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

PETER W. FLINT 245
Edition IIa (the 11QPs a -Psalter, consisting of Edition I plus the arrangement
found in the large Psalms scroll), and Edition IIb (the MT-150
Psalter, comprising Edition I plus Psalms 90–150 as found in the MT). It
appears that IIa and IIb were both completed before the Qumran period,
although one is hard-pressed to find firm evidence of Edition IIb in any
Hebrew manuscript before the second half of the first century B.C.E.
(when MasPs b was copied). We cannot rule out the existence of yet further
editions of the Psalter among the Psalms scrolls (e.g., the collection
in 4QPs f [= 4Q88], whose arrangement differs from both the MT and
11QPs a [= 11Q5]), but this seems impossible to prove owing to the fragmentary
state of the manuscript evidence.
3.3 11QPs a as Part of a Scriptural Psalter
a. Early Developments
The third thesis of the “Qumran Psalms Hypothesis” involves the status
of 11QPsa (= 11Q5): that it contains the latter part of a true scriptural
Psalter and is not a secondary collection dependant upon Psalms 1–150
as found in the MT. Reactions to this proposal have been sharp and
numerous. In 1966, Shemaryahu Talmon and Moshe H. Goshen-
Gottstein published separate articles asserting that 11QPsa (= 11Q5) is
not part of a true scriptural Psalter at all, but a secondary or nonbiblical
collection. 37 Marshalling arguments—such as the incompatibility of
“David’s Compositions” 38 with a scriptural Psalter (Goshen-Gottstein),
or that 11QPsa (= 11Q5) contains material supplementary to Scripture
(Talmon)—both scholars sought to demonstrate that the “Qumran
Psalter” is a liturgical compilation of psalms selected from an already
finalized arrangement of 150 psalms as found in the received Psalter.
More opposition followed. In a series of articles from 1973 to 1980, 39
Patrick Skehan also advocated the secondary status of 11QPsa (= 11Q5),
which he classified as a “library edition” or an “instruction book” containing
the supposed works of David. Reiterating several arguments put forward
by his two Israeli counterparts, Skehan went further by seeking to
37. Shemaryahu Talmon, “Pisqah Be)emsa( Pasuq and 11QPsa ,” Text 5 (1966):
11–21; Moshe H. Goshen-Gottstein, “The Psalms Scroll (11QPsa ): A Problem of
Canon and Text,” Text 5 (1966): 22–33.
38. This prose composition is found in col. 27 of 11QPsa (= 11Q5).
39. Especially Patrick W. Skehan, “A Liturgical Complex in 11QPsa ,” CBQ 35
(1973): 195–205; and idem, “Qumran and Old Testament Criticism,” in Qumrân: Sa
piété, sa théologie et son milieu (ed. M. Delcor; BETL 46; Paris: Duculot, 1978), 163–82.