Abstract
Ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ancient site of Qumran, a special level of interest has been focused upon the so-called Rule texts. Concentrating on the social realities of the community of Qumran, scholarship considered the Rule texts to offer a window into the social realities of the group. In recent times, however, the focus has shifted towards an understanding of the Qumran materials in terms of being a complex and diverse collection of literature. Hempel describes this new focus on the study of Qumran texts as concentrating on ‘the power of the word over and above our ability to grasp social reality’ (p. 20). The collection of her studies that are assembled in this volume illustrates exemplary the shift towards a literary perspective, using the example of the Qumran rule texts (1QS, 1QSa, 1QD, and 4Q265), which have been a major focus of her research for years.
The volume assembles seventeen previously published articles, which have been lightly reworked, provided with an introduction (Part I), and arranged into eight parts. Published for the first time, the collection also includes the chapter in Part VIII, ‘Does 4Q Equal Qumran? The Character of Cave 4 Reconsidered’. The single parts each examine the Rule texts from a variety of viewpoints, starting with the nature of the communities (Part I) and the beginnings (Part II), while further parts deal with a comparison of the Community Rule and the Damascus Document (Part IV), or priesthood in the Rule texts and beyond (Part VI). Of special interest is, however, Part VII, ‘The Scrolls and the Emerging Scriptures’, in which Hempel investigates the scrolls within the context of the emerging scriptures. Here, she demonstrates convincingly that the evidence of the Rule texts does not testify to an isolated phenomenon, but that the texts have to be interpreted against the background of scribal craft in the late Second Temple period. As such, these texts are not a window into the reality of a specific group, but represent a ‘complex and sophisticated collection of literature’. Hempel describes the reward of studying such fascinating texts as akin to ‘experiencing the freedom of swimming in deep water’ (p. 21).
While collected volumes often carry the risk of amounting to nothing more than a mere bouquet of loosely related studies, Hempel succeeds in submitting a beautiful collection that is thoughtfully arranged to demonstrate how the focus on the Qumran materials as scribal literature opens up new insights on the field and enhances our understanding of the Second Temple period. This volume will not only prove to be essential reading for those interested into the Qumran Rule texts, but it will also serve as a test case for further study on the Qumran materials from the perspective of literature. Dip into it!