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

GEORGE J. BROOKE 297
synonyms during the late Second Temple period. Many of the compositions
found in the Qumran library, such as the Temple Scroll, may have been
considered as Torah, 31 though it is equally clear that the community distinguished
between Torah and its own rules for disciplinary and organizational
purposes. Having analyzed the various uses of the Hebrew root
#rd (drs ]), he has proposed that normally it means “to seek a verdict or
ruling,” rather than “to interpret.” However, after raising this question of
fundamental importance, Maier has failed to recognize two equally fundamental
and related matters: (1) The person from whom a verdict or
opinion is sought must have some source from which he derives his opinion.
(2) Given that on legal matters no sources are explicitly cited in what
may be identified as Qumran compositions other than those known to us
as part of the Pentateuch, it is likely that any verdict or opinion delivered
in a Qumran forum depended on an understanding of the relevance of
certain scriptural passages to particular issues. Thus, despite Maier’s partially
justified skepticism that all legal matters in the Qumran texts were
derived from scriptural prescriptions, it still remains that Scripture must
have been the dominant resource for determining legal opinion.
Maier’s work represents a consolidation of the view that the Law
should be given pride of place in Qumran ideology and in the compositions
that reflect such ideology. This view is represented in the survey by
Fishbane, which in turn builds especially on the work of Joseph M.
Baumgarten and Lawrence H. Schiffman. 32 However, his insistence that
much in Qumran law is not exegetically derived from scriptural texts,
and that by implication scriptural interpretation therefore was a secondary
occupation among the Qumranites does not do justice to the evidence.
What emerges in Maier’s presentation is a description of the
powerful roles of the Qumran Teacher and the priests in the community,
who could directly declare the will of God as they understood it. In this,
Maier’s presentation has returned to a dominant motif in the work of the
31. Maier lists 2Q25; 4Q159; 4Q185; 4Q229; 4Q251; 4Q256–265; 4Q274–283;
4Q294–298; 4Q394–399; 4Q512–514; 4Q523–524; 5Q11–13; 11Q19–20. He especially
claims that the Sepher ha-Tôrah of 11Q19 56.3 is certainly not the Pentateuch but
a book of the Law proper, a collection of legal rulings.
32. Especially see Joseph M. Baumgarten, Studies in Qumran Law (SJLA 24; Leiden:
Brill, 1977); and the series of studies referred to in idem, Qumran Cave 4.XIII: The
Damascus Document (4Q266–273) (DJD 18; Oxford: Clarendon, 1996), xv–xvi, 6;
Lawrence H. Schiffman, The Halakhah at Qumran (SJLA 16; Leiden: Brill, 1975); idem,
Sectarian Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Courts, Testimony and the Penal Code (BJS 33; Chico,
CA: Scholars Press, 1983); idem, The Eschatological Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls: A
Study of the Rule of the Congregation (SBLMS 38; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989); all
revised in idem, Law, Custom and Messianism in the Dead Sea Sect (Hebrew ed.; Jerusalem:
Zalman Shazar Center for the History of Israel, 1993).