Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls
The recent controversies surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls have prompted the writing of a variety of books which discuss everything from the paleography and translations of the texts to the political controversies in which the Scrolls have been embroiled. With this, his most recent publication, Joseph Fitzmyer has joined the renewed conversation.
This publication is not an apologia for the international team of scholars who had been studying the Scrolls and of which Fitzmyer was a member. The work gives a strong critique of those who were entrusted with the texts and did not "come through." He refers to this problem as a "scandalous delay" (Question 13). Our author of course also does not affirm the more sensational claims made by John Allegro that there was some sort of conspiracy of silence (Question 99). Rather, Fitzmyer provides the reader with a careful set of responses to a variety of questions, confirming the strengths and weaknesses of past scholarship and allowing many open doors for future Scrolls studies.
The title of this book can be misleading. When a work promises answers to "fifty questions" or "one hundred queries" it is often written for a popular audience to the exclusion of scholarly information. However, Fitzmyer has provided a unique [End Page 111] presentation of material useful for both the novice and intermediate scholar. Each response is well-reasoned and informed, providing some bibliographic sources for further inquiry. Whereas the work is not as comprehensive as Fitzmyer's The Dead Sea Scrolls: Major Publications and Tools for Study: Revised Edition, SBL Resources for Biblical Study 20 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), it is useful for the classroom and for individual reference regarding the recent questions raised concerning the Scrolls.
The questions and responses are divided into four groups. The first set discusses the discovery and content of the Scrolls. The following twenty-eight analyze the importance of the Scrolls in relation to Old Testament and Judaic studies as well as understanding the Qumran community. Discussions of the impact on the New Testament and early Christianity make up the third group of questions. And the final sixteen discuss the "headline-news" developments and the recent charges of the "suppression" of Scroll material. Fitzmyer does not inform the reader as to how his questions were formulated; however, they do discuss the more important topics of interest.
The questions regarding the discovery and content of the Scrolls create an adequate outline of the historical events of 1947-1956. Here Fitzmyer limits the drama surrounding the recovery of the texts, omitting the amazing stories told by Yadin concerning his mysterious sources. And he only alludes to the further unknown scrolls which Allegro and Strugnell have claimed to exist (Question 11). These are understandable omissions. However it would have been helpful if the questions regarding "anti-Semitism" in choosing the scholarly team had been answered here rather than later in the work (Questions 87 and 89). This question has been pressed most ardently by H. Shanks and has not had an adequate answer for the post-1967 political situation surrounding the Scrolls.
Regarding the texts themselves, Fitzmyer does an admirable job of discussing the various types and contents of the Scrolls and fragments found in each cave. He addresses the problems of dating the texts and the scholarly consensus which has placed the Scrolls between the second century B.C.E. and C.E. 68 Of note is Question 18 in which he discusses paleography. Here there is no discussion of Ginzberg's thesis that there are medieval elements in some of the Scrolls which discredit the early dating of the texts. Though this is a minority view with little evidential support, Fitzmyer would have done well to introduce the reader to this issue. Otherwise the responses give an excellent introduction to the orthographic and paleographic questions.
Most of the book's questions deal with the information concerning the community at Qumran, first century Judaism and early Christianity. Fitzmyer is correct to be cautious in drawing parallels between the Scrolls and Christian texts, but also does well in noting the various connections that can be made. The roots of Christianity within Judaism are rightly confirmed by Fitzmyer though he finds no positive proof, as of yet, that New Testament texts are present among the fragments of Cave Seven. He suggests that all of the evidence has not yet been gathered on this topic.
In regards to Judaism, Fitzmyer draws out the theological beliefs and communal practices of the Qumran community in comparison with what is known of Judaic [End Page 112] practices during the period in question. Fitzmyer joins the scholarly consensus in stating that the Qumran community and the authors/scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls were Essene (Questions 64 through 67). He does admit that this identification is not completely certain, though he gives little of the evidence which would suggest otherwise. A separate question and response regarding the evidence for a Sudducean community, as asserted by Schiffman, would have been informative.
The final questions dealing with the recent controversies surrounding the scrolls tend to be critical of the work by Wacholder and Abegg to "bootleg" the Cave Four texts (Question 92). Fitzmyer admits that the delays in publication are a scandal, but he communicates a very real concern regarding sound, scholarly treatment of the texts and fragments. John Allegro's work is consistently tied to this distress (some of which Fitzmyer calls "scrollduggery" in Question 98). Our author also airs concern over Robert Eisenman's treatment of a Cave Four fragment which that scholar claims contains a description of an executed Messianic leader (Question 97).
It is in the concern to maintain quality scholarship that the reader finds Fitzmyer most interested. There can be no doubt that our author produced this work as a corrective to the current misunderstandings and misinterpretations of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In this respect the work takes on the feel of a polemic. However, it does not take away from the book's immense usefulness as a teaching and elementary research tool. [End Page 113]
