2,000 Years Ago
GOLDIN, JUDAH
Demetrius is being referred to? What in the world is the meaning of fabulous sums of hidden treasure? 2,000 Years Ago More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls, By Millar Burrows. T/T • , , ,...
...T/T • , , , . Viking...
...N o BIBLICAL archaeological discovery—neither the Nash papyrus, nor the copper mines of King Solomon, nor the Ugarite epics, nor the excavation of Hazor, nor Dura Europos panels, nor a cemetery like that at Bet Shearim, nor a host of other sensational finds—has captured the imagination of scholars as well as a large public, as have the Dead Sea Scrolls...
...Which What are we to make of animal bones found in large quantities in a settlement that gives every impression of having lived rather frugally and that so far as we know —despite its quarrel with the priesthood in power—did not suggest offering animal sacrifices except at the one recognized Sanctuary...
...And what is this sect...
...And yet, when all due caution and responsible research are exercised, we have in the Dead Sea discoveries major sources for a deeper understanding of the Jewish world at a time when that world was a complex of movements, sectarian tensions, political and apocalyptic excitement, intensive intellectual activity and social experimentation...
...Is Damascus, to which some of the important sources refer, a specific place or only a symbolic term...
...Millar Burrows has therefore performed an important service by following his first volume on the Scrolls with his More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls—and especially by adding an index to the present volume...
...have had to be modified and retracted...
...Are the members Essenes or a branch of the Essenes familiar to us from descriptions of the group by Pliny and Philo and Josephus— or are they still some other sect of whom we knew nothing previously...
...There are hundreds of questions these Scrolls have raised and these questions have stirred up scholars of biblical literature and of the history of Maccabean and New Testament times to such busy activity that it has become almost impossible to keep up with the literature...
...Is he one man or is this a term for several men who successively occupied a leading position in the sect...
...His volume is, therefore, a very useful handbook and report for anyone who wants to know what is being said about the text of these documents, their teachings, their idiom, about the identity of the sect, the results of such research for Old Testament and New Testament studies, and related subjects...
...He brings the report up to date (of course, it is already outdated ! ), he summarizes—always with fairness and model lucidity— the discussions of the various scholars, he tries to touch on all the major issues these documents have raised: the light, bright or dim, they shed on the beginnings of Christianity, the results for Old Testament scholarship, the sect's origins and identity and beliefs and practices...
...A goodly number of guesses and interpretations that some scholars have indulged in will probably continue to be a source of amusement for a long time to come—and also may serve as a warning against the extremes of cleverness and plain silliness...
...here was a sect or a society that may have foreshadowed in its literature certain teachings and expectations that resemble, at least in part, ideas and expressions familiar to us in a Christian framework...
...But it is well not to be distraoted by these—Professor Burrows sometimes deals with them with a tolerant wit and restraint which are admirable...
...Popular interest is due not merely to the fact that Edmund Wilson wrote his long essay about the Scrolls in the New Yorker...
...2,000 Years Ago More Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls, By Millar Burrows...
...Are the deviations in the orthography and readings of biblical texts indications of more correct versions, or variant versions, or errors...
...And since this is the period of oriental Hellenism, the emergence and development of Talmudism, and the origin and growth of Christianity, it is a period of major concern to students of religion and of main currents in Western culture...
...The writings of the Dead Sea sectarians will not only reveal to us what the little sect or sects taught and strove for, but will also put into sharper focus the teachings a,nd positions in the larger society, to and against which the community in the Dead Sea neighborhood was reacting...
...The Scrolls will provide scholars with a great deal to work on for the next several decades...
...This does not mean that the Scrolls reveal to us direct forerunners of the founders and doctrines of Christianity...
...By including translations, Burrows gives the reader a direct contact with the content of these important documents...
...6.50...
...Who is Absolom...
...The important fact stands out boldly enough : A rich, very rich collection of basic resource material has been recovered, and with disciplined study this material will lead to more precise and deeper knowledge of an exceptionally important period of Jewish history...
...Regardless of the theories he chose as a basis of his discussion, he did make clear that in addition to 2000-year-old manuscripts of Old Testament books, here were writings of enormous relevance to our knowledge and speculations about the Jewish world in the period before the birth of Christianity...
...4o4 pp...
...What in the world is the meaning of fabulous sums of hidden treasure...
...Specifically they are bound to affect our outlook 0|n the nature of the received biblical text, the history of the Hebrew language, better understanding of the vitality of apocalyptic expression and yearning, insight into the forms of early biblical exegesis and Midrash, and also an appreciation of the complexity of Jewish society and its varieties of life in the late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries...
...Who is this "teacher of righteousness" or "righteous teacher" many of the documents refer to...
...As a matter of fact, some extreme statements on the subject...
...This is of utmost importance...
...Reviewed by Judah Goldin Prolessor of religion, Yale University It is often extremely difficult to make out the specific meaning of the contents of these documents, even when they are legible...
...it is in large measure due to the way in which Wilson wrote about these documents...
...And since the initial discoveries (1947) in Qumran, so much more has been found, so many new caves discovered, so many announcements of complete scrolls and fragments of scrolls have been made, that you have your hands full keeping up with the outlines of discussion, let alone studying the texts themselves carefully and carrying on your own research on the subject...
...How serious were the Sons of Light in their regulations for the war they were anticipating with the Sons of Darkness...
...Nor does he hesitate to express his own point of view, which is the product not only of his reading of the literature of the Scrolls but of his study of the sources themselves...
Vol. 41 • December 1956 • No. 45
