although lacking a more cohesive framework. However, one must have in mind that a lot of the evidence given by more recent publications of the fragments was not available at the time the book was written. Reviewed by: Karen Farji Undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA