Molly M. Zahn

Genre and Rewritten Scripture: A Reassessment

This is the authors accepted manuscript. The original is available at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_biblical_literature/v131/131.2.zahn.html

4QReworked Pentateuch C and the Literary Sources of the Temple Scroll: A New (Old) Proposal 1

Abstract This essay proposes a new understanding of the literary history of the Temple Scroll in light of its relationship with 4QReworked Pentateuch C (4Q365 + 365a). It begins from the argument that 4QRP C includes the five fragments labeled 4Q365a (4QTemple?), and that 4QRP C should be regarded as an expanded edition of the Pentateuch. Substantial parallels between 4QRP C (both 4Q365 and 4Q365a) and the Temple Scroll raise the possibility that an expanded Pentateuch resembling 4QRP C could have constituted the main source with which the Temple Scroll’s redactor worked. This proposal departs from the usual understanding of the Scroll as comprised of several lightly-reworked, independent sources. Instead, it situates the composition of the Temple Scroll more firmly in the context of the ongoing scribal reworking of scripture in the Second Temple period.

The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Scribal Culture of Second Temple Judaism

The Samaritan Pentateuch (sp), along with its Qumran forebears, has deservedly been regarded as a key source of information for understanding the scribal culture of early Judaism. Yet studies have tended to emphasize the relative uniformity of the characteristic pre-sp readings as evidence of a scribal approach distinct within Second Temple Judaism. This article argues that both the uniformity and the distinctiveness of these readings have been overstated: there is more internal diversity within pre-sp than is usually recognized, and similar or identical readings are also preserved in other manuscript traditions. Rather than representing a distinctive scribal approach or school, the readings of pre-sp are better taken as a particularly concentrated example of scribal attitudes and techniques that appear to have been widespread in early Judaism.

Torah for ‘The Age of Wickedness’: The Authority of the Damascus and Serekh Texts in Light of Biblical and Rewritten Traditions

AbstractConsiderable attention has been paid recently to the similarities between the composition and development of biblical texts, rewritten scripture-type texts, and the major Qumran rule scrolls. This study adds a new dimension to that work by comparing the authority claims of the Damascus Document (D) and the Community Rule (S) with those made by Deuteronomy, the Temple Scroll (TS), and Jubilees. While D and S lack the pseudepigraphic self-presentation of the others, they share with them a concern to present themselves as the most authentic expression of God’s revealed will. D and S resemble Deuteronomy in particular in their use of several specific literary techniques to claim authority by means of asserting a close relationship with existing authoritative revelation.

The Scrolls and Biblical Traditions

What do the Dead Sea Scrolls tell us about the forms, transmission, canonization, and interpretation of authoritative scriptures.