The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

408 DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE NEW TESTAMENT
branch of scholarship is doing research on details of the smallest fragments,
using most-refined technological tools such as infrared photography, digital
image processing, radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis, and other scientific
methodologies 5 in order to obtain the most-detailed information on the
provenance and content of every single manuscript. However, the public
interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls is stimulated most vigorously when their
impact on our understanding of Jesus and the origins of Christianity is considered.
6 There have always been attempts to put the scrolls in a close relation
with Jesus and earliest Christianity, and these attempts have had a
strong impact on Qumran research, at least in its early periods. 7 To evaluate
the state of research, we look briefly at the periods of Qumran research.
1. FOUR PERIODS OF DISCUSSION
The scholarly discussion on the relations between the Qumran texts and
the New Testament can be divided into four quite different periods:
a. First Discoveries and Premature Assumptions (1947–ca. 1955)
The first discoveries were made in 1947 (or possibly earlier) by Bedouins in
the area of Khirbet Qumran. The news about the find of ancient manuscripts
1971); William S. LaSor, Bibliography of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1948–1957 (Pasadena, CA:
Fuller Theological Seminary, 1958); Florentino García Martínez and Donald W. Parry,
A Bibliography of the Finds in the Desert of Judah 1970–1995 (STDJ 19, Leiden: Brill, 1996).
Also, see the current bibliography in the Revue de Qumran, and the bibliography of the
Orion Institute at the Hebrew University (Jerusalem), online: http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il.
5. Cf. the different technical contributions in Donald W. Parry and Eugene C. Ulrich,
eds., The Provo International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Technological Innovations, New
Texts, and Reformulated Issues (STDJ 30; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 5–43; as well as three essays
in The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment (ed. P. W. Flint, J. C.
VanderKam, and A. E. Alvarez; 2 vols.; Leiden: Brill, 1998–1999): Gregory L. Doudna,
“Dating the Scrolls on the Basis of Radiocarbon Analysis,” 1:430–71; Gregory H.
Bearman, Stephen J. Pfann, and Sheila I. Spiro, “Imaging the Scrolls: Photographic and
Direct Digital Acquisition,” 1:472–95; and Donald W. Parry et al., “New Technological
Advances: DNA, Electronic Databases, Imaging Radar,” 1:496–515.
6. Cf. James H. Charlesworth’s remarks in his preface to Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls
(ed. J. H. Charlesworth; ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1992), xv.
7. This is obvious in view of the number of inquiries into Qumran messianism and
related topics. Somewhat later, with the ongoing publication of the documents from
Cave 4 and with the increasing number of Jewish scholars entering Qumran research,
other important issues of the texts such as purity and other legal issues have gained
more attention. Cf. Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their True
Meaning for Judaism and Christianity (ABRL; New York: Doubleday, 1995), xxiii–xxiv.