================================================================== @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ Lasson & @ @ @ @ Sabban on @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ Fall Schiffman '94 @ @ @ @ 1996 @ @ @ @ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ @@@@@@ ================================================================== R E V I E W S ================================================================== Dead Sea Scroll Book Reviews, for Religious Studies 225 University of Pennsylvania, Robert Kraft, Fall Term 1996 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.]] ----- Lawrence Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Philadephia: Jewish Publication Society, 1994). Pp. 529 includes notes, bibliography, glossary, illustrations. reviewed by Tamar Lasson Lawrence Schiffman is on a mission with his newest book, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls. While he is obviously eager to recover the interpretation rights to the scrolls and the parallel Qumran community from the elite and exclusive few who have been privy to the material, the focus of the book is not on the academic snobbery or political shortshrifting that has plagued this field since its inception some fifty years ago. Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls reflects Schiffman's more important agenda: an ideological shift in Dead Sea Scroll interpretation. He wants the manuscripts to be understood as representative of a certain sectarian Judaism during the Second Temple period, the transience of the sect's dogma best serving to highlight the enduring tenets of Rabbinic Judaism. By asserting the strong Jewish nature of the sect, Schiffman greatly downplays the validity of the Christian claim to the Qumran community. His argument is justified through some savvy scholarship that demands the attention of his colleagues. Nevertheless, the book itself needs a thorough and careful reworking. It is just too bold for its polished and restrictive britches. Schiffman starts with an exciting prospect. He slowly builds his novel and convincing thesis of a Sadducean community at Qumran through a composite of archaeological evidence, ancient historical texts and the Qumran manuscripts themselves. By analyzing the legal decisions in the Halakhlc Letter and comparing them with parallel Mishnaic references to Sadducean legislation, Schiffman establishes firm ground for arguing on behalf of the Sadducean origins of the sect. This does, of course, present a daunting challenge to the generally accepted theory that the settlement was Essenic. Since the book tackles many issues in a discussion format, Schiffman manages to portray different facets of the community (including initiation rites, communal law, leadership hierarchies and women's role in the assembly) as having definite Sadducean tendencies. He cleverly offers the Essenic and Pharisaic lifestyle alternatives, very often close panels to the custom of the Qumran community, and then dismisses those options through close analysis. The obvious benefit for the reader is a finer grasp of each sect's particular dogma and character. It is at this very point, however, that Schiffman's handle on the material begins to unravel. Schiffman cannot decide how to organize the scrolls for his readers. First he submits necessary background information about the scrolls' discovery and general significance, after which he gives a fairly acceptable summary of the archaeological excavations conducted at Qumran. He then launches off into topical sections, choosing to introduce the scrolls when they are helpful in supporting his Sadducean thesis. One of the most telling sections deals with the problem of canonization; Schiffman predictably contends that the proto-Masoretic recension (which was consequently accepted by traditional Rabbinic authority) was the dominant one of that period and was well on its way towards a closed canon. This argument is, of course, highly debatable, and Schiffman does not prove his case conclusively. To his credit, these analyses are useful when taken as separate exmnations of the different aspects of Qumran study. As a unified whole, however, they are disjointed and assume too much, confusing for the layman and not fulfilling for the scholar who appreciates the attempt but is skeptical over the unrelenting assertion of Schiffman's agenda. The author's earnestness sometimes compromises what should be objective scholarship. It is as if Schiffman is ready to take on any issue that the Dead Sea Scrolls might raise; he is simply unprepared to defend himself adequately on all fronts. Schiffman has in his hands a potential breakthrough in the entire approach to the Qumran community and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It will remain an unrealized possibility until he reexamines the entire corpus of the literature responsibly and organizes his findings in a more lucid and readable manner that is geared to a particular audience. Until then, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls is practical only for its interesting but one-sided treatments of specific Qumran-related issues. //end Lasson review// ====== Lawrence Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1994. Pp. 529. by Behir A. Sabban (May 1997) In April 1984, during the first International Conference on Biblical Archaeology, Elisha Qimron first revealed the existence of the Halakhic Letter, a collection of legal rulings that served as a charter for the Dead Sea sect. Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, among others, was shocked that the document had been hidden from the public. Yet, at the same time, the new revelation spurred Schiffman to continue his research that attempted "to uncover the unknown missing links between Judaism and the Bible and that of the Talmud and to trace the links between prophet and priest on the one hand and Talmudic rabbis on the other." In his introduction, Schiffman already makes two categorical about the dead Sea Scrolls. Firstly, he says that the scrolls are not the library of the Jerusalem temple. Second, these are not the documents of a budding Christian sect. He defends the latter opinion from the fact that the scrolls never mention Jesus, John the Baptist or any other Christian patriarchs. Furthermore, the content of the scrolls do not express Christian beliefs. Schiffman attempts to show that the scrolls belonged to a sect that gathered at Qumran after the Maccabean revolt. The Hasmonaeans rulers assumed command in Jerusalem and enforced the Pharisee attitudes towards religion. So around this time, approximately 152 B.C.E., a Sadducean group left Jerusalem for Qumran. The author deduces the sects Sadducean roots primarily from the Halakhic Letter. It is his belief that this knowledge is useful on three fronts. It helps scholars analyze the sects Biblical exegesis from a new light. Moreover, its arguments against the Pharisees allow scholars to deduce Pharisaic rulings and thereby expand on the relatively small corpus of literature that we have on its formative period. Finally, the scrolls point to interpretive approaches that helped shape the later history of Judaism. Shiffman believes that the Qumran sects was directly influenced by the Hellinisation of the Jewish people in Palestine. On page 66 the author declares that "the cultural phenomenon we call Hellinism exercised such power in ancient Judea that it left a lasting imprint on Judaism and the Jewish people. Indeed, the phenomenon of sectarianism in Judaism, to which the scrolls are our best witness, was largely the indirect result of forces set in motion by the influence of Hellinism." After discussing many of the particulars of the scrolls, the author concludes with a discussion on the ultimate failure of the sectarian groups. He believes that these sects led the Jews to an unsuccessful war with Rome. In fact, during the Great Revolt, the Essenes and sectarian groups such as the Qumran sect disappeared as independent entities. Only afterwards did the Jewish people unite around the consensus of Pharisaic-rabbinic Judaism. He achieves this conclusion via two collections, the Masada texts and the Bar Kokhba documents, which show a gradual standardization of Biblical texts and Jewish law. As the author romantically insists: "from the crucible of sectarianism, revolt, and restoration had emerged the mature Judaism of the Mishnah and the Talmud, which came to serve as the foundation of the Judaism we know today." Schiffman is an exciting scholar, with many new and radical ideas about early Judaism and Christianity. The problems of Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls are the same ones that riddle his other works. He tries too hard to fit everything into the narrow view of Judaism. He assumes that the traditional Orthodox beliefs about Judaism are correct, and therefore limits his scholarship greatly. At the same time, he offers a cogent analysis of the importance of these newly revealed Dead Sea Scrolls. Hopefully, his research will form the basis for a more evenhanded study of the DSS. //end//