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

GEORGE J. BROOKE 317
to whom God made known all the secrets of his servants the prophets
(1QpHab 7.4–5). But it is not likely to be of much use, especially away
from Jerusalem, to assert one’s authority as a teacher, unless one’s interpretations
can be recognized as valid. In small groups community members
commonly leave or form splinter groups when they can no longer
accept the leader’s authority.
Thus, second, several places in the community’s own texts, as has
been variously described above, imply a theory of Scripture: these scrolls
claim that without the correct interpretation, Scripture is worth little, or
rather, that Scripture and interpretation, the revealed and the hidden that
is being made known only to the initiated, belong inseparably together.
Third, as mentioned (above), the exegesis offered in many different
contexts is far from arbitrary. Most especially, the Qumranites used all
kinds of interpretative techniques as they made authoritative writings relevant
to the community’s contemporary circumstances. The use of
exegetical techniques allowed the interpreter’s authority to be established
and recognized since others could verify and repeat his interpretations.
Even the biblical manuscripts preserved at Qumran reflect exegetical
practices, so we may assume that knowledge and use of a wide range of
exegetical techniques was not just the preserve of a single teacher.
5. The Varying Letter of the Biblical Texts
It is clear from the biblical manuscripts from Qumran, especially those
written in so-called Qumran orthography, that there were a variety of
forms of text for each and every authoritative written work in use at
Qumran. As we have also seen, the explicitly exegetical compositions
from the Qumran community may present biblical quotations with variants,
some of which scribes may have introduced exegetically. The interpreters
of Qumran were very concerned with the details of the
authoritative texts that they interpreted since attention to the letter of the
text facilitated interpretation. However, it is clear that these interpreters,
as well as others in early Judaism and early Christianity, lived with
authoritative texts in fluid forms. The very variety of textual forms in just
one place speaks of the liveliness of the text; the writers gave such texts
interpretations to enhance their liveliness and make them continuously
contemporary and relevant as divine revelation.