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

466 OLD TESTAMENT PSEUDEPIGRAPHA AT QUMRAN
brought into the sectarian circles from outside. They were probably created
before the community came into being as a distinct entity. 95
The Aramaic texts from Qumran present another significant facet: the
nonsectarian texts most heavily tinged with apocalyptic speculations are
precisely the Aramaic ones. Moreover, they often contain more pronounced
dualistic tendencies not found in the Hebrew apocryphal or
pseudepigraphic texts. This is true, for instance, of the Aramaic apocalypses
such as the Book of Enoch and the Visions of Amram, or of various
Aramaic narratives such as the Four Kingdoms. It seems that it was the
Aramaic apocalypses and narratives, rather than the Hebrew rewritten
Bible texts, which served as one of the main sources for the Qumranic
apocalyptic and dualistic doctrines. This fact suggests that the question of
the origins of some of the community’s doctrines should be approached
in a new way. So should the background and character of the Jewish
apocalyptic literature, taking the Qumran data as a point of departure.
Greek Texts
In a library consisting of some 900 Hebrew and Aramaic texts, and thriving
during Hellenistic and Roman times, the presence of only some ten
(identifiable) Greek literary texts is curious. 96 Originally this number
may have been larger, since some of the Greek texts may have been written
on papyrus, which is less resilient than skin. Nevertheless, the paucity
of Greek texts is intriguing. Did the Qumranites repudiate the use of
Greek for ideological reasons, or were they simply not familiar with it?
And if so, why the presence of Greek texts at all? If they knew Greek and
approved of its use, why the paucity of such texts? Also the content of
these Greek texts is puzzling. That some of the Greek manuscripts contain
the Septuagint Greek translation of the Torah is quite understandable, 97
Brian Webster, “Chronological Index of the Texts from the Judaean Desert,” in The
Texts from the Judaean Desert: Indices and an Introduction to the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert
Series (DJD 39; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 364; and Puech, “Visions de
Amram” in Qumrân Grotte 4.XXII: Textes araméens, Première Partie 4Q529–549 (DJD 31;
Oxford: Clarendon, 2001), 285.
95. Since the earliest copies of some Aramaic works (cf. n94) cannot be autographs,
the compositions of these writings must be placed even earlier.
96. See the list compiled by Emanuel Tov, “Greek Texts,” in The Texts from the
Judaean Desert: Indices and an Introduction to the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Series (DJD
39; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 215–16.
97. 4Q119–122, “Septuagint Manuscripts,” published by Eugene Ulrich in Qumran
Cave 4.IV: Palaeo-Hebrew and Greek Biblical Manuscripts (DJD 9; Oxford: Clarendon,
1992), 161–97.