the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

CHAPTER EIGHT
HOW THE SCROLLS IMPACTED
SCHOLARSHIP ON HEBREWS
Harold W. Attridge
The relationship of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the New Testament has been
the subject of considerable scholarly debate over the course of the last
half century. 1 The Epistle to the Hebrews, with its distinctive Christology
and exegetical style, has been an important focal point for that debate.
Before reviewing the state of the question, it is important to keep in mind
what kind of text Hebrews is. 2
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS
The Epistle to the Hebrews, an anonymous early Christian homily,
exhorts a Christian community, beset by external opposition (10:32–34;
13:13) and perhaps losing some of its initial zeal (10:25, 39), to renewed
fidelity, inspired by the example of the faithful Son and High Priest, Jesus
Christ (12:1–3). 3 Hebrews combines warnings of impending judgment 4
1. An earlier version of this survey appeared in Alan J. Avery-Peck, Daniel
Harrington, and Jacob Neusner, eds., When Judaism and Christianity Began: Essays in
Memory of Anthony J. Saldarini, vol. 2, Judaism and Christianity in the Beginning (Leiden:
Brill, 2004), 315–42.
2. For a useful brief survey of the entire question, see George J. Brooke, “The
Scrolls and the Study of the New Testament,” in The Dead Sea Scrolls at Fifty (ed. R. A.
Kugler and E. M. Schuller; SBLEJL 15; Atlanta: SBL, 1999), 61–76.
3. For detailed discussion, see Harold W. Attridge, Hebrews (Hermeneia;
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1987), with earlier bibliography. More recently, see the commentaries
by Harald Hegermann, Der Brief an die Hebräer (Berlin: Evangelische
Verlagsanstalt, 1988); William L. Lane, Hebrews (WBC 47A–B; Waco, TX: Word,
1991); Hans-Friedrich Weiss, Der Brief an die Hebräer (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1991); Mary Rose D’Angelo, “Hebrews,” in The Women’s Bible Commentary (ed.
C. Newsom and S. Ringe; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992), 364–68; Eric
Grässer, An die Hebräer (EKKNT 17; 6 vols.; Zürich: Benziger; Neukirchen-Vluyn:
Neukirchener Verlag, 1990—1999) idem, Aufbruch und Verheissung: Gesammelte Aufsätze zum
Hebräerbrief zum 65. Geburtstag mit einer Bibliographie des Verfassers (Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 1992); Paul Ellingworth, The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary on the Greek
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