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

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CHAPTER NINETEEN<br />

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE MEAL FORMULA<br />

IN JOSEPH AND ASENETH: FROM QUMRAN<br />

FEVER TO QUMRAN LIGHT<br />

R<strong>and</strong>all D. Chesnutt<br />

As important for <strong>the</strong> study of early Judaism as <strong>the</strong> previously unknown<br />

texts recovered from <strong>the</strong> Judean Desert over <strong>the</strong> last fifty years is <strong>the</strong> reexamination<br />

of long-known texts in <strong>the</strong> light of those new discoveries. That<br />

all early Jewish literature should be scrutinized afresh in view of <strong>the</strong> startling<br />

finds at Qumran is natural <strong>and</strong> appropriate. Extensive primary<br />

sources in Hebrew <strong>and</strong> Aramaic which are clearly Jewish, Palestinian,<br />

from <strong>the</strong> Second Temple period, <strong>and</strong> unedited after that period, cannot<br />

help but illuminate our o<strong>the</strong>r sources, so many of which are extant only<br />

in late <strong>and</strong> heavily edited forms <strong>and</strong> are of uncertain date, provenance,<br />

original language, <strong>and</strong> even Jewishness. Nor is <strong>the</strong> potential illumination<br />

confined to <strong>the</strong> broad ideological l<strong>and</strong>scape of <strong>the</strong>se writings or even to<br />

specific language, ideas, genres, <strong>and</strong> practices for which Qumran provides<br />

parallels. For several works traditionally classified as Old<br />

Testament Apocrypha <strong>and</strong> Pseudepigrapha, <strong>the</strong> significance of <strong>the</strong> scrolls<br />

is much more direct: fragments of Tobit, <strong>the</strong> Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach,<br />

<strong>the</strong> Letter of Jeremiah, four of <strong>the</strong> five works that comprise 1 Enoch,<br />

Jubilees, something akin to some of <strong>the</strong> Testaments of <strong>the</strong> Twelve Patriarchs,<br />

<strong>and</strong> three of <strong>the</strong> five apocryphal Psalms of David have all been found at<br />

Qumran, in some cases prompting major reconsideration of <strong>the</strong> work’s<br />

compositional history <strong>and</strong> interpretation. <strong>The</strong> impact of <strong>the</strong> scrolls on <strong>the</strong><br />

study of <strong>the</strong>se <strong>and</strong> many o<strong>the</strong>r early Jewish <strong>and</strong> Christian texts has been<br />

truly—<strong>and</strong> rightfully—revolutionary.<br />

At <strong>the</strong> same time, <strong>the</strong> desire to explain <strong>the</strong> relationship between <strong>the</strong><br />

Qumran community <strong>and</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r groups, individuals, <strong>and</strong> texts from antiquity<br />

has given rise to many speculative <strong>and</strong> sensational claims. Most notorious<br />

are <strong>the</strong> fanciful <strong>the</strong>ories that link Qumran dramatis personae with<br />

familiar New Testament figures. B. E. Thiering’s identification of John <strong>the</strong><br />

Baptist as <strong>the</strong> Teacher of Righteousness (<strong>the</strong> founder <strong>and</strong> early leader of<br />

<strong>the</strong> Qumran community) <strong>and</strong> Jesus as <strong>the</strong> Wicked Priest (<strong>the</strong> archenemy<br />

397

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