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

246 PSALMS AND PSALTERSINTHEDEAD SEA SCROLLS
demonstrate that the MT-150 Psalter is chronologically earlier than
11QPs a (= 11Q5). Shortly before his death, Skehan offered his final
assessment of the Psalms scroll as “an instruction book for budding
Levite choristers” at the temple, during the Oniad high priesthood (ca.
200 BC). 40 In more recent times, Ben Zion Wacholder 41 and Menahem
Haran 42 have supported the view that 11QPs a (= 11Q5) contains a
rearrangement or supplementation of the MT-150 Psalter.
The debate between Sanders and these opponents constitutes the first
phase of the Psalms debate, focusing almost exclusively on a single manuscript.
We may concur with George Brooke that this phase (up to ca.
1980) largely resulted in an impasse. 43 It became increasingly clear that
the Qumran Psalms Hypothesis (especially the fourth thesis) could only
be properly evaluated with recourse to additional data. This evidence was
forthcoming in the Psalms scrolls from Cave 4 and—to a lesser extent—
Cave 11. Although most of these texts are fragmentary, they would provide
the fuller data needed for evaluating the Psalms Hypothesis.
b. Gerald Wilson on the Structure of 11QPs a (= 11Q5)
The second phase was ushered in by a series of articles and a Yale dissertation
by Gerald H. Wilson, which appeared from 1983 to 1985. 44 Since
Skehan had given him access to his own notes and transcriptions, Wilson
was able to take into consideration not only 11QPs a (= 11Q5), but also
almost all of the Cave 4 scrolls as well. His research expanded the Psalms
debate and contributed significantly to the discussion. Wilson’s conclusions
support several elements of the Qumran Psalms Hypothesis, especially
those of stabilization over time 45 and the status of 11QPs a (= 11Q5)
40. Patrick W. Skehan, “The Divine Name at Qumran, in the Masada Scroll, and
in the Septuagint,” BIOSCS 13 (1980): 14–44, esp. 42.
41. “David’s Eschatological Psalter: 11QPsalms a ,” HUCA 59 (1988): 23–72.
Wacholder views 11QPs a (= 11Q5) as a rearrangement of the MT-150 Psalter supplemented
by additional material.
42. “11QPs a and the Canonical Book of Psalms,” in ‘Minhah le-Nahum’: Biblical and
Other Studies Presented to Nahum M. Sarna in Honour of His 70th Birthday (ed. M. Zvi
Brettler and M. A. Fishbane; JSOTSup 154; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993), 193–201,
esp. n52.
43. George J. Brooke, “Psalms 105 and 106 at Qumran,” RevQ 54 (1989): 267–92,
esp. 269.
44. Gerald H. Wilson, “Qumran Psalms Manuscripts and Consecutive Arrangement,”
CBQ 45 (1983): 377–88; idem, “The Qumran Psalms Scroll Reconsidered: Analysis
of the Debate,” CBQ 47 (1985): 624–42; idem, The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter (SBLDS
78; Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1985).
45. See section 3.1 (above).