================================================================== @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ Koelfgen on @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ Spring Fritsch @ @ @ @ 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.]] ----- Charles T. Fritsch, The Qumran Community: Its History and Scrolls. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1956. Pp. 147. Reviewed by Syri Jo Koelfgen <0.1> Charles T. Fritsch was educated at Muhlenberg College, the Princeton Theological Seminary, and Princeton University, and later became an Associate Professor of Old Testament at the Princeton Theological Seminary. He was also a visiting lecturer at the Temple School of Theology, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, and the American Schools of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, for the reason that he held rank as a Presbyterian clergyman. His visits (during the period from February 15 to April 15, 1954) to the ruins of the Dead Sea enabled him to write first hand a description of Khirbet Qumran, in his book The Qumran Community: Its History and Scrolls which was published in 1956, only 9 years after the discovery of the phenomenal manuscripts in the Palestinian caves. Fritsch's book provided insight to some of the first comprehensive impressions of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The eight chapters in his book are dedicated to describing the excavations at Khirbet Qumran, giving a general history of the ancient community once presiding there, the caves, manuscripts and their discoveries, the Damascus Sect, the Manual of Discipline, the Essenes, and the relationship between the Qumran Community and the New Testament. <0.2> The material presented in Fritsch's The Qumran Community: Its History and Scrolls is very similar to The Dead Sea Scrolls Today by James C. VanderKam and also Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls by Joseph A. Fitzmyer, s.j. Fritsch's book was written when the contents of the scrolls was just beginning to be deciphered, at a time when not all of the caves had yet been discovered, and when P<'e>re Roland de Vaux, Director of l'<'E>cole Biblique in Jerusalem (Fritsch, p. 3), was conducting his famous excavations. Fritsch was fortunate enough to have been escorted through the Qumran ruins by de Vaux himself. Since he began writing when considerably little was known about the scroll passages, except the pure translations of the written manuscripts, and there had not been much textual analysis between similar documents and the scrolls, Fritsch's evaluation of the material was pioneering. Some of his analysis is in agreement with what is generally accepted this day in 1995 (as attested in the works of Fitzmyer and VanderKam), and some of it is evidently based on his own nascent hypotheses which have since been "proven" (or commonly thought by scriptural scholars to be) inaccurate. <1.1> Fritsch begins by giving an overall review of the excavations at Khirbet Qumran, adding his own first-hand personal perceptions of what he saw on his visits. His summary of the expeditions is drawn from two preliminary reports in Revue Biblique (R. de Vaux, "Fouille au Khirbet Qumr<^a>n: Rapport pr<'e>liminaire," RB, LX, 1953, pp. 83-106; R. de Vaux, "Fouille au Khirbet Qumr<^a>n: Rapport pr<'e>liminaire sur la deuxi<'e>me campagne," RB, LXI, 1954, pp. 206-236) and from a presentation given by P<'e>re de Vaux concerning his third season of excavating at the <'E>cole Biblique on June 4, 1954. Fritsch gives a "brief description of the architectural features of the Qumran community center" (p. 9), and characterizes the cemetery, pottery, coinage, and other objects, all of which is almost identical to the account given in VanderKam's publication, most probably due to the fact that VanderKam took most of his information from de Vaux as well. <1.2> Fritsch proceeded to focus on what was found in which particular caves, who purchased which scrolls and what had been learned so far in the translation of the material in the different schools studying them (the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Hebrew University). Very few of the manuscripts had been given their now proper names at the time when Fritsch published his book, so he only referred to a select number of the scripts, including the copy of the Book of Isaiah from Cave 1 (1QIs^a), the Manual of Discipline (1QS), the Book of Habakkuk (1QpHab - the p standing for pesher, or commentary), the War Scroll (1QM), and the Thanksgiving Hymns (1QH). It should be noted that all of these are from Cave 1. In his reference to these documents, Fritsch usually just presented a physical description of the scrolls, and appended a vague commentary covering the written output of the scrolls. For example, the treatment of 1QS includes an assessment of