The American Jewish Archives Journal, Volume LXI 2009, Number 1

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Time Magazine reported, “And from Hebrew Union College’s President Nelson Glueck came the shrine’s greatest compliment: ‘A book is a shrine in itself, but it is doubly so when housed in a shrine like this. Time becomes timeless here.’” (“Endless Cave in Jerusalem,” Time Magazine [30 April 1965], accessed online 22 January 2009 at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ article/0,9171,898691,00.html). The description of the Shrine of the Book was not explicitly shaped by recourse to Wilson. In his 1967 article he describes the new Israel Museum but not the Shrine of the Book (Wilson, 1967, 49, col. 3). When the article was published as part of an updated book, Edmund Wilson, The Dead Sea Scrolls: 1947–1969 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969), an extensive description of the Shrine of the Book was appended to the discussion of the Israel Museum (240–243). 41 Saperstein appears to have returned to the first Wilson article in preparing this sermon. The concept of a “Battle of the Scholars” appears in quote from William F. Albright, describing the fights over dating in the period following the discovery of the first scrolls. Commenting in 1951 he offered, “During the past three years … there has been a debate about the chronology of the scrolls which has at times attained the status of a veritable guerre des savants.” Wilson (1955), 102, col. 3. 42 This paragraph summarizes his statements about the dating in the first sermon. By the very early 1960s, although he did not change his opinion, Zeitlin by and large refrained from writing about the scrolls in the public and academic press. 43 Certain similarities in theology, rites, and practices are similarly described in the Qumran manuscripts and in Josephus and Philo’s depictions of the Essenes. These include, for example, a commitment to divine foreknowledge and a certain type of fatalism. Additionally, the rites of membership in the group and a commitment to shared community property are quite similar. Both groups also had strong commitment to stringent Sabbath observance and ritual purity. The differences include Philo’s description of the Essenes as avoiding commercial activities, city-dwelling, swearing oaths, and marriage. The scrolls provide allowances for all of these. For discussion see, Gabriele Boccaccini, Beyond the Essene Hypothesis: The Parting of the Ways between Qumran and Enochic Judaism (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998). In recent months, Professor Rachel Elior of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has argued that the Essenes were a fictional group created by Josephus to defend against antisemitic charges made by the Romans. Josephus “wanted to explain to the Romans that the Jews weren’t all losers and traitors, that there were many exceptional Jews of religious devotion and heroism. You might say it was the first rebuttal to anti-Semitic literature…. He was probably inspired by the Spartans. For the Romans, the Spartans were the highest ideal of human behavior, and Josephus wanted to portray Jews who were like the Spartans in their ideals and high virtue.” (Tim McGirk, “Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls ‘Authors’ Never Existed,” Time, 16 March 2009, accessed online on 31 March 2009 at http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885421,00.html. 44 It is impossible to identify the source of Saperstein’s descriptions of the scrolls. This may have been material he learned while at the Shrine of the Book. Wilson’s 1955 article makes reference to some of the scrolls (e.g, The Habbakuk Commentary, 93, col. 1.), but in 1955 he did not know the name “Genesis Apocryphon”—the scroll at that time was still known as the Lamech Scroll—and he did not discuss it in the 1967 article. For general overview of the content of these scrolls see James VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994), especially the section titled, “The Seven Original Scrolls,” 3–7. 45 Since the discovery of the scrolls there had been rumors of an eighth intact scroll circulating among scholars and collectors. On 23 June Glueck visited with Kando, the antiquities dealer who had helped arrange the original sale of scrolls to Athanasius Samuel. During the visit Glueck was informed that some of Kando’s merchandise—the rumored scroll, Glueck supposed—was confiscated by Israeli authorities (Dateline: Jerusalem, 29–30). In the last part of the diary, on 22 August 1967, Glueck noted, “One of my favorite diversions since coming here this June has been to pursue the story of the missing Dead Sea Scroll” (Dateline: Jerusalem, 116). Whether Glueck had begun pursuing the question while the Sapersteins were still in Jerusalem is unclear. 160 • American Jewish Archives Journal
However, on 23 October 1968 The New York Times made public Israel’s acquisition of an eighth scroll (“Israel Discloses Discovery of Dead Sea Scroll,” [23 October 1967]: 3). This was followed several weeks later by a challenge to Israel for inappropriately confiscating the scroll (Terence Smith, “Scroll’s Acquisition by Israel Criticized,” The New York Times [11 November 1967]: 1). It would have been difficult for Saperstein to have missed these stories. The scroll, eventually called the Temple Scroll, was published by Yigael Yadin. For his description of its acquisition see Yigael Yadin, The Temple Scroll (New York: Random House, 1985), 39–55. 46Wilson, 1955, 46, col. 3. 47Wilson, (1955), 48 (col. 1) – 49 (col. 3). Two Sermons on the Dead Sea Scrolls by Rabbi Harold I. Saperstein • 161
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The American Jewish Archives Journa
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VoLume LXI NumbeR 1 (2009) A Journa
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To Our Readers Articles CONTENTS Ga
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Marc Lee Raphael, ed., The Columbia
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TO OUR READERS… The distinguished
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Scrolls. Saperstein has been a pion
