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

Although I agree with his cautions … on the misuse of the Dead Sea Scrolls
in judging Palestinian Judaism, I would like to challenge him on whether
he is using them sufficiently. After all, although sectarian and perhaps not
broadly representative, they are contemporary with the first century in a
way that the rabbinic documents and the available translations of the most
important apocrypha are not. 206
In the volume, Sandmel’s discussion of the scrolls is somewhat less provocative
than in his earlier statements. In part, this was the result of what he termed “an
armistice” in the “battle of the Dead Sea Scrolls” and the opportunity for a more
calm evaluation of the material. 207 Although Brown recognized that Sandmel’s
lack of interest in the scrolls stemmed in part from his concern with Diaspora
Judaism, Sandmel, from early on, was simply never convinced that the available
scrolls could provide as much information as other previously known sources.
While Sandmel acknowledged that “an understanding of the first Christian
century is incomplete without the Scrolls,” 208 he actually estimated the number
of surviving pages of Qumran sectarian material (thirty-five to forty-five pages,
according to his count) and argued that they could not compare in importance
with the hundreds of pages of the pseudepigraphal and rabbinic literature. 209
His disregard for the scrolls in the 1970s was just as apparent as in the previous
decades. In some ways he was fighting the same old battles—granted, with
a different tone—when he did discuss them. In an October 1973 lecture he
gave at the Southern Baptist Seminary, he devoted significant time to taking
William Albright to task for an argument about Hellenization that he made
in the 1950s. 210
In light of his maintained position, there
is little doubt about why Sandmel never
offered a course on the scrolls and concentrated
on teaching and writing about the New
Testament, Josephus, and Philo. 211
Ellis Rivkin, Cincinnati,
Founders’ Day, 1956
(Courtesy American Jewish Archives)
Ellis Rivkin (b. 1918)
Ellis Rivkin came to HUC as a professor
of history in the fall of 1949. He had earned
his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University
in 1946 with a dissertation on the Venetian
rabbi and polemicist Leon da Modena
(1571–1648). 212 After receiving his degree
he was awarded a two-year Cyrus Adler fellowship
at Dropsie College in Philadelphia,
which was extended for a third year while he
continued to work on Modena. 213 With his
arrival at HUC, his duties included teaching
Optimistic, Even with the Negatives: HUC-JIR and the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1948–1993 • 31