what the "beautifully preserved Hebrew writing" (p. 32) was inscribed upon, the wear and tear of the parchment, the dimensions of the scrolls, columns, and letters, how old it was thought to be, and a single statement adhering to its agreement with the Masoretic text. Fritsch continued to relate information pertaining to the location and nature of the cave sites, the exploration of the region around Qumran, and then gave even less information about the contents of caves two through six. It may be interestingly noted that Fritsch described only the outer appearance of the Copper Scroll, since it had not been unrolled (cut) while he was writing his book. In examination of the conveyed significance of the manuscripts, Fritsch related that the scrolls provide insight into the way of life, the practices, and the teachings of the monastic community of Qumran, they shed light upon Old Testament studies, revive interest in Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical works, and most importantly in Fritsch's mind, bring forth applications pertaining New Testament studies. <1.3> A postscript at the end of Chapter III tells the reader that the "so-called 'Lamech Scroll' from Cave 1" (p. 49) and the copper scroll from Cave 3 had been unrolled since Fritschs book had been finished, according to a New York Times article on January 12, 1956. Fritsch had conjectured that the previously mentioned scroll from Cave 1 was the lost Apocryphal Book of Lamech in his treatment of the scrolls published at the American Schools of Oriental Research (p. 34), but another Times dispatch in February of 1956 related that the "Lamech Scroll" actually turned out to be an Aramaic version of Genesis (Postscript, p. 49). This exemplifies the ambiguity of the material presented in Fritsch's own hypotheses; some of his educated guesses were not accurate, while others hit the nail right on the head. <1.4> Fritsch moves on to deal with the manuscript discoveries at Khirbet Mird and Murabba'at. He tells of the discovery of three unknown caves, and relates the history of the occupation of the caves at Murabba'at. He then goes on to speak of the importance of the literary remains of these caves: that they were written in many languages (Hebrew, Latin, Aramaic, Greek, and Arabic) (p. 56). Most of the Murabbaat manuscripts were torn to shreds. However a small number of fragments bore legible writing from Biblical texts (passages from Deuteronomy, Genesis, and Exodus), Hebrew documents from the time of the sectarian Jewish Revolt against the Romans in AD 132-135 (some are letters from Simon ben Kosiba), and other unknown sources (p. 58). Fritsch deals much more extensively with this material than either Fitzmyer or VanderKam. VanderKam mentions Khirbet Mird and Murabba'at a few times, while Fitzmyer alludes to these discoveries in a little more detail, though still not as exuberantly as Fritsch did in his book. <1.5> After his presentation on the Murabba'at findings, Fritsch depicts the life of the Qumran community by relaying the most well-known excerpts from the Manual of Discipline. Fritsch talks about the members of the community in a straightforward fashion, relaying who the community consisted of, i.e. priests, elders, initiates, women and children, etc. He described the community assembly organization in terms of assigned positions, and went on to describe the Council, the process of initiation into the community, and the community's overall relationship to good and evil. In comparison to the illustration of the people of Qumran given by VanderKam in The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, there is almost no deviation in Fritsch's descriptions, which is most probably due to the fact that his portrayal of the life of the Qumran sect is taken almost completely from 1QS. Fritsch continues by paying attention to the communal rites of the Qumranites. In his prescription, Fritsch states that "the two principal rites of the Qumran community were baptism and the communal meal" (p. 66). He did not pay the specific attention to nonuse of oil, property, bodily functions, spitting, and marriage, among other things that VanderKam treated in his study of the community. I believe that this is because Fritsch solely used the Manual of Discipline to characterize the community's practices, while VanderKam employed citations from the Manual as well as frequent referrals to Josephus and Philo. Fritsch furthermore included information on calendar issues of the Qumranites, nonetheless again mostly using the Manual of Discipline as his only source. Special attention should be paid to Fritsch's addressment of the teachings of the community. He makes allusion to "The War of the Children of Light Against the Children of Darkness (1QM)," the Habakkuk Commentary, Jubliees, Enoch, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs in depiction of the community's theology and philosophy. Fritsch relayed that the Qumran sect viewed the universe to be dualistic in nature. For man there exists "Two Ways" (p. 72), to abide by good or to follow in evil. Fritsch narrated that this is modeled in the War Scroll as a continuos war between the children of light against the children of darkness. Fritsch further suggests that "knowledge" and "prudence" are the two predominant words in the sectarian literature of the Qumran group (p. 73). In the last parts of his characterization of the Qumran community, Fritsch takes into account the eschatological implications emphasized in the Manual, and the Habakkuk Commentary concerning the Teacher of Righteousness. In the conclusion of his personification, he brings together all of the basic elements inherent in both VanderKam's and Fitzmyer's representation of the group. <1.6> After his characterizations, Fritsch dealt with the Cario Genizah Document CDC (Damascus Document) by dividing it into two parts: (1) the origin and migration of the Damascus Covenanters and (2) their laws (p. 76). He proceeded to exemplify a literary relationship between CDC and 1QS by quoting their parallel passages and interpreting their meanings. Following the CDC examination, Fritsch made the common tentative assumption that the Qumran group was Essene. In his rendition of the Essene way of life Fritsch cited many long works by Pliny, Philo, and Josephus and gave remarkably similar descriptions of the Essenes as compared to those of VanderKam and Fitzmyer. <1.7> In the final part of The Qumran Community, Its History and Scrolls Fritsch devoted a chapter to correlations between the New Testament and the Qumran Community. He analyzed the role of John the Baptist in the Qumran sect, gave relations between New Testament Pauline traditions, the Book of Acts, the Gospel of John, Jesus, and the Last Supper and the Dead Sea community. Fritsch makes some of his own theological interpretations of the Essene-Qumran sect and relates them to the above mentioned entities, while also paralleling some of the general ideas found in VanderKam between the New Testament material and this society. <2.1> In my reading of the book, I noticed that Charles T. Fritsch's writing style assumed some sort of previous knowledge of religious studies pertaining to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Qumran Community, and general history, while Fitzmyer VanderKam assumed basic ignorance of the subject. In general, I would have to say that Fritsch's initial reactions to the scrolls are mostly "accurate" (or in other words, what is considered by most scholars to be true) in terms of assessment of the material he had to work with at that time (as compared to the accounts of James C. VanderKam and Joseph A. Fitzmyer). The conclusions he drew were grounded by already proven data, and if he was unsure of a conjecture, he usually stated so. It was easy to find his misconceptions, because of the ambiguity of the way in which he would present the material. In those cases, I give credence to the fact that he did not have access to all of the Dead Sea Scroll material, since not all of it had been translated and analyzed. For its pioneering information on the Dead Sea Scrolls, I must say that The Qumran Community: Its History and Scrolls was interesting and as complete as I would expect a book to be in the time frame in which it was written. <3.1> I found two main drawbacks for one who desires to read this book to gain an overall first impression of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran history. The most important thing that should be taken into consideration is that the book was written when as not much was known about the contents of the scrolls as is known now. The other drawback is that if a reader has no previous knowledge of the documents and the associated Qumran locale, he or she might not pick up on some of Fritschs hypotheses that have since been confirmed to be miscalculations by scriptural scholars. To a person who has prior understanding of what is currently known of the scrolls, it is interesting to see what was originally thought of the manuscripts. <00.1> In conclusion, the scrolls produced by the Dead Sea monastic community shed light upon the history, life, and teachings of the Qumran sect, and present the similar relation to the Essenes. The manuscripts discovered in 1947 are invaluable in the study of the Old Testament and provide meritorious cause for comparison study of other pseudepigraphical and apocryphal works. Charles T. Fritsch attempted to unearth some of the astounding mystery surrounding the scrolls in his book The Qumran Community: Its History and Scrolls, and successfully stimulates the reader to thereafter study the scrolls in hopes of further understanding their compelling mysticism. //end//