The Problem of Origin and Identification of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Author(s): Norman Golb

Reviewed work(s):
Source: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 124, No. 1 (Feb. 29, 1980), pp.
1-24
Published by: American Philosophical Society
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 THE PROBLEM OF ORIGIN AND IDENTIFICATION
OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

NORMAN GOLB
Professorof Hebrew and Judaeo-ArabicStudies, The Universityof Chicago
(Read April 20, 1979)

The location of the firstseven Dead Sea scrolls Essenes living there had in some haste hidden the
in a cave at Wadi Qumran during1947 was followed Manual, along with otherwritingsof theirs,priorto
by startlingfindsin the Judaeanwilderness. These the arrivalof Roman troopsat the settlement.8 How-
include,in additionto findsof an archaeologicalna- ever, no doctrineof celibacycould be located in any
ture, the discoveryof many more Hebrew manu- of the scrolls,9while on the otherhand-contraryto
scripts in Qumran caves (1949-1956), of texts of early expectations-gravesof womenas well as men
the second centuryA.D. in Wadi Muraba'at and near were foundin the ancientcemeterylyingto the east
En Gedi (1951-1955; 1960-1961), and of still addi- of the ruins of the settlement.'0The questionthus
tional first-centurymanuscriptsat Masadah (1963- arises, how could Pliny have describedEssenes re-
1965; see map 1). The persistentthemeof authors sidingnear the shore of the Dead Sea as celibateif
concernedwith interpreting the Qumran texts over indeedit was the Qumran settlement he had in mind
the past threedecades has been that these later reve- in his description?11
lationssupportor at all eventsdo not contradictthe To resolvethis difficulty in the hypothesis, writers
originalhypothesis,firstproposed in 1948, that the cited the statementof Josephus to the effectthat,
Qumran scrollsbelongedto and were writtenby the besides the celibate Essenes, there was also an Es-
Jewish sect of the Essenes who, by an inference senic orderwhichwas not celibate;12 thus,could not
based upon a statementof Pliny the Elder (23-79 the Qumran site have been that of such a group,or
A.D.), were assumed to be livingat the site knownas at all events a kind of complex communityperhaps
Khirbet Qumran, below the area of the caves (see with celibate Essenes at its core and non-celibate
map 2). The persistenceand widespreadpopularity Essenes livingin surroundingareas? 13 The idea of
of this interpretation,thirtyyears afterit was first such a community, or communities, livingall together
proposed in the infancyof Qumran research,'have at Qumran,so different fromwhathad been firstsug-
resultedin its treatment as acceptedtruthin popular gestedin 1948 and so muchat variancewiththestate-
literatureand the press.2 Yet, particularlythrough ment of Pliny upon which the originalcrystal-clear
considerationof the above discoveriesachieved after identification had beenmade,couldnotbuthavecaused
the findof 1947, it may be shown that the original a certainembarrassment in scholarlycircles. In view
hypothesishas in fact become confoundedby emer- of the new difficulty occasionedby this proposal,evi-
gent anomalies requiringthe addition of qualifica- dently,some writersbegan moving away from use
tions to the hypothesisthat make it appear less con- of the term"Essene" while yet maintainingthat the
vincingtoday than it once was. At the same time, group inhabitingthe site was closelyrelatedto that
theseveryanomaliesopen the way to a new explana- sect.14 Others,becomingacutely aware of passages
tionof the discoveriesbothconsonantwithpreviously in Qumran texts which appeared not to be in har-
known historicalinformation and requiringnone of mony with the Essene identification, began favoring
the special argumentsneeded to bolsterthe original new ones, characteristically maintainingon the basis
hypothesis. of ideas containedin certainof the scrolls,however,
The earliestanomalyto be observedhas to do with that the Qumran site could at all eventscontinueto
identificationof KhirbetQumran as the main settle- be called a settlementof sectarians.15 This in turn
ment3of Essenes. The identification was firstmade seeminglyleft intact the concept that the Qumran
primarilyon the basis of rules containedin but one scrollshad been writtenby membersof a single sect
of the seven originalscrolls,the text known in En- livingclose to, or even in,16 the caves wheretheyhad
glishas the Manual of Disciplineor the Rule.4 Laws been found. If, however,the inhabitantsof Khirbet
of this scroll having an Essenic tenor5 were con- Qumran had to begin with been anothersect in an-
nected with the much studied statementof Pliny to cient Judaism actively engaged in the literaryand
the effectthat the solitaryand celibateEssenes lived contemplative life,whywould Pliny (or, as is thought
west of the Dead Sea with only the palm trees for by some, Pliny's source) only have mentionedthe
company,and that lyingbelow them was En Gedi.6 celibate Essenes in his descriptionof the Dead Sea
It was a naturalinferencethatthe Qumran settlement regionof the Judaeanwilderness?
located near the caves was just this site,7and that The second major anomalyin the Qumran-Essene
1

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 0

0
Jericho - |

Jerusalem
Qumran

Bethlehem*
*Herodium

W.Murabba;'at , * Machaerus

*Hebron Dead
Em
Ein Gedi
Gedi SeoaS
Sea
~~~~R.
Arnon

Masadah|

N
I I UO,Kll20 25
KU

MAP. 1. Sites of discoveriesin the Judaeanwildernessdur-

ing and after1947,withrelatedcitiesand towns.

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2 NORMAN GOLB [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

discoveredamong the firstseven scrolls.18 Many of

the newly foundmanuscriptswere shown to contain
V-A 30 either Biblical writings,remnantsof ancient Jewish
literaturealready known in Greek translationin the
apocryphaand pseudepigraphaof the Hebrew Bible,
writingssimilarto these latter,and still othergenres
of old Hebrew literaturenot previouslyknown.'9

A20 However, even with the qualificationthat the doc-

trinesand laws foundin some of thesewritings,origi-
nating as early as the firstor second centuryB.C.,
could be comparedor contrastedonly to early texts
of Rabbinic Judaism of the second and third cen-
turiesA.D., it is nevertheless
the case thatonlya small
fractionof the totalityof scrolls containedlaws or
doctrineswhichmightbe termednotoriouslyhetero-
Khirbet dox,20 let alone Essenic. The majorityof the non-
Wad;Q, Qumran Biblicaltextsappear to be akin to, and at timesiden-
tical with,well-knownbooks of the apocryphallitera-
ture,which no writercould ever show, on the basis
of internalevidence,to have been writtenby members
of a single group or sect within ancient,pre-Tan-
naiticJudaism. Among the few Qumran scrollsde-
monstrablywrittenby Jews whose doctrinesmay be
considered heterodox in comparison with rabbinic
Judaismof the second and thirdcenturiesA.D., the
two of greatestlengthare the Manual of Discipline
and the Damascus Covenant,the latter known also
as the Zadokite Fragmentsand describingthe migra-
tion of a group of early believers to Damascus.
There are remarkablecontradictionsbetween ideas
of the one scroll and the other,21and these conflicts
alone disturbthe idea of a single,homogenoussect
livingin antiquityat the Qumran site.
In additionto the explanationthatdifferent groups
,NY) En etXTannur having conflictingdoctrinesmay have been living
side by side or near one another at Qumran (cf.
below, firstsectionof note 13), and the one to the
effectthat it was the Manual of Discipline alone
Ein Feshkha N which served as the doctrinaland legal work of the
people actuallylivingat Qumran (cf. note 18 and last
sectionof note 13), several other explanationshave
01 been offeredto deal withthisgroupof difficulties.A
KM primeone would appear to be thatthe evidencethat
Ras Feshkha Essenes wrote the Scrolls and were living at the
~L
Qumran site is otherwiseso strongthat it mustnow
be taken for granted that it was they who were
mainly responsiblefor the writingand copying of
MAP. 2. Khirbet Qumran and neighboring caves. the Jewishapocalypticliterature.'9A second is that
the Damascus covenantersrepresentan offshootof
hypothesiswas destinedto place any particularsec- the Qumran sect or vice versa, the contradictory
in jeopardy. It grew out of the
tarian identification doctrines being the result of inner developments
fact that between 1949 and 1956 thousandsof frag- made over centuries.93A third,usually interwoven
ments fromstill additional Hebrew scrolls,between with others describedhere, is that the word "Da-
five hundredand eight hundred in number,"7were mascus" in passages of the Damascus Covenantde-
found in caves above Khirbet Qumran. These dis- scribingthe sect's nmigration thereis not to be taken
coveriesin themselvesdemonstratedthat it was only at its face value but is rathera veiled metaphorfor
by accidentthat the Manual of Discipline had been Qumran itself.24 A fourthexplanation,addressed

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VOL. 124, NO. 1, 19801 PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS
primarilyto the question of the varietyand mutual
contradictions of the texts,is that,while it may con-
tinueto be positedthatit was the Essenes who were
living at Qumran and writingbooks of theirsthere,
thisis not to say theydid not also copy books whose
ideas theydid not themselvesaccept,or thattheydid
not also have scrolls broughtin fromthe outside.25
However, if the site describedby Pliny cannot be
demonstratedto be the Qumran settlement,and if
thereare contradictory doctrinesin certainheterodox
Qumran texts and these are themselvesoutweighed
in numberby textswhichcannotbe demonstrated by
their contentsto be heterodox,why is it that the
Manual of Discipline,accidentallyfound among the
firstseven scrolls in 1947, must still be assumed to
have been the essential,salientdoctrinalwork of the
people living at the Qumran site? 26
The thirdmajor anomalyspringsfromthe factthat
in 1949-that is, almost immediately afteremergence
of the Qumran-Essenehypothesiswith its emphasis
on centralityof the site in the doctrinaland literary
propagationof Essenism-it was observedthat in a
Syriac letterwrittenapproximatelyin 800 A.D. the
Nestorian Patriarch Timotheus I of Seleucia, who
lived in Baghdad,had made referenceto the discovery
of Hebrew manuscriptsten yearspreviouslyin a cave
"near Jericho" (Syr. bequrbJdiyerih.a). He states
that he learned this fact from "trustworthy Jews"
who had converted,and who told him that
"thedog of a huntingArab . . . entereda cave and did
not come out. His masterfollowedhim and founda
dwellingwithinthe rocks,in whichwere manybooks.
The hunterwentto Jerusalem and informed the Jews.
Theycamein throngs and foundbooksof theOld Testa-
mentand othersin Hebrewscript.. . ." 27
Later in the letter Timotheus adds that the same
convertstold him that "we have found more than
two hundred psalms of David," evidentlymeaning
others besides those found in the Biblical Book of
Psalms.
While attentionwas being called to this letter,
writerswere also showingthatOrigen,in the middle
of the thirdcenturyA.D., had himselfsaid that the
Greek Bible translationused by him for the sixth
column of the Hexapla "was found togetherwith
otherHebrew and Greekbooks in a jar near Jericho"
during the reign of Caracalla some fiftyyears ear-
lier.28 Thus two ancient sources, one of the third
centuryand the otherof the ninth,had called atten-
tion to the discoveryof Hebrew manuscriptsnear
Jericho,of whichthe larger cache at least had been
hidden in a cave.29
In explanation of these statements,writerspro-
posed3 that theyimpliedtherehad been earlierdis-
coveriesat Qumran itself,Timotheusas well as Ori-
gen speaking impreciselyof the discoverieshaving
taken place "near Jericho." These writersevidently
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3
held that the reason fragmentsof possibly eight
hundred scrolls could be found in the same area
eleven hundred years later was that the Jews of
Jerusalemwho had come to the cave site had simply
not discoveredall the manuscriptshiddenin various
surroundingcaves.
However,since the news of the find,as Timotheus
writes,had moved "throngs"to come to the site,and
these were believingJews, not bedouin out looking
for game, it is difficultto creditthe idea that they
would have overlookedthe possibilityof findingother
ancientand, to them,perhaps sacred Hebrew scrolls
in the nearbycaves. Furthermore, why did neither
Origen nor Timotheusstate-assumingthattheyhad
the Qumnran caves in mindin speakingof the earlier
discoveries-that the findshad been made near the
shore of the Dead Sea, which for Quimiranis the
closest geographicmarker? Tiimiotheus, residingin
Baghdad, may be forgiventhis imiiprecision, but one
expects more of Origen, who lived in Palestine and
was well acquaintedwith its geography. There are
caves much nearer to Jerichothan those at Qum-
ran (see map 3), and if one but refrainsfrom
subjectingthe words of these authors to a special
exegesis, the possibilityemerges of discoveryover
the past seventeencenturiesof Hebrew manuscripts
not merelyin the singlearea of Qumran,but in three
hidingplaces in the wider neighborhoodof Jericho.
This in turn,pointingas it does to the possibilityof
anothercause for the hiding of manuscriptsin this
part of Judaea in antiquity,adversely affectsthe
claim of organic connectionbetween the Qumran
settlement and the manuscriptsof the nearbycaves.
Some of the above described weaknesses in the
Qumran-Essenehypothesismust have been at least
consideredin passing as researchersinvestigatedthe
manuscriptfindsand the Khirbet Qumran site dur-
ing the firstdecade of discoveryin the Judaeanwil-
derness. However, there can be no doubt that the
hypothesishad an intrinsicattraction,and it was
thus natural for archaeologistsworkingat Khirbet
Quumranto seek corroborating evidenceforthe iden-
tificationamong the artifactsbeing uncoveredthere.
As they were convincedthat the manuscriptshad
been composed at Qumran, they sought to answer
the inevitablequestion, "Where mightthe texts of
this Essene settlementhave been produced?" They
discovereda room of 13 x 4 meterswhichoriginally
had supporteda secondstoryof the same dimensions,
and, in the debris of the lower room survivingfrom
the destructionof the second story,the remainsof
threemud-bricktables coveredwith plasterand two
inkwells.31 This no longer extant second story,it
was proposed, had been a scriptorium-thatis, a
writing-room of scribes such as is known to have
been locatedin medievalabbeys-where the Qumran
scrolls were writtenor copied.32 As some authors
4 NORMAN GOLB [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

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VOL. 124, NO, 1, 19801 PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS 5

have shown,however,tables of the kind discovered bers of the site and fromits scriptorium-whereone
could have been used for copyingscrolls only with may assume that officialletters and documentsof
great difficulty; ancient depictionsof scribes do not the sect were also produced-how could the original
show them sittingat such tables.33 No fragmentof documentshave been so meticulouslyexcluded from
parchmentor papyrus was found in the debris of storage? Even on the basis of the argumentthatfor
that room,nor any tools of scribes such as styluses some reason the texts in the scriptoriumwere not
or line-markers. Moreover, the room and debris removed,one cannotthinkit likelythatthose leading
have not been foundto be situatedamong chambers a motherhouseof the Essenes would have left the
or halls demonstrably showingsigns of academicuse, deeds and recordsof the sect to perish in the ruins
such as can be shown in the case of medievalscrip- while takingcare to hide away hundredsof literary
toria.34 In a communitywhose characteristicsin- scrolls. It is remarkablethat duringthree decades
cluded a militarytower and siege-walls,several uses writershave not pointedout this difficulty, nor asked
of such a room come to mind,particularlyas it was whyit is that,assumingthe Qumran site fora period
located adjacent to, and extendingsouthwardfrom, of between one hundred and two hundred years41
the tower35-but the concept of a scriptoriumdoes was indeed the main settlementof Palestinian Es-
not appear at all warrantedby the survivingevidence. senes, and that theyhad an organicconnectionwith
Yet archaeologistsdid findjars at the settlement of the cave manuscripts,no documentsof an administra-
the same kind as those in which scrolls had been tive or personal nature from the site should have
foundin the caves (see note 8), and this seemed to been foundthere.42
supportthe standardhypothesisdecisivelyregardless Of equal significanceis the additional anomaly,
of its weak aspects. Only after furtherdiscoveries also broughtout by the discoveryof autographsat
were made givingrise to the recognitionof additional Muraba'at and En Gedi, that among the thousands
anomalies in the hypothesishas it become evident of Qumnranfragmentsand several intact scrolls be-
thatan errorwas made in prolongingit. lieved to have originatedat the Khirbet Qumnran
The firstof the new discoverieshad in fact been settlement, not one parchmentor papyrus text has
initiatedin 1951, when finds were made at Wadi been shown to be even a literaryautograph. These
Muraba'at, south of Qumran, of actual documents texts are withoutexceptionscribalcopies of literary
of the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-135 A.D. These works,sometimestwo, threeor more steps removed
texts were publishedas a corpus only in 1961, a full from the no longer extant original authors' texts
decade later.36 In 1960 and 1961 expeditionstook upon whichtheyare based. It is a cardinalrule of
place into the wadis lying between En Gedi and manuscriptinvestigation-towhichQumranresearch-
Masadah, where still other documentsof the Bar ers, it must be emphasized,have not been entirely
Kokhba period were found.37 It may be observed insensitive 43-that at the outsetone mustask whether
withoutdifficulty that these texts are original,docu- the textbeing studiedis a copy or the author'sorigi-
mentaryautographsratherthan scribalcopies of lit- nal; furthermore, it mustbe treatedas a copy unless
erarytexts (see figs.1-A and 1-B). The difference in investigationdemonstratesbeyond reasonable doubt
the historicalqualityof the Bar Kokhba manuscripts that it is the autograph. The fact that writershave
and thatof the texts fromQumran is exemplified by shown neitherthat any Qumran text on parchment
the fact that there are referencesin the formerto or papyrus has autographicfeaturesnor that alter-
genuinelocalitiesin the Judaeanwilderness,38 whereas nate hard evidenceexists to supportthe idea of ac-
the Qumran literaryscrolls contain statementsonly tivityof authorsat the KhirbetQumran settlement44
about a few well-knowncities (e.g., Jerusalemand contravenesthe notion that the site was the center
Damascus), neverexplicitlyabout Qumranor nearby of Essenism4 where these people were supposed to
places, even such as Jerichoor En Gedi. have forgedmanyof theirsalientideas. All one may
The Bar Kokhba documentsmade clear thatorigi- say on the basis of architectureof the scriptsand
nal Hebrew autographsof a documentarycharacter, relatedpieces of evidence is that the scrolls consti-
such as personal and administrative lettersor deeds tuteremnantsof librariescontainingscribalcopies of
and contracts,could indeed survive from antiquity literaryworks,some of which copies46 were hidden
in Palestine. Thus theyput, or should have put, a away in jars evidentlyfurnished, if only in part,by
spotlighton the fact that no text of avowedlydocu- inhabitantsof the region.47
mentarycharacter-withthe possible exceptionof a There is, in addition, one special Qumran text
singlefragmentfromCave IV whichhas neverbeen which itself contains informationhighly damaging
published-had been foundat Qumran.39 This may to the Qumran-Essene hypothesis,and that is the
be termedthe fourthsalientanomalyin the Qumran- single manuscriptwrittennot on parchmentor pa-
Essene hypothesis:if the scrolls were fromQumran pyrus but on copper.48 This text, composed of in-
and, when it was heard that Roman troops were ventoriesof precious items hidden away in various
approaching,were gatheredup in haste40fromcham- places in Judaea, was firstdiscoveredin 1952. It

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6 NORMAN GOLB [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

containsa total of twelvecolumns,about fiveinven-

Hebrew idiom
toriesto each, writtenin a non-literary
datable to the firstcenturyA.D.-unlike most literary
Qumran texts whose language is earlier.49 The fact
that it is writtenon copper hints that the authors
a . w
sM,LV~YW
yjw attachedimportanceto it.50 The writing(see fig.2)
cannot be said to be of professionalscribes, while
the inventoriesare given withoutembellishment.As
in the Bar Kokhba documents,so here one finds
genuine toponymsof the Judaean wilderness.51 In
severaldescriptionsthe statementis made thatbooks
,'4/
are buriedadjacentto the treasures.52 What is more,
at the end of the scrollone reads that "in a pit . . .
