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

276 THE IMPORTANCE OF ISAIAH AT QUMRAN
The importance of such material for the contemporary community of
scholars is twofold. On the one hand, looking at the use the Qumran
community made of Isaiah is part of what is involved in coming to understand
the Qumran community for its own sake. On the other hand, there
are times when the Qumran community’s interpretation of the biblical
text may provide fresh insight for the contemporary scholar’s attempt to
explain these same ancient texts. My own exegetical treatment of Isa
28:16 was deeply influenced by the interpretation of this text in the
Qumran Hodayot. 14 Perhaps this last point can be best elaborated, however,
by a closer look at the exegetical practice at Qumran as reflected in
their biblical commentaries, or pesharim.
THE COMMENTARIES
The Qumran commentaries, or pes 6 ]a4rîm (pesharim), on Isaiah have been
treated extensively in an excellent monograph Maurya Horgan published
in 1979. 15 I am not aware of any new or unpublished pesharim on
Isaiah, and I do not propose to offer any improvements on the Hebrew
text of the pesharim as read by Horgan. Instead, after a brief introduction,
I offer critical reflections on her treatment of the exegetical method
in the pesharim. Then I focus on the issue of the degree to which we can
see the approach found in the pesharim as in continuity with inner biblical
processes of reinterpretation. Here I follow up on an observation
made by William Holladay years ago in what he referred to as a selfextended
oracle. 16
Among the different literary genres represented among the Qumran
documents are a group of fifteen texts that Horgan would classify as
belonging to the genre of the pesharim. 17 Each of these texts offers a
14. J. J. M. Roberts, “Yahweh’s Foundation in Zion (Isa 28, 16),” JBL 106 (1987):
27–45.
15. Maurya P. Horgan, Pesharim: Qumran Interpretations of Biblical Books (CBQMS 8;
Washington: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1979). Cf. Florentino García
Martínez, “El pesher: Interpretación profética de la Escritura,” Salm 26 (1979):
125–39. This article was finished long before the appearance of Horgan’s critical edition
of all the pesharim, “Pesherim,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek
Texts with English Translations, Vol. 6B, Pesharim, Other Commentaries, and Related Documents
(ed. J. H. Charlesworth et al.; PTSDSSP 6B; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck; Louisville:
Westminster John Knox, 2002), 1–193.
16. William L. Holladay, Isaiah: Scroll of a Prophetic Heritage (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1978), 59, 84.
17. Horgan, Pesharim, 1.