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

GEORGE J. BROOKE 315
meaning of the Mikra; indeed this revelation was the sole basis for the
comprehension of Mikra until the End of Days.” 74
2. Reflecting Divine Coherence
The books of the Torah (and indeed others 75 ) contain more than one
description of some events. These descriptions never entirely agree with
one another. The problem is obvious: how can both authoritative versions
of an event be correct? The problem concerns the character of God
himself from two perspectives. On the one hand the Jew of the Greco-
Roman period might want to demonstrate that God is consistent in himself
and in what he communicates to others, especially his chosen people.
This means that a proportion of the scriptural exegesis visible in the
Qumran Scrolls is concerned with consistency, bringing one authoritative
text into line with another. 76
On the other hand, the authoritative status of more than one version
of the same event or divine saying allows for the assumption that
revelation is ongoing, not as God in himself increases in integrity, but
inasmuch as his people continuously improve in how they hear and perceive
him. Thus, reflecting divine coherence is another aspect of copying
the divine initiative. Most especially, the ongoing processes of divine disclosure
evident in the various forms of text now so apparent as part of
the Qumran library also implicitly justify the function of the interpreter.
The content of interpretation is to show that God is consistent in himself,
whether in terms of making legal pronouncements or in terms of how history,
especially the eschatological experience of the community, matches
his original purposes. We can thus see the act of interpretation as an
extension of Scripture itself, rather than something that is a secondary
afterthought. The direct interplay of scriptural citation and interpretation
in the pesharim is an illustration of this interdependence of authoritative
text and interpretation.
3. The Biblical Community
Without a doubt various authoritative books played a significant part in
the community’s self-definition. On the one hand, it seems clear that the
74. Fishbane, “Use, Authority and Interpretation of Mikra,” 365
75. Such as Samuel-Kings and Chronicles.
76. See, notably, Emanuel Tov, “The Nature and Background of Harmonizations
in Biblical Manuscripts,” JSOT 31 (1985): 3–29.