to the northof Kollat . . . is hiddena copy of this
writingtogetherwith its explanation. 53 This
ijAM
%.9AM'5 - ;n
shows clearly that the Copper Scroll was an auto-
graph text whose contentswere themselvescopied
down, apparentlywith augmentations,into another
scroll,and that the latterwas in turn hidden away
forsafekeeping.
This text thus has featuresof a documentary char-
acter-but the wealth-eschewingEssenes, said by
both Philo and Josephusto have numberedno more
than four thousand souls, could hardly have had
treasuresof the size describedin it.54 The palpable
place of originof the treasures,artifacts,and books
referredto in the Copper Scroll is Jerusalem. The
)R 4V
S/w jjI W w M surmiseis reasonable that beforeand during stages
of the siege on the capital,between68 and 70 A.D.,
steps were takento removeat least a portionof the
sizeable treasureswhichhad accumulatedthere,par-
ticularlyin the Temple by virtueof contributions of
a large diaspora which existed even then.55 More-
over,it cannotbe held to be withoutsignificance that
books are describedas being hidden alongside some
of the treasures.56
The danger for the standardhypothesisposed by
Qumran
d~~~~~~ and M"ast ",u * f sm w h this text is manifest;and thus many writershave
out of hand, claimingthat,
st os fDrneso. 1lns2ff um
th
;again
e 9 stnt svA jao^t
rejected its authenticity
while ancient,it is an imaginaryand fictitiouswrit-
ing 57-whereas almost all who accept it as genuine,
while at the same time continuingto hold to the
Qumran-Essenehypothesis,claim that this text sim-
ply has no connectionwiththe otherscrolls.58 That
is, whileupholdingtheclaimof a livingbondbetween
the parchmentand papyrustexts and the settlement
below, those in the latter categorydeny the possi-
bilityof such bond betweenthe Copper Scroll and the
settlement. The formergroup, on the other hand,
agis the Sons oDakesco.2lis2if (Qm in order to perseverein the convictionthat the site
was inhabitedby Essenes, who could not have had

ran). b. Manual of Discipline,col. 2 lines 19 ff. (Qum-

ran). c. llQPs' (Psalms Scroll), col. 9 lines 1 ff.
(Qumran). d. Fragmentof 4Q 174 ("Florilegium").
(Qumran). e. Fragmentof Psalm 82 (Masadah). f.
Fragmentof the "Scroll of the SabbathSacrifice" (Ma-
sadah).

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VOL. 124, NO. 1, 19801 PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS 7

treasuresof the size describedin the document,has

to claim that the statementsgiven in it are untrue.
The non-literarynature of this text, the dry cata-
loguingof the deposits,and the fact that it too was
found in one of the Qumran caves, make eitherof
theseproposalsdifficult to accept.
Attentionmust,moreover,be given to what is one 1..i
of the most strikingpassages in the Copper Scroll;
this is, the statementin the firstseven lines of Col- - -

umn VII to the effectthat in the Cave of the Pillar,

which has two openingsand faces eastward,one is
to dig at the northernopening a distance of three
cubits downward,where will be found an amphora
containinga book, underneathwhich are forty-two
talents (i.e., of silver).59 What makes this passage
so remarkableis that it follows immediatelythe
statementthat thirty-twotalents are hidden at a
tomb (or the tomb) situated at the Brook of the
Dome, "as [one is] comingfromJerichoto Sekha-
kha."60 This juxtapositionof passages places the
Cave of the Pillar in this same regionbetweenJeri-
cho and the latter site, which cannot be identified
with certaintyyet, at the most,was but several kil-
ometers from Jericho.61 This passage, in other
words,refersto the hidingof a book in a cave near
Jericho,which is at the same time not one of the
caves above Khirbet Qumran, a site too far from db-9

Jerichoto be identified with Sekhakha. In addition,

thereis a statementat the beginningof ColumnVIII 1 ~
of the scrollto the effectthatbooks have been hidden

b
along with some ritualvessels at an aqueduct whose I I7
location also was apparentlynear Jericho.62These
passages of a documentarynature form a singular W~~~~~~~~~~
parallel to the statementsof Origen and Timotheus
regardingthe phenomenonof discoveryof Hebrew
manuscriptsnear the same city.63 Since the places
indicated in the Copper Scroll, however, must be
considerablynearer Jerichothan is Qumran,64they
cast still furtherdoubt (see above p. 3) on the
interpretation of the finds reportedby Origen and
Timotheusas being earlierdiscoveriesof manuscripts
at Qumran. The consequentemergingprobabilities,
thatat some timein the firstcenturyHebrew manu-
scripts were hidden away in various places in the
Judaean wilderness and the plain of Jericho,not
only in the Qumran caves, and thatburial of objects
of materialvalue palpablyemanatingfromJerusalem
took place in the same area at the same time,tend
to show the arbitrarynatureof the hypothesishold- FIG. 1-B. Examplesof documentary handsin theBar Kokhba
ing that the scrolls found in the caves at Qumnran manuscripts,a. Portionsof a legal contract,133 A.D.
b. and c. Lettersof Simon ben Kosiba ( Bar Kokhba)
belongeduniquelyto the nearby settlement. to Jeshuaben Galgola.
In brief,the sixth anomalyin the Qumran-Essene
hypothesis, createdby discoveryof the Copper Scroll, Qumran caves are part of a yet larger collectionof
is that this text-the only Qumran scroll yet pub- textsto whose concealmentin the Judaeanwilderness
lished having documentarycharacteristics-contains and elsewheremay be attributeda cause, or causes,
informationfrom which it may be legitimatelyin- entirely differentthan the one suggestedby adher-
ferredthat both it and the othermanuscriptsof the ents of the Qumran-Essenehypothesiswith respect

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8 NORMAN GOLB [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

to the scrollsfoundin the caves above the settlement. wildernesshas had the effectof burdeningthe stand-
What is more, a later discoveryin the Judaean ard hypothesiswith still anotheranomaly.

o3 y yi *Jt1Jrl-6aWi 4i r?i1 r
em'tI-n"Im
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VOL. 124, NO. 1, 19801 PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS
Between 1963 and 1965 two archaeologicalexpedi-
tions were made to Masadah, to which remnantsof
the defendersof Jerusalemhad fledand where,along
with the Zealots, they were to resist the troops of
Flavius Silva until 73 A.D.65 In the ruins of the
site were discovered fragmentsof fourteenmore
scrolls,66includingBiblical texts,part of Ecclesiasti-
cus, a fragmentof Jubilees,and, remarkably, a por-
tionof the so-called"Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice"
-a duplicateof a text foundin Qumran Cave IV.67
At the time of its publicationit had been observed
that the work found at Qumran implied a special
calendar dividing the year into twelve months of
thirtydays. Previously,writershad held that such
a calendar was used by the Qumran Essenes and
that it was peculiarto this sect.68 This explanation,
however,would have been destroyedby the unob-
structedrecognitionthat the very same work was
also found at Masadah, many of whose defenders
came therefromJerusalemin the wake of the Roman
captureof the cityin 70 A.D. as well as beforehand.
