The Pesharim and Qumran History: Chaos or Consensus?

• Author: Davies, Philip R.
• Position: Book Review

The Pesharim and Qumran History: Chaos or Consensus? By JAMES H. CHARLESWORTH, with appendices by LIDIJA NOVAKOVIC. Grand Rapids, Mich.: WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO., 2002. Pp. xiv + 171, illus. $28 (paper).

This volume is aimed, according to its preface, at specialists in Second Temple Judaism and in the New Testament, and is prompted by the publication of the Pesharim volume in the Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project. It has been "prepared so as to assist the scholar to avoid the fanciful suggestions about historical episodes mirrored in the commentary" (p. 3) and aims to show that there is consensus among major scholars about the historical value of the pesharim and the history that they in fact convey.

An introductory section, "The Hermeneutics of the Pesharim," introduces the mind-set of the writers of these texts. We are warned that "any historical data obtained from the pesharim will not present us with objective historical data" (p. 5), for the Qumranites wrote these works under the "overpowering influence of the Righteous Teacher" (p. 8) who was an "inspired interpreter" (p. 10). The "social consciousness and the self-understanding of the Qumranites were shaped by the study of Torah" (p. 14), and the biblical commentaries reflect "fulfillment hermeneutics" (p. 16).

The central part of the book (there are no chapters) opens with a synopsis of the history of the community, according to a consensus, or at least a degree. This consensus is as follows. The community originated "sometime between 200 and 150 B.C.E." (p. 25), and around 150 the Teacher led "a collection of priests and Levites from the Temple into the inhospitable wilderness." In a relatively lengthy account of the archaeology of Qumran, de Vaux's reconstruction is followed; Qumran was a "celibate monastery," and a number of alternative views (that it was a fortress, villa, trading post) are countered. The Qumran group is also said to come out of the Essene movement, but the important issue of whether the Teacher's founding of the Qumran community arose from disputes within the Essenes is given no discussion ("there is no consensus," p. 57).

We then turn to a section called "The Pesharim and Qumran History" and the kernel of the book's theme. Charlesworth opens with Cross's opinion that "the allusions in biblical commentaries can be utilized in reconstructing the history of the sect" (p. 70), for the following reasons: the sect was used to memorizing; it was priestly (and...