================================================================== @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ Carpenter on @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ Spring Harrison @ @ @ @ 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.]] ----- R.K. Harrison, The Dead Sea Scrolls: An Introduction. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1961. Reviewed by Sarah E. Carpenter secarpen@sas.upenn.edu [[Do you know anything about the author? -- that might help explain some of his approaches on which you comment.]] <0.1> The Dead Sea Scrolls, as exclaimed by the late Professor E.L. Sukenik, Senior Archaeologist of Hebrew University at Jerusalem, are certainly "one of the greatest finds ever made in Palestine." In his book The Dead Sea Scrolls: An Introduction, R.K. Harrison captures some of the early excitement felt throughout the academic world concerning such a monumental discovery. <1.1> As stated in the introduction to the book, "Any book written on the Dead Sea scrolls at this stage -- and their number is legion -- is bound to be of the nature of an interim report" (xiv). This book was indeed written in 1961 and certainly exhibits a lack of knowledge which today in 1995 we as students and teachers accept as common. The author admits that "there is no doubt that long and careful study of the documents will be necessary before their historical and religious potential is exhausted" (2). Indeed, today the scrolls continue to be analyzed and studied; and discoveries such as 4QMMT (MIQSAT MA'ASEH HA-TORAH) continue to spark new debates. <1.2> The author begins this introductory-level book by first describing the discovery of the scrolls at Qumran and the elaborate story of how the scrolls were disbursed but later returned. The author then laboriously describes the process by which the scrolls were examined, cleaned, and photographed, complete with various quotations by members of the scroll team such as Dr. Frank M. Cross. This long-winded analysis by Harrison seems out of place and inappropriate for a supposedly introductory-level text. The author then gives a brief overview of the literary fragments discovered at Murabba'at and Khirbet Mird, as well as an overview of the manuscripts found in each Qumran cave. Harrison's listing and analysis of the manuscripts and artifacts from the Qumran caves is not at all as detailed as the listing provided by Joseph A. Fitzmyer in his book Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The reader must bear in mind, however, that Harrison's text was written for the student who is just beginning to study the scrolls. Harrison briefly touches on the main topics concerning the manuscripts and the Qumran community, but he does not write in-depth on any of these topics. <1.3> One of Harrison's best discussions concerns comparisons between the CDC (the Damascus Document) and 1QS (the Manual of Discipline). The author provides short selections from each set of writings that exemplify, in his opinion, "the intimate literary relationship which exists between CDC and 1QS" (88). Harrison is just as careful as Fitzmyer, however, in not making hasty conclusions that would link the Damascus Covenanters to the Qumranites. Another of Harrison's discussions which is equally as thorough as those of Fitzmyer and James C. VanderKam, author of The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, is that of the calendar used by the Qumran community, a calendar which was highly complex and rich in festive celebrations. [[Did Harrison know all of the celebrations that VanderKam lists? I thought some of that was "recent" information.]] <2.1> Harrison offers a good overview of the scrolls and the Qumran community through his introductory book. Harrison's work would be a good preliminary book to Fitzmyer's, for Harrison's opens many questions that would point the introductory-level student towards a book formatted in a question-and-answer style such as Fitzmyer's. <3.1> The main weak point in Harrison's work is his assumption that he is writing to an audience familiar with Christian history and concepts. Throughout the entire last chapter, and especially on pages 122-123, Harrison writes of several events in Christian history and several Christian theological concepts that he never bothers to explain for his audience. Concepts such as trinitarianism, original sin, and the Lord's Supper are mentioned but never explained as they should be, for he is using these concepts in comparison and contrast to Qumran doctrines. Harrison should not have automatically assumed that he was writing to an audience familiar with these ideas, especially in an introductory text of this nature. <00.1> In general, Harrison has written a good broad-based overview of Qumran and the scrolls. His lack of much in-depth analysis does not necessarily hurt the book, but rather directs the reader to more advanced texts in which general knowledge of the scrolls is assumed. On the introductory level, The Dead Sea Scrolls: An Introduction is a clear, concise, and informative work. Sarah E. Carpenter Box 588/ 3700 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-6012 secarpen@sas.upenn.edu //end//