Thus, a special explanationwas once again intro-
duced: this particular scroll, and perhaps others
found at Masadah,69had a peculiar history-either
it alone, or with others,was broughtthereby Qum-
ran Essenes who, it was claimed,joined up with the
defendersin the last few years of the revolt. How-
ever, thereis no evidenceeitherin Josephusor else-
where that Essenes in small or large numberjoined
the Masadah defenders;for this reason the defense
was raised that Josephushad writtenthat the com-
manderof anothersectorduringthe revolthad been
a certainJohnthe Essene.70 The questionwas asked
whetherother Essenes might not also have joined
the revolt-and answered affirmatively by reference
to the duplicateliteraryfragment foundat Masadah.71
Now this explanation,while protectingthe theory
of special connectionbetweenthe Qumran caves and
nearby settlement, moves against the known fact of
captureof Masadah by Judaeansicarii and the aug-
mentationof the force there by refugeesfrom the
siege of Jerusalem. It moreoverelevates the stand-
ard hypothesisto what may be fairlytermeda pan-
Qumran theoryaccountingfor virtuallyall findsof
first-century Hebrew manuscriptsin Palestine: the
"sectarian" fragmentand perhaps other Masadah
texts are claimed to come from Quniran, the finds
near Jericho mentionedby Origen and Timotheus
are said to be earlier discoveries of manuscripts
which took place at Qumran, and, of course, the
fragmentsof perhaps eight-hundred scrolls found at
Qumran also originatedthere. By this theorythe
Hebrew literatureof first-century Palestinian Jews
other than Essenes has virtuallydisappeared,while
that of the claimed Qumran Essenes is represented
throughthe centuries by at least four discoveries
which could not possiblyhave consistedall together
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9
0
_
JerichoS b
Jerusalem.
Qumran
Bethlehem"*
*Herodium
* * Machaerus
W.Murabba'a
*Hebron Dead
EinGedi Sea R Arnon
Masadahl
t
N
0 25
Ku
ow~~~~~~~~~~w
MAP. 4. Geographicalrepresentation
of the Qumran-Essene
hypothesis.
of less than a thousandmanuscripts. Moreover,to
thisclaim of Qumranoriginof one or more Masadah
fragments mustbe added thosediscussedabove, viz.:
(1) That KhirbetQumranwas the siteof the Essenic
settlementdescribed by Pliny even though Pliny
states that the Essenes of the Dead Sea area were
celibate; (2) That the people livingat Quniranprac-
ticed the laws and believed in the doctrinesof only
some of the scrolls,or else that therewere different
kinds of Essenic orders living side by side or near
one anotherin and aroundthe KhirbetQumran site;
(3) That the term "Damascus" in the Damascus
Covenant in reality means the Qumran settlement
and the surroundingwilderness,and that it was
there that the Essenes guarded and were able to
preserve,morethanany othergroupin ancientJuda-
ism, the various works of Jewishliteraturecompris-
ing the apocryphaland apocalypticwritings,includ-
ing works of these genres previouslyunknown; (4)
That the discoveryof manuscriptsnear Jerichomen-
tioned by Origen, and the discoveryof manuscripts
in a cave near Jerichospoken of by Timotheus,are
in realityearlierdiscoveriesof manuscriptsat Qum-
ran caves, the discoverers having overlooked the
manuscriptshidden in most of the caves; (5) That
even though no autographliterarytexts have been
foundat Qumran, Essenes livingtherewrote works
10 NORMAN GOLB [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

of religiousliterature,and that these and otherwrit- entirelysurroundingthe city in springof 70 A.D.75

ings were copied over by groups of scribesworking The surmise is reasonable that those charged with
in a no longerextantroom whichhad characteristics hidingartifactsof importancewould have soughtto
of a medieval scriptorium;(6) That even though do so in areas not yet controlledby the Romans; but
originaldocumentssuch as lettersand legal instru- by the summerof 68 A.D. the only such territory was
ments have been found to have survivedfroman- thatportionof Judaea lyingto the east and southof
tiquity in the Judaean wilderness,the absence of the city-that area, in other words, where Hebrew
such textsat Qumran has no bearingon the question scrolls were discovered in the third, eighth, and
of the occupationof this site for as much as two twentiethcenturies.76
hundred years by the main, central group of the A configuration of details thus exists which has
Essenic sect; (7) That althoughthe Copper Scroll not been discussed in Qumran research as fullyas
is the one Qumran text demonstrablyhaving char- might have been expected. On the one hand the
acteristicsof an autograph,and despitethe factsthat pressingsituationof the Jews in Jerusalemin 69 and
it was inscribedon copper, contains referencesto 70 A.D. may be observed,while on the other there
the hidingof books along with some of the treasures exists the phenomenonof discovery,and thus of
in various places of the Judaeanwilderness,and pre- prior hiding,of manuscriptsin caves near Jericho
servesa statementat its end that a copy of the text and Wadi Qumran and, in addition,.thediscoveryof
had been made and likewisehidden away, neverthe- furthermanuscripts-of the same characteras the
less the statementsof this scroll are untrue or, if Qumran texts-at Masadah ineluctablyleading back
true,thenhave nothingto do with Essenes livingat towardthe capital.
the Qumran site,in contrastto all of the othermanu- It may be observedthat several wadi-systemslead
scriptsfoundin the caves. from the environs of Jerusalemeastward: to the
To accept any one of these proposals,let alone the northeast,thereare the great wadis Farah and Qelt;
combinationof them required to substantiatethe almost due east, the systemleading into the Wadi
standard hypothesis,is, to say the least, extremely Mukallikwhicheventuallyemptiesinto the Dead Sea
difficult.Yet withoutthemit would appear thatthe near its northwestern tip; and to the southeast,the
one cogentinferenceto be drawn fromthe presence Brook Qidron (known later as Wadi al-Nar), which
of first-century Hebrew manuscriptsat Masadah is may be said to have its inceptionat the Pool of
that Jewish sicarii inhabitingthat site possessed Siloam (withinJerusalem)and the Springof Gihon,
scrollswhichtheyhad broughtthereaftertakingthe and which then heads with its tributariesinto the
fortressin 66 A.D.P,72 while otherJews,of Jerusalem, Judaeanwildernessand finallyto the Dead Sea. Be-
tookscrollswiththemin additionto basic possessions tweenthe Mukallikand the Qidron additionalwadis
needed for survival,in withdrawingto that site. In begin convergingin the regionof the Buqei'ah, com-
the excavations there, survivingremnantsof these ing togetherin the gorge adjacent to KhirbetQum-
possessions were discovered, including even such ran (see map 3). Not only does the Copper Scroll
texts as the "Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice"previ- specifically mentiona depositof fourtalentsof silver
ously thoughtto have had a unique connection with hidden at a site "at the mouthof the gorge of the
Qumran. In brief, without recourse to the special Qidron," 7 but it also describesnumerousplaces of
explanationof a bond betweenMasadah and Essenes hidingnear aqueducts,water-channels and other in-
fromQumran,the discoveriesat theformersite imply stallations-typicalremnantsof which may still be
the act of removal of manuscriptsfrom Jerusalem observed,for example,in the Wadi Qelt-that were
eitherduring the revolt,the siege itself,or the re- characteristicof wadi-systemsnear and between
treat to the southeasternarea of Judaea which fol- places of habitation.78The scroll also refers,as we
lowed the captureof the cityby the Romans.73 They have alreadyseen, to the hidingof books along with
indicate that Hebrew literary texts were deemed artifactswhose great numberand value point firmly
preciousenoughto warrantrescue duringperiods of to a connectionwiththe capital.
danger. It may likewise be observed that precisely the
By the same token, inhabitantsof Jerusalem,at otherphenomenaconstituting anomaliesin the Qum-
least fromthe time of subjugationof Galilee, must ran-Essene hypothesisare those very details which
have made effortsto sequesterthe city's wealth as indicatethe same relationship. The fact that no au-
well as literatureand otherpossessionsof a spiritual tograph originals but only text copies have been
nature. The Jerusalemites had ample warningof the found at Qumran indicatesthat they came fromli-
intentionsof the Romans.74 In the intervalbetween braries; but the great number of scroll remnants
the fall of Galilee and the openingstages of the siege points to an origin in a large centerof learningin
on the capital,however,theywere freeto come and Palestine such as only Jerusalemis known to have
go as they wished, and even during the siege had been before70 A.D. The ninth-century descriptionof
access to territoriesoutside the walls. It is for this Timotheuslikewiseleaves littledoubt thatthe scrolls
reason that Titus decided to build a new siege-wall foundnear Jerichowere fromlibrariesoriginatingin

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VOL. 124, NO. 1, 1980]
0 of a literatureshowinga wide varietyof practices,
Jericho g _
Jrusalem e the Judaeanwildernessand adjacent areas, and there,
Qumran
Bethlehem*
1Herodium
_ E
W Murabba at
'*Hebron .Dead
Ein Gedi Sea
Masadah
N admirationfor the brilliantwork done by them on
MAP.5. Geographical of the hypothesis
representation of
originof scrolls.
Jerusalem
an intellectualcenter-which Jerichoitself,however,
never has been shown to be. That these collections
did not originatein the community of a single sect is
shown by the conflictingdoctrinesand by the fact
that texts havingno obvious heterodoxleaningsout-
weigh those whichappear to have them.
thereis no need to question
In this interpretation,
the absence of documentary materialssuch as letters
and legal texts at the caves, for one would not nor-
mally expect to finddocumentsamong collectionsof
literaryscrollsremovedfar fromtheiroriginalhome,
particularlyif those texts were fromlibrarycollec-
tions. Since no indicationexists of originalwork of
authorsat Qumran, and as neitherlettersnor other
documentshave ever been identifiedas comingfrom
the settlement,to continuebelievingeitherthatit was
an importantcenterof Essenes whereintenseliterary
activitywas conducted,or thatan organicconnection
existed betweenit and the manuscriptsstoredin the
caves, is unwarranted. In addition,as firmand con-
vincingevidenceof the existenceof a medievalstyle
scriptoriumat Qumran is lacking,and as no single
autograph text with the exception of the Copper
Scroll has been found there,the idea that Khirbet
Qumran was a place of scribalactivitymust be con-
sideredas unprovedand highlyquestionable.