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ARTICLES Optimistic, Even with the
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In the months before his death in N
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that if the Hebrew University purch
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In all of [the] effort to acquire a
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On 30 December The New York Times r
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As is clear from the roster of visi
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document for the second volume of s
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He is reputed to be neither an arch
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“A Commentary on the Book of Haba
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print, or else admit they do not kn
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In 1953 Orlinsky was still suggesti
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Yigael Yadin. Yadin was calling fro
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a session devoted to surveying the
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Christian origins? Do they throw an
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Scrolls, necessarily indicated an i
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Although I agree with his cautions
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when you write that ‘Zeitlin’s
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appeared explicitly. Therefore, sug
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acquisition of a set of negatives o
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There can be little doubt that in t
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Mazar be included on the team, alon
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areas as archaeology, linguistics,
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to publish two articles on the scro
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Left to right: G. Ernest Wright, Ne
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through the heavily padlocked and s
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other than study without an explici
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compiled but, because of financial
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United Nations and the Israeli mili
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egan teaching seminars on it 390 an
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Shanks’s intuition about the gene
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faculty and students. However, Zafr
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“annoying” scholars and various
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Scan of original halftone plate of
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your copy of our publication ‘A P
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Ziony Zevit of the University of Ju
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What the scrolls should provide …
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negatives were in the collection bu
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threatened to sue. Second, they saw
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to inform him of his intentions to
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commented, “could be happy with k
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were “asking the court to break Q
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Archaeology Society, 2007), 7-19. O
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“The Annual Meeting of the Corpor
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78Trever to Sonne, 13 March 1950, M
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the So Called Dead Sea Scrolls,”
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139 Albright to Orlinsky, 3 Decembe
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173Samuel Sandmel, “Judaism, Jesu
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205Wayne G. Rollins, “Reviewed wo
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Samuel Sandmel, “Parallelomania,
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On the scrolls and later Christiani
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20 June 1972, Sang, Philip D., Near
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340Broshi to Zafren, 12 June 1972;
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He was appointed assistant professo
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424 Ibid. 425 Gottschalk to Harman,
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Page 123 and 124: 511 Ibid., 391-393. 512For a thorou
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Page 127 and 128: How the Dead Sea Scrolls Influenced
Page 129 and 130: whom preserved ancient and elitist
Page 131 and 132: extensive discussion of the role of
Page 133 and 134: scrolls. 14 At the same time that R
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Page 153 and 154: 32 Cave 11 near Qumran was the last
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Page 159 and 160: e interested in the scrolls. Severa
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Page 184 and 185: Michael A. Meyer, ed., Joachim Prin
Page 186 and 187: interviewees are forty-somethings w
Page 188 and 189: This makes it lively reading even f
Page 190 and 191: of Schwartzbart’s own relatives).
Page 192 and 193: American Jews engage with Israelis
Page 194 and 195: Shlomit Steinberg, Orphaned Art: Lo
Page 196 and 197: Hollace Ava Weiner, Jewish “Junio
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Page 200 and 201: Rabbi Geri Newburge Temple Emanuel,
Page 202 and 203: Biblical Archaeology Review, 24, 56
Page 204 and 205: Glueck, Nelson, viii, 1-7, 12, 17,
Page 206 and 207: L Lacheman, Ernest R., 8-9 Landau-C
Page 208 and 209: Samuel, (Mar) Athanasius Yeshue, me
Page 210: Wicklein, John, 94n194, 97n235 Weis
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The American Jewish Archives Journal, Volume LXI 2009, Number 1

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