historical perspectives: from the hasmoneans to bar kokhba in light ...

JUDEAN NATIONALISM 5
The absence of Jewish and Judean history characterizes not only
these introductory surveys but also studies representing the cutting
edge of Qumran research. Let us examine three symposia held during
this decade. The papers presented at the 1992 conference sponsored
by the New York Academy of Sciences were grouped for
publication under the following five headings: Archaeology and History
of the Khirbet Qumran Site; Studies on Texts, Methodologies and
New Perspectives; The Scrolls in the Context of Early Judaism; Books,
Language and History; and Texts and the Origins of the Scrolls.
The history alluded to in the title of the fourth section is exhausted
by a study of whether the list of treasures in the Copper Scroll is
factual. The 1993 Notre Dame symposium organized its papers under
the following rubrics: The Identity of the Community; The Community
and Its Religious Law; The Scriptures at Qumran; Wisdom and
Prayer; and Apocalypticism, Messianism, and Eschatology. Finally,
to return to our present venue, the symposium sponsored by the
Orion Center in 1996 was explicitly devoted to the use and interpretation
of the Bible. 4 In view of this trend, it is not surprising to
find the following in the foreword to a "study edition" of the Dead
Sea Scrolls. The editors mention that their work is intended, inter
alia., for scholars who do not specialize in Qumran studies. Thus,
they hope that their work will be useful for those who work on the
Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, rabbinic literature, Semitic languages,
the History of Judaism, or the History of Religions. Conspicuous
by its absence from this list of specialities is the history of Judea or
of the Jews. 5
What is implicit in the evidence just cited is made explicit by
Vermes. He writes, "Looking at the Qumran discoveries from an
overall perspective, it is—I believe—the student of the history of
Palestinian Judaism in the intertestamental era (150 BCE-70 CE)
4 Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present
Realities and Future Prospects, ed. M. O. Wise, N. Golb, J. J. Collins, and D. G.
Pardee, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 722 (New York: New York
Academy of Sciences, 1994); The Community of the Renewed Covenant: The Notre Dame
Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. E. Ulrich and J. C. Vanderkam (Notre Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1994); Biblical Perspectives: Early Use and Interpretation
of the Bible in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Proceedings of the First International Symposium
of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 12—14 May
1996, ed. M. E. Stone and E. G. Chazon, STDJ 28 (Leiden: Brill, 1998).
5 F. Garcia Martinez and E. J. C. Tigchelaar, ed., The Dead Sea Scrolls Study
Edition, vol. 1 (Leiden: Brill, 1997-98), ix.