What may in my opinionbe fairlyinferredabout
the scrollsof the caves fromfactsnow available,but
PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS 11
not known in 1948, is that these manuscriptsstem
fromfirst-century PalestinianJews and are remnants
30 | beliefsand opinionswhich was removedfromJeru-
salem beforeor during the siege, broughtdown to
withthe aid of inhabitantsof the region.successfully
hiddenaway for long periodsof time. In this view,
determination of the natureof the conceptsand prac-
tices describedin the scrolls may be best achieved
* ~~Machaerus not by pressingtheminto the single sectarianbed of
Essenism,79but by separatingthemout fromone an-
other,throughinternalanalysis,intovarious spiritual
Arnon
currentswhich appear to have characterizedPales-
tinian Judaismof the intertestamental period. What
is until now understoodof their contents,however,
is more than sufficientto show, even at the present,
the mentalityand religiousoutlookof various groups
|
withinPalestinianJudaismprior to 70 A.D.-factors
whichmay in turnhelp to explain the zeal whichled
to the JewishWar.80 While I do not,as may be seen,
share the view of colleagues who uphold the Qum-
ran-Essenehypothesis, I offerthis interpretation
with
25
these texts,and with the hope that the proposedhy-
KM
pothesis will be useful in the overall elucidationof
theirremarkablecontents.
NOTES
1 E. L. Sukenik, Megillot Genuzot (Jerusalem 1948):
p. 16: "The question,to whom this cache of manuscripts
originallybelonged,stillrequirespreciseinvestigation.How-
ever, I have foundone indicationwhichhas encouragedme
to offeran hypothesisregardingthis matter. When I ex-
aminedthe scrollsin thehandsof the Assyrian[Metropolitan
in Jerusalem],I foundin one of thema kind of book of
regulationsfor the conductof membersof a brotherhood or
sect. I inclineto hypothesize thatthis cache of manuscripts
belongedoriginallyto the sect of the Essenes, for, as is
knownfromdifferent literarysources,the place of settle-
mentof this sectariangroupwas on the westernside of the
Dead Sea, in the vicinityof En Gedi." [Translationmine-
N.G.] Cf. furtherBiblical Archaeologist,May, 1948, s.v.
"A PhenomenalDiscovery"; "Trever identifiedthe Isaiah
xs. . . . Brownleemeanwhileidentified a second scroll as
part of a commentaryon . . . Habakkuk. A third [scroll]
appears to be the manual of disciplineof a comparatively
unknownlittlesect,or monasticorder,possiblythe Essenes."
Subsequentdevelopments of thisidea until1952are succinctly
describedby H. H. Rowley,The ZadokiteFragmentsand the
Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford 1952): pp. 38-88. The eventual
popularacceptanceof the Qumran-Essenehypothesis appears
to be stronglyconnectedwith publicationof EdmundWil-
son's The Scrolls fromthe Dead Sea (New York, 1955),
based upon earlierpublicationof his articleson this subject
in the New Yorker. The presentarticledoes not attempt
to describeall subsequentdevelopments and ramificationsof
the hypothesis, whichcould in effectforman ample volume
theevolutionof a notableidea in modernscholar-
illustrating
ship. Similarly,in thefollowingfootnotes I quote onlywhat
may be consideredthe most salientand influential opinions
regardingunfolding and origin
evidenceon the identification
of the scrolls. Only translations
of standardancientsources
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12 NORMAN GOLB [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

have been given,on the assumptionthat the sourcesthem- corresponds to Pliny'sdescription, and thatis the plateauof
selves will as a rule be readilyavailable to readers. Qumran,which is situatedsome way back fromthe shore
2 Cf. most recentlyThe New York Times, Sunday,Feb. and at a higherlevel,and whichis healthierthanthe shore
25, 1979,Week in Review sections.v. "Ideas and Trends": itself.... Furthermore,there is only one important group
"From about 100 B.C. to A.D. 68, a Jewishmonasticcom- of buildingscontemporary with Pliny betweenEn-Gedi and
munity, relatedto the rigorousminority sect of the Essenes, the southernmost [errorof translation in de Vaux's text for
flourished near Qumranon the Dead Sea. Since 1947 more northernmost-N.G.] pointof the Dead Sea, and thatis the
than400 manuscripts of thatcommunity havebeenfound...." buildingsof KhirbetQumranand Feshkha." In a footnote,
3 Cf. e.g. R. de Vaux, Archaeologyand the Dead Sea however,he adds that in an appendixto chapterII earlier
Scrolls (Oxford 1972) : p. 113, who uses the term"mother in the book he has "allowedforthe possibility thatthe small
house" with referenceto the Khirbet Qumran settlement. buildingsof KhirbetMazin and 'Ain el-Ghuweir"-thelatter
F. M. Cross, The AncientLibraryof Qumranand the Es- some ten kilometerssouthof KhirbetQumran-"couldhave
senes (New York 1958) : p. 57, statesthatthe "termya,had, belongedto thesamecommunity as Qumran. In anycase they
community' seemsto applyto the community par excellence, would have been no more than annexes of very minorim-
i.e.,theprincipalsettlement in thedesert.The Qumransettle- portance." Yet Pliny statesthatthe Essenes have no money
mentis probablyunique,not onlyin beingthe original'exile and have only palm trees for company,which ratherurges
in the desert,'the homeof the founderof the sect,but also one to look elsewherethan to the well-builtsettlement of
in followinga celibaterule." (See below note 9.) This in Qumran for the place where they had congregated. And
essenceis the view acceptedby mostwriters. indeedon pp. 89-90 of the same book de Vaux statesthat
4 Besides the Manual, the seven original scrolls include "We shouldbear in mindthatparticularly duringthe second
two copiesof the Book of Isaiah; an Aramaicromancebased Iron Age and the Romanperiodthe west bank of the Dead
upon the storyof Abrahamand best knownin English by Sea was more thicklypopulatedthan we have been accus-
the titleThe GenesisApocryphon;a partiallypreservedcom- tomedto imagine." (This statement is not foundin the first
mentaryon Habakkuk; an imaginativedescriptionof an editionof the book,publishedin Frenchin 1961.) Explora-
apocalypticalbattlebetweengood and evil forcesknownas tionsof the area betweenKhirbetQumranand En Gedi in
The War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Dark- the late 1960'shave revealednumerousplaces of settlement
ness: and a collectionof religiouspoems modeledbasically supportedby agriculturein thisperiod; cf. Iladashot Arkhe-
upon the Book of Psalms and knowneitherby the Hebrew ologiot (Jerusalem),April, 1968 pp. 24-28; April, 1969 pp.
term Hodayot (Hymns) or simplyas the Psalms Scroll. 29-30.
One cannotperceivein any of these lattertexts the salient 8 Cf. e.g. R. de Vaux, op. cit.,pp. 102 ff.There and else-
ideas of Essenismas theyare knownfromeitherJosephus, where in the same book de Vaux producesforcefulargu-
Philo,or Pliny. That thereare Essenic ideas in one or an- ments for an organic connectionbetweenthe manuscripts
otherof thesetextsis a claim of variousscholarsprimarily foundin the caves and KhirbetQumran. These arguments,
based upon their archaeologicalassociation with Khirbet however-based primarilyon the presenceof Qumran-like
Qumranand withthe Manual of Discipline,as well as upon potteryin the caves-lose theirsignificance when it is rec-
similaritiesin the Hebrew idiomemployedin them,the dif- ognizedthat he has not dealt with the problemof absence
ferencesin the ideas being generallyexplainedas internal of lettersand other original documentsand of autograph
developments in the thinkingof Essene sectariansover a originalsof any and all of the scrollsamongthe findsin the
periodof perhapstwo hundredyears (see below,notes 13, caves (see here, p. 5). Also moving against this view
41). is the fact that no manuscript fragments writtenon parch-
5 The similaritiesbetweenideas containedin the Manual mentor papyrus(but only some ostraca) have been found
and those of the Essenes as knownfromthe writingsof in thesettlement, noteven at the site of the roomconsidered
Josephusand Philo were firstexplicatedby W. H. Brownlee, to be the scriptorium.De Vaux shows some sensitivity to
"A comparisonof the Covenantersof the Dead Sea Scrolls thisproblem, but appearssatisfiedwiththe followingformula
with pre-Christian JewishSects," Biblical Archaeologist13 (ibid., p. 103) in dismissingit: "The conclusioncannotbe
(1950): pp. 50-72 and by A. Dupont-Sommer, AperSuspre- resistedthat the source of these manuscripts was the com-
liminaires sur les manuscritsde la Mer Morte (Paris, 1950) munityinstalledin the Qumranarea. It is naturalthat in
and idem,Observations sur le Manuel de Disciplinedecouvert the ruinsof KhirbetQumran,exposed as theywere to the
pros de la Mer Morte (Paris, 1951). weather,textswrittenon skinor papyrusshouldhave failed
6 Cf. Pliny the Elder, Natural HistoryV.xv.73: "On the to survive." This statement fails to take into accountthe
west side of the Dead Sea, but out of range of the noxious fact that in similarruinsat Masadah just such parchments
exhalationsof the coast,is the solitarytribeof the Essenes, and papyriwere foundin the expeditionsof 1963-1965. De
which is remarkablebeyondall other tribes in the whole Vaux's additionalargument,that "in the ruins of Qumran
world,as it has no womenand has renouncedall sexual de- themselvesinscriptions have been foundwrittenon ostraca
sire, has no money,and has only palm-treesfor company. or pots" whose "writingis the same as that of the docu-
Day by day the throngof refugeesis recruitedto an equal ments" (ibid., p. 103) cannotbe maintainedafter the dis-
numberby numerousaccessionsof personstiredof life and coveryof Hebrewmanuscripts at Masadah havingthe same
driventhitherby the waves of fortuneto adopt theirman- palaeographiccharacteristics as thosefoundat Qumran; no
ners,Thus throughthousandsof ages (incredibleto relate) morecan be inferredthanthatthe handwritings are charac-
a race in whichno one is bornlives on forever: so prolific teristicJudaeanbook-handsof the first-century B.C. and the
for theiradvantageis othermen's wearinessof life! Lying first-century A.D. Grantingde Vaux's claim thatthe pottery
below the Essenes was formerly the townof Engedi,second found in the caves and at the site below was unique to
onlyto Jerusalemin thefertility of its land and in its groves Qumran,no more may legitimately be inferredfromthis
of palm-trees, but now like Jerusalema heap of ashes. Next than that the inhabitants of the site evidentlyaided in the
comesMasada, a fortresson a rock,itselfalso not far from storageof the manuscripts in the caves. But even this latter
the Dead Sea. This is the limitof Judaea." (Translation claimhas now been provedto be false throughthe discovery
