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

148 EXCERPTED MANUSCRIPTS AT QUMRAN
4. EXCERPTED MANUSCRIPTS AND A FUNCTIONALIST APPROACH
TO AUTHORITATIVE LITERATURE AT QUMRAN
a. The Purpose(s) and Function(s) of Excerpted Manuscripts
In the preceding discussion reference to the function or purpose of the
excerpted manuscripts has often been made. It remains to discuss this matter
more directly since it constitutes one of the important contributions of the
excerpted manuscripts to the field of Qumran studies and impinges to no
small degree on several of the points treated above. In brief, it appears obvious
from their order and form that these manuscripts were intended for some
sort of function or purpose, but scholars have been unable or unwilling to be
more specific than that. 157 The comments that are offered are typically general,
if not downright vague. Note the following: the manuscripts served
“some special use,” 158 imply “a liturgical or devotional purpose,” 159 were
“made and used for some devotional and/or study purpose,” 160 and/or “were
considered a special type of biblical texts, used for specific purposes.” 161
Among generalizations like these, the favorites are largely two: devotional or
liturgical. 162 The physical characteristics of these manuscripts are sometimes
said to support one or the other (even both) of these functions. 163
Part of the problem, of course, is that, lacking further information—
ideally a cultic manual of some sorts 164 —we cannot be entirely certain
157. Note Duncan’s hope (“Considerations of 4QDt j ,” 206) that with the genre
established “the direction of investigation from here might be towards determining
more precisely (beyond the general rubric of ‘liturgical’ or ‘devotional’) the setting
and context of the use of these texts.”
158. Duncan, “Excerpted Texts,” 43.
159. Duncan, “Considerations of 4QDt j ,” 203.
160. White (Crawford), “4QDt n ,” 17.
161. Tov, “Excerpted and Abbreviated,” 585.
162. For the latter, note, e.g., that Sanderson thinks 4QExod d (4Q15) was “a liturgical
scroll” (“15. 4QExod d ,” 127). Cf., similarly, Tov, “Excerpted and Abbreviated,”
590 and, esp., 598: “Most of the excerpted texts from Qumran…appear to have been
liturgical.” For a discussion of what the designation “liturgical” means for various
texts at Qumran, see the helpful article by Eileen M. Schuller, “Prayer, Hymnic, and
Liturgical Texts from Qumran,” in The Community of the Renewed Covenant: The Notre
Dame Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. E. Ulrich and J. VanderKam; Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1994), 153–71, esp. 162–69.
163. For example, Tov remarks that their “small size facilitated easy transport, and
probably implied liturgical use” (“106–108. Introduction to 4QCant a–c ,” 198).
Schuller (“Prayer, Hymnic, and Liturgical Texts,” 167) thinks that multiple copies
could be an indication of liturgical usage.
164. But see Schuller, “Prayer, Hymnic, and Liturgical Texts,” 162–63, for relevant
data toward reconstructing liturgical prayer.