 | By: Geza Vermes Binding: Paperback Publisher: Penguin Classics ISBN: 0140449523 ISBN-13: 9780140449525 Released: 24 Jun 2004 RRP: Average Rating:  |
This book was released in 1997, 50 years from the time the first Arab shepherd climbed into a cave in search of a wandering animal & instead fell upon the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Following the 'revolution' of 1991 (to use Vermes words), everyone interested could have unfettered access to the Scrolls, & yet, as inaccessible as they had been previously due to physical restriction, they remained just as inaccessible due to the problem of language & translation.
'In addition to the English rendering of the Hebrew & Aramaic texts found in the eleven Qumran caves, two inscribed potsherds (ostraca) retrieved from the Qumran site & two Qumran-type documents discovered in the fortress of Masada, & brief introductory notes to each text, this volume also provides an up-to-date general introduction, outlining the history of fifty years of Scroll research & sketching the organisation, history & religious message of the Qumran Community.'
This is the latest volume of a series: when Vermes first published an edition in 1962 (then 15 years after the discovery of the first scrolls), the book had 262 pages; the current edition has 648. The introduction deals with a brief sketch of the history of research (including a bit on the controversies, such as not alllowing Jewish scholars to work on these Jewish texts, the close-guarding & restrictive access of the scrolls by the scholars); further issues in the introduction address current research, including questions of dating, provenance, & perhaps, most importantly, the meaning & significance of the Qumran texts.
Vermes puts together a three-part essay on his view (as well as a little on alternative views) of who was the community at Qumran, the history of that community, & the religious ideas of the community.
This is where we get into the text of the Scrolls in earnest. Vermes begins with The Community Rule a large document that listed the requirements & a penal code. This is best known as the Manual of Discipline. Composition may have begun about 100 BCE, & several fragmentary remains exist of copies of the manual.
'There are, to my knowledge, no writings in ancient Jewish sources paralllel to the Community Rule, but a similar type of literature flourished amogn Christians between the second & fourth centuries, the so-callled 'Church Orders' represented by works such as the Didache, the Didascalia, the Apostolic Constitution.'
From the Rules & variants, including the now-infamous MMT text, which provoked international lawsuits for violating the 'copyright' exerted by one Scroll scholar on its contents, Vermes proceeds to examine Hymns & Poems; Calendars, Liturgies & Prayers; Apocalyptic Works (which have the greatest appeal to many imminent eschatologicallly-inclined sects today); Wisdom Literature; Bible translations, commentaries, & apocryphal works; & Miscellanea, including objects such as the Copper Scroll (a rare form, not on parchment, which reads like an accountant's register of treasure), & lists, including the List of False Prophets.
For anyone interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls in any serious way, this is an essential book. With various 'complete' scroll editions & collections being released, this edition, produced by one who has devoted his life to scroll studies, remains one of the best, most complete & clearly translated.
The one drawback, which will only affect those whose interest extends to the study of Roman-period Hebrew & Aramaic, is that there is no photographic imagery or recreation in Hebrew/Aramaic script to show the actual scroll text so that one might make a personal study of the accuracy of the translation. Thus, this text works best for that purpose in conjunction with another translation, or with the very-expensive scroll photographic plate sets now available.
But, for most any use from general interest to scholarship, this volume will serve the reader well.
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