H. Rackham [Loeb Classical Library,London,1942] 2: p. of potteryof the same styleelsewherein the Judaeandesert.
277.) Cf. e.g. P. Benoitet al., Les Grottesde Muraba'at. Texte.
7 R. de Vaux, Archaeologyand the Dead Sea Scrolls,pp. (Discoveriesin the JudaeanDesert II, Oxford1961): p. 31,
133 ff.,arguedeloquentlythat "thereis only one site which and note4 ibid.

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VOL. 124, NO. 1, 19801 PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS 13

9 The fact that no Qumran text espouses celibacy has tinues that it is "generally accepted that Pliny and Dio drew
tended to be minimized by adherents of the Qumran-Essene from the same source." Since the accounts differso greatly
hypothesis,or not to be discussed by them at all. Y. Yadin, from one another, while having in common only the state-
The Message of the Scrolls (New York 1962): p. 174, states ment that the Essenes lived near the Dead Sea, and insofar
that "the sect does not oppose the marriage of its members" as Synesius was active between approximately 380 and 430
but adds that "the Manual of Discipline . . . indicates that A.D., it is difficultto take at face value either the statement
within the sect itself there were groups of members who re- that the Essenes formedan entire and prosperous city or the
frained from marrying." He does not, however, indicate opinion that both Pliny and Dio Chrysostomdrew from the
what passage of the Manual reveals this idea, and I am un- same source. The statement does not appear in the extant
aware of any which does. Grappling with this problem, writings of Dio, and Synesius seems to have only a vague
F. M. Cross, The Ancient Library of Qumrantanid Modernt recollectionof it.
Biblical Study (Westport, Conn., 1976): pp. 71 f., states that 12 Josephus,JzewishWar II.viii.13: "There is also another
it is "certain that one order within the sectarian community order of Essenes, who share the life, habits and customs of
married" but that there is also information"which suggests the others, but take a differentview of marriage. They
that the Qumran 'community' (yahad), at least was largely argue that celibates excise the main functionof life, whichiis
celibate." The only data he cites, however, are that the Qum- to perpetuate the race, and that, if everybody decline to
ran cemetery contained the bodies of many more men than marry,the race would soon cease to exist. They take wives;
women. In a footnote,moreover, he states that "Professor only, they put them on probation for three years, and marry
Herbert May has reminded me of the expression prwct zr'" them when, by menstruatingthree times, they have attested
in the list of blessings contained in the fourthcolumn of the their power to conceive. These Essenes have no intercourse
Manual of Discipline. This expression, which Cross does not with their wives during pregnancy,showing that they marry
translate, means "being fruitfulof seed," that is, of progeny; for the sake of offspringand not for pleasure. In the bath
and it shows that the authors of this text, whose ideas are the women wear gowns, and the men drawers." (Trans.
the very ones claimed to have been practiced at the Qumran F. W. Dunlop, EIncvclopaedia of Religion anid Ethics, 5
site, did not discourage or prohibit marriage but on the [New York 19121: s.v. "Essenes," p. 399). Earlier, Josephus
contraryencouraged it. Other attemptsto maintain the celi- had stated (ibid., par. 4) that the Essenes "have no single
bacy of the Qumran inhabitantsare made, e.g., by de Vaux, city, but large numbers of them inhabit every city." It is a
op. cit.: pp. 115, 128 f.; A. Dupont-Sommer, The Essenc reasonable inference,but not yet a certainty,that this state-
Writings from Qumran (Oxford 1961): p. 65; and, more ment applied both to the marryingas well as the nonmarrying
recently,by G. Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qutnrantin Essenes, although it is in fact given in the course of his de-
Perspective (Cleveland 1978), pp. 96-97, but I have not scriptionof the celibate groups.
found in these or other treatmentsof the subject the candid 13 Cf. e.g. Cross, The Ancient Library of Qunmranand
admission that no Qumran manuscript espouses celibacy. Modern Biblical Studies: p. 72, "It is possible that the out-
10Cf. e.g. de Vaux, op. cit.: pp. 128 f.: "In the main ceme- lying cemeteries are late in date, and that the older celibate
tery and the secondary ones we have marked down more community later became mixed, or we may suppose that
than 1,200 tombs. Of these we have opened 43, and this within the environs of the desert of Qumran was an order
number is quite inadequate to establish any valid statistical of married Essenes alongside a larger celibate community."
evidence. However, it does at least permitus to state certain De Vaux, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls: p. 115,
findings: in the main cemetery,which was well laid out on "However, between the Damiiascuts Documnentand the Rule of
the plateau of Qumran itself, we excavated 31 tombs, and the Comuntatt10ity [= the Manual of Disciplinel certain differ-
among these there is only one which is certainly that of a ences do exist which must not be understated. . . these dif-
woman. It is in a position apart from the general alignment, ferences are such that they cannot be explained by any pro-
and is of a differenttype from the rest. Six other tombs of cess of evolution.... If 'Damascus' is a symbolic name for
women and four of children have been identified,but they Qumran it follows that we must admit that several groups
are situated in the extensions of the main cemeteryor in the existed side by side at Qumran who agreed on essentials but
two secondary ones. This may indicate that the women did not have an organization or way of life that were
were not members of the community,or at any rate not in identical...." In 1978 Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Quni-
the same sense as the men buried in the main cemetery. It ran in Perspective: p. 106, stated that "the desert community
may also signify that a development had taken place in the appears to have practised celibacy, whereas the town sectaries
discipline of the community. The rule of celibacy may have did not." (By "town sectaries" Vermes means to referto the
been relaxed, and marriage may have become lawful. This authors of the Damascus Covenant and those who followed
would explain why the tombs of wdmen are located in what the laws and doctrines contained in this text, copies of whiclh
seem to be [italics mine-N.G.] extensions of the main ceme- have also been found at Qumran. For differencesbetween
tery. Finally, it may signifythat there were differentgroups this work and the Manual of Discipline, see below, note 21.)
within the community,a main group which would have re- By this and other statements in his book (e.g. pp. 97 ff.),
nounced marriage . . . and one or several groups which Vermes indicates that he does not accept the explanation of
would have allowed it. . . Clearly, the women's tombs do various scholars forms of which I have quoted above in the
not strengthenthe argument that the communitywas related statementsof Cross and de Vaux, but that he insists on the
to the Essenes, but they do not rule it out either." The earlier formulation of Dupont-Sommer that the inhabitants
wording appears unfortunate;why did the author not simply of the Qumran site were a celibate community,despite ab-
state that the discovery of seven tombs of women and four sence of the doctrine in the texts and the discovery of the
of children along with thirtyof men in effectweakened the skeletons of women in the cemetery.
claim of celibacy at Qumran? 14 Cf.
e.g. Yadin, 7The Message of the Scrolls: p. 176,
11Dupont-Sommer, The Essene Writings from Qumran: "Sukenik was the first who suggested the identificationof
p. 38, states that the "existence of this Essene settlementis the sect with the Essenes. . . . True or not, we cannot but
confirmedby Dio Chrysostom . . . who lived a little later recognize the striking similarity between what is known
than Pliny the Elder. His biographer, Synesius, recounts from the scrolls of the Dead Sea sect and what is known
that he 'also somewhere praises the Essenes, who form an about the Essenes from the three main sources [Philo, Jo-
entire and prosperous city near the Dead Sea, in the centre sephus and Pliny]...." Compare ibid., pp. 185 f., "We
of Palestine, not far from Sodom.'" Dupont-Sommer con- thereforehave before us two alternative conclusions: either

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14 NORMAN GOLB [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

the sect of the Scrolls is none otherthanthe Essenes them- be discernedon theeasternside,facingthe plain below. Cf.
