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

J. J. M. ROBERTS 275
my opinion, Patrick Skehan’s judgment still stands: “There remains only
a single channel of transmission of this book, narrowly controlled from
300 B.C.E. until much later.” 11
THE CITATIONS OF ISAIAH AT QUMRAN
The importance of Isaiah at Qumran is also indicated by the number of
allusions and citations of the book found in other Qumran texts. It can
be quite difficult to prove the existence of a literary allusion, but the
explicit citations of Isaiah in the other texts from Qumran are too numerous
to ignore. In one of the appendices to his doctoral dissertation,
Francis J. Morrow gives a nine-page list of passages from Isaiah cited in
part in extrabiblical texts from Qumran. 12 In light of the new publications
that have appeared in the twenty-four years since his dissertation was finished,
there is little doubt that Morrow’s list could be significantly
expanded. What these numbers actually mean for the Qumran community
could perhaps be disputed, but it does seem clear that their experience
of reality and self-identity was shaped by the biblical text. Morrow
tried to express that by a perhaps overly schematic treatment of what he
saw as the four most frequently quoted passages from Isaiah at Qumran.
According to Morrow, the Qumran community identified itself as “those
in Jacob who turn from transgression” (bq(yb (#p yb#; Isa 59:20),
identified the ideal of the group as “those of steadfast mind” (Kwms rcy;
Isa 26:3), identified the enemy of the group as “the men of scoffing”
(Nwcl y#n); Isa 28:14), and identified the hope of the group as somehow
tied up with “the shoot from the stock of Jesse” (Isa 11:1–16). 13
One very rich source for exploring the imagery that expresses the selfidentity
of the Qumran community and its individual members are the
Hôda¯yôt (hereafter Hodayot), the hymns of the community. I have been
struck by the different use two of these hymns make of Isa 28:16, in
which God promises to lay a firm foundation stone in Jerusalem. 1QH
14.24–30 (6.24–30 Sukenik) uses this text to suggest that the Qumran
community is like a strong fortress into which the individual member
flees to find God’s protection. 1QH 15.8–10 (7.8–10), in contrast, uses the
same passage from Isaiah to suggest that God has made the individual
member like a strong fortress, unmovable in the face of threatening evil.
11. Patrick W. Skehan, “IV. Littérature de Qumran: A. Textes biblique,” DBSup, 813.
12. Francis James Morrow, Jr., “The Text of Isaiah at Qumran” (Ph.D. diss., The
Catholic University of America, 1973), 205–13.
13. Ibid., 189–90.