selves; or it was a sect which resembledthe Essenes in de Vaux, op. cit.: p. 6. "The fact that the builderswere
almosteveryrespect,its dwellingplace, its organization, its especially preoccupiedwith considerationsof defence is
customs. It may soundstrangethattodaywe actuallyknow broughtout still moreclearlyby the isolatedpositionof the
more about the sect of the Scrolls than we do about the tower...."; Cross, Ancient Library: p. 45, "The community
Essenes . . ."; and ibid.,p. 188, "Any attempt at this stage buildingsof Qumranweredestroyed underarmedattackdur-
of researchto identify the Dead Sea sect withany othersect ing the JewishRevolt [of 66-70 A.D.]. The walls of Period
of the timeis more likelyto be based on assumptions than II are mined through;the buildingruins were sealed in
on facts...." In consonancewith this view, reiteratedby layersof ash froma great conflagration; and in the black-
a numberof writersin different formsand withvaryingde- ened debris of the main fortification are the telltale iron
grees of consistency, the descriptivestatementissued by the arrowheadsused by the Roman legionaries." What the
Israel National Parks Authorityto visitorsat the Qumran Romans had to contendwith at Qumran was clearly an
site is to the effectthat"Followingthe discoveryin 1947 of armedcamp in a heavilyfortified location. Yet Philo states
the Dead Sea Scrolls,the search began for the seat of the of the Essenes (Quod omnis probus liber, Par. 12): "You
Sect to whom the scrolls belonged. . . wouldnotdiscoveramongthemany makerof arrows,spears,
. Members of the
Sect settledhere duringthe reignof JohnHyrcanusI.... swords,helmets,corselets,or shields,any makerof arms or
During the period of King Herod . . . the place was aban- war-engines, any one busied in the slightestwith military
doned, but was later resettledby adherentsof the same avocationsor even withthosewhich,duringpeace,slip easily
Sect.. .. The community tookcare of the needsof its mem- over iilto mischief. (trans. Dunlop,ERE Vol. 5, s.v.
bers,who led a kindof collectiveway of life. Most scholars "Essenes,"p. 396).
identify them as the Essenes. . . . Members of the Sect Despitetheseconsiderations, linkageof the laws and ideas
apparently lived in surroundinghuts,tentsand caves. of the Manual of Disciplinewithhypothesized activitiesand
15 The various alternativeidentifications proposed until beliefsat KhirbetQumran remainsa persistentmatterof
1958 are detailed and summarizedby M. Burrows,More emphasisamong writers. The Manual being a composite
Light on the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York 1958): pp. 253- textevidently bringingtogetherat least threedifferent origi-
274. nal writings,the attempthas even been made to link these
16Cf. especiallyde Vaux, Archaeologyand the DSS: pp. sectionsto different layers of the periodsof settlement at
49-57; and Cross,AncientLibraryof Qumran:p. 41, "Khir- Qumran as archaeologicallydetermined(cf. J. Murphy-
bet Qumran proved to be the hub of a Hellenistic-Roman O'Connor,"La genese litterairede la Regle de la Commu-
occupationspreadingnearlytwo miles northalong the cliffs, naute," Revue Biblique, 76 [1969]: pp. 528-549), although
and some two miles south to the agriculturalcomplexat to do this the order of the sectionsas theyappear in the
En Feskhah. The people of this broad settlement lived in Manual has had to be changedaround.
but sharedpotterymade
caves, tents,and solid constructions, 19 Cf. P. Benoitet al., "Le travaild'editiondes manuscrits
in a commonkiln,read commonbiblicaland sectarianscrolls, de Qumran,"Revue biblique73 (1956): pp. 75-96; Cross,
operated a common irrigation system, and . . . depended on Anicien1tLibrary: pp. 23-36.
commonstoresof food and water furnished by the installa- 20 With respectto Judaism as practicedin the firstcentury
tionsof the community center." B.C. and the firstcentury A.D., this termseems preferable to
17-Asof 1957,Cross in collaborationwiththeteamworking "sectarian"in mostcontextswheretrendsin thethinking and
at the RockefellerMuseumcould estimatethatthe fragments religiouspracticesof PalestinianJews are involved. The
fromCave IV alone were fromat least 382 manuscripts, cf. standardlegal code knownas the Mishniah appears not to
AncientLibrary of Qumran: p. 30. In Jerusalemin the have been redactedbeforethe end of the secondor the be-
winterof 1970I was informed by participantsin the Qumran ginningof the thirdcenturyA.D.; in itselfit is but a portion
editingproject that the estimatednumberof manuscripts of a sizeablebodyof TannaiticHebrewlegal texts,of which
fromall the caves togetherwas approximately eighthundred. the work knownas the Tosefta actuallyformsthe larger
18 It may be objectedthatas fragments fromseveralother part. The Tosefta containsmanylegal rules and practices
copiesof the Manual of Disciplinehave been foundin Qum- at variancewith those in the Mishniah, and yet theydate
ran Cave IV, and a fragment of a relatedtext in Qumran fromthe same generalperiodof time; one does not, how-
Cave V, the initialdiscoveryof a formof the Manual in ever, customarily findthe term"sectarian"appliedto them.
1947 along with the otherscrolls foundthenmustbe more These Tannaitic texts refer not infrequently to religious
thanan accident,havingratherto do withthe popularity of practices of "brotherhoods"or "friendship-orders" (Heb.
this text at the Qumransettlement.Other texts foundat liabfir3t) only some of the group practicesof whose mem-
Qumran,however,are also known in several fragmentarybers (!abjrim) are recorded,and whichappear in the texts
copies (e.g. the Damascus Covenant),while still othertexts as societieswhose historyis ancient. They forma special
of a legislativenaturehave beenfoundthere(cf. e.g. Vermes, group withinTannaiticand proto-Tannaitic Judaismwhich
Dead Sea Scrolls: p. 47; Cross,AncientLibraryof Qumran: emphasized,to a greaterextentthandid otherJews of that
p. 89). Thus, the claim that the findingof the Manual period,ideals of ritualpurity,and yet are neverreferredto
amongthe firstseven of the scrollsis something otherthan as sects. The term "Pharisee" is based on the Aramaic
fortuitous restson the priorclaim thatthereis a connection counterpart of the Hebrewtermpir,ish, itselfan apocopation
betweenthe laws describedthereand the natureof the settle- of the phraseparfish min hasibbiur whichmeans "separated
mentas it is now knownthrougharchaeologicalexcavation. off from the community[at large]"; the per,ishim were
However,the archaeologicalfindings at KhirbetQumranre- eitheridenticalwith,or relatedto, the haberim. In addition,
veal no greaterdegree of collectiveorganizationthan that Tannaitic texts occasionallymentionthe "early pietists"'
consistentwiththe earlier identificationof the site, priorto (htasidinri'shontim)who appear to have been relatedto the
its excavation,as a militarysettlement,designedto withhold above mentionedorders. Argumentslinkingthese groups
a siege for a considerablelengthof time. Besides the forti- withcertainof the Qumranwritingshave been advancedby
fied,"massivetwo-storey tower" (de Vaux, op. cit.: p. 6), S. Liebermanin Jour.Biblical Lit., 71 (1952): pp. 192-206,
the reservoirand numerouscisterns,thereare such features and by Ch. Rabin, QumranStudies (Oxford 1957).
as a collectivemill, oven, kitchen,food stores and, in the Until the discoveryof the Qumranmanuscripts, legal and
southwestern cornerof the site,evidentlya stable for pack- doctrinalwritingsof such groups were unknownwith the
animals; remnantsof a fortified surrounding wall may still exceptionof the Damascus Covenant (fragmentsof which

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VOL. 124, NO. 1, 1980] PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS 15

were firstfoundearly in this centuryin the portionof the wildernessof Qumran." Cf. furtherde Vaux, op. cit.: p.
Cairo Genizahhousedat Cambridge)and some of the writ- 113, ". . . one is tempted to agree with those authors who
ings of the Apocryphaand Pseudepigraphaconsideredby interpret the 'land of Damascus' as a symbolicnamefor the
a numberof writersto have beencomposedby one or another Qumranarea."; Burrows,More Light on the DSS: p. 227,
of thesegroups. The term"Essene" does not occur in the ". . . I am stillmoreattractedto theview thatwhatis meant
TannaiticHebrew textsdescribingthese groups,and is un- by the migrationto the land of Damascus is the movement
knownin ancientHebrew. Practicesof the Essenes as de- of the groupto Qumranitself."
scribedby Josephus,Philo, and Pliny,however,call to mind Againstall thisis thefactthattheauthors(or theauthor,
such orders as those of the haberim,periushim or hasidim if therewas but one) of the Damascus Covenantnowhere
ri'sh6nim.While theheterodoxy of the Manual of Discipline hint in this writingthat the termin questionis to be ex-
as comparedwith standardrabbinicalJewishpracticesand plainedmetaphorically. On thecontrary, it is madeuse of in
ideas explicatedin the Tannaitictexts of the 2nd and 3rd those sentenceswhichserve as the explanatoryadditionsto
centuriesA.D. may be affirmed, legal texts writtenby hypo- text passagesthat,in the mindsof the authorsof the Cove-
theticalforerunners of the Tannaiticmastersare lacking- nant,themselvesrequiredmetaphorical explanation. Cf. e.g.
unless one considers (as the above writersdo) that the Damascus Covenantfol. 3 verso lines 2-5: "The Lord re-
Damascus Covenantis just such a text. Thus, to use the memberedthe covenantof the forefathers, and raised from
word "sectarian"of the authorsof the Manual of Discipline Aaronmenof understanding, and fromIsrael menof wisdom.
or the Damascus Covenant is perhaps less than entirely He made His law knownto them,and theydiggedthe well,
cautious. 'The well which princesdigged, which the nobles of the
21 For example,accordingto the Manual only Aaronides people delved with the staff' [Numbers21.181.-The well
could serve as judges, whereasaccordingto the Covenant is the Torah, its diggersare repentantones of Israel who
there were to be four Levites and/or Aaronidesand six have leftthe Land of Judahand dwell in the land of Da-
Israelites"learnedin the Book of HdgB5"to serveas judges mascus. ... Writerswho claim that in this and other
forthe congregation.In the Manual thereis muchemphasis passages in the Covenantthe termDamascus in realityis a
on the defilingpower of money,whereas in the Covenant veiledmetaphorfor the Qumransite have, it would appear,
the possessionof wealthis not discouragedbut on the con- untilnow notadducedany otherpassage in literature, written
traryassumed to be appropriate. The Covenantplaces no in whateverlanguage,where the explanationof a passage
emphasison communalliving,whereasthisis ordainedin the deemedto have metaphorical contentitselfcontainsa meta-
Manual. Cf. e.g. L. Rost, "Zur Strukturder Gemeindedes phorwhosemeaning,in addition,is nowherehintedat in the
Neuen Bundes im Lande Damascus," Vetus Testamentum, 9 text. In the absenceof a parallelphenomenon of so bizarre
(1959): pp. 393-398. a nature,thissolutionto the problemforthe Qumran-Essene
22 Cf. e.g. Cross, AncientLibrary: p. 147, "The Essenes hypothesis posedby thepresenceof DamascusCovenantfrag-
proveto be the bearers,and in no small part the producers, mentsin the caves does not appearto be at all tenable.
of the apocalyptictraditionof Judaism." 25 Cf. e.g. J. T. Milik, Ten Years of Discoveryin the
23 Cf. A. Dupont-Sommer, The Essene Writingsfrom Wilderntess of Judaea (London 1959): pp. 32-33; J. A. Fitz-
Qumran: p. 133 note 1; cf. furtherde Vaux, op. cit.: pp. myer,The GeniesisApocryphonof QumranCave I (Rome
112-113, ". . . the situation reflectedin the Damascus Docu- 1966): pp. 10-12; J. C. Greenfield, in his reviewof de Vaux's
mentseemsto be laterthanthatenvisagedin theRule [= the Archaeologyand the DSS in Jour. Near East. Stud., 35
Manual]. . . . On these grounds one might think of placing (1976): pp. 288-289.
this exodus duringthe period of abandonment of Khirbet In discussingseveralapocryphalpsalmscontainedin Qum-
Qumran under the reign of Herod. But this solutionis ran MS llQPsa, J. A. Sanders,The Psalms Scroll of Qum-
ruled out by certainconsiderations of the internalevidence ran Cave 11 (Discoveries in the JudaeanDesert of Jordan
and by palaeography.One copy of the Damascus Document IV, Oxford,1965): p. 63, writesthatthe author"was adept
fromCave 4 is certainlyearlier than the abandonment of at writingarchaizingclassical Hebrew. But throughthat
KhirbetQumran in 31 B.c. The only remainingsolution mediumhe reflected hellenisticideas all the whiletakinghis
wouldbe to admitthatit was onlyone partof thecommunity basic materialdirectlyfromI Sam 16 and 17. We must
whichleftthe 'landof Judah'to go to the'landof Damascus'. manifestly acquaintourselveswith a hellenizedJew of the
This schismwould have arisen rightat the origin of the Palestinearea. It is highlydoubtful, however,thatthe Qum-
community, even beforeit settledat KhirbetQumran...." ran community, in its fightagainst the hellenismof the
On the interpretation of the Damascus Covenantas the writ- Jerusalempriesthood, would have knowinglypermitted dis-
ing of a splintergroup of Essenes condemnedby the other tinctively hellenisticideas to shapeits essentialtheology;and
sectaries,cf. M. H. Segal, "The Habakkuk 'Commentary' no suggestionshouldbe made on the basis of the supposed
and the Damascus Fragments," Jour.Biblic. Lit., 70 (1951): imageryin Ps 151 A [of the apocryphalpsalms] that any
pp. 131-147. For otherviewsof thenatureof thedifferences,facetof Orphismwas consciouslysubscribed to by the writer
cf. e.g. B. Otzen, "Die neugefundenen hebraischenSekten- of the poem or by his readers: discussionsof live and dead
schriften und die Testamenteder zwolf Patriarchen," Studia symbolism are not provoked." (The last sentenceis placed
Theologica,7 (1954): pp. 125-157; and Cross, AncientLi- by Sanders in italics.) From this wordingit is difficult to
brary:p. 60, last paragraph. know whetherthe authormeantto say that some hellenistic
24 Cf. R. North,"The Damascus of QumranGeography," ideas were subconsciously subscribedto by the writerwho
Palestine ExplorationQuarterly,87 (1955): pp. 34-48; A. came fromQumran,or whetherhe wishedto implythatthis
Jaubert,"Le pays de Damas," Revue biblique,65 (1958): scroll,acknowledged by himto containideas not in harmony
pp. 214-248. Cross, AncientLibrary: pp. 59 f., states that withEssenism,was broughtin fromoutsidethe community
he is "increasingly inclined to those views . . . which hold or else possiblyonly copied'but not writtenthere. The
that the 'land of Damascus' is the 'propheticname' applied avowe4 recognitionof hellenistic,Orphic elementsin the
to the desert of Qumran. . . . [The] texts in the expository apocryphalpsalmsis in conflictwiththe originaland over-
passages are most easily understoodif 'Damascus' is the ridingQumran-Essenehypothesis, thusgivingrise to hesita-
'revealed'nameforthe desertsettlements of theEssenes. . .. tionson theauthor'spartin his formulation of the statement.
The problemsraised are formidableunderany principleof Cf. furtherbelow,note 79.
interpretation, but theyare insurmountable, I think,if 'Da- 26The Damascus Covenant,which speaks of the "New
mascus'is not takenas referring to the desertretreatin the Covenant"made in the "Land of Damascus" (cf. e.g. fol.

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16 NORMAN GOLB
XX, line 12), provides legislation as well as spiritual rules
for those who might choose to live in "camps" (e.g. VII.6,
XIII.16, XIV.3 and 10) as well as those of the believers
who might choose to live in cities (e.g., XII.19, and cf.
X.21). It is clear that differentrules are envisioned for the
"camp" -the Hebrew term, mahaneh, may also be translated
"settlement"-than for the city; the God-fearing, benevolent
society envisioned by the authors is to be modeled, in its
purest stage, after the camps of the Israelites (the same
term, mah-aneh,is used in the pertinent narratives of the
Pentateuch) which Moses led through the desert, when the
pristineLaw was revealed. The text is careful to distinguish
between the past migration of the Teacher of Righteousness
and his followers to the Land of Damascus (see note 23
above) and the envisioned camp or settlementexistence, but
it is at all events the case that the idea of the authors was
to have the latter outside of the cities, where the laws of
purity and other ordinances could be more efficientlyob-
served. The society envisioned, and perhaps actually or-
ganized, is therefore much like the groups of purity breth-
ren-including the haberim of the Hebrew texts and the
Essenes of the Greek ones (cf. note 20 above)-whose spe-
cial way of life would have been enhanced by communal
living away from cities.
A similar situation is envisioned by the authors of the
Manual of Discipline, although this text appears to be of a
more apocalyptic nature than is the Damascus Covenant. A
huge initiation ceremony is conceived, in which the priests
are to bless the initiants while the Levites are to curse the
wicked, the Israelite initiants passing through the "order"
or "ceremony" (serekh) third-after the priests and Le-
vites-"one after another, by thousands, hundreds, fiftiesand
tens" (II.21 f.). The scene envisioned is an elaborate cere-
mony of confession and initiation with thousands of partici-
pants, and cannot reasonably be interpretedas anything but
an apocalyptic conception of the authors, whose ceremonies
are to be held "year by year during all the days of the rule
of Belial" (ibid., line 19) leading up, it is clear from the
text, to the Messianic "end of days." This text also in-
cludes rules of conduct for the society envisioned, and this
body of rules is also reminiscentof the brotherhoods. It is
thus with good reason that one might infer that the society
conceived of also was meant to be organized, ideally, outside
of the cities proper, where better supervisionof the discipline
would be possible. Its emphasis on communal ownership of
wealth and the nature of its initiationprocedures, as well as
a number of its specific rules, place it closer to the Essenic
type of brotherhoodthan to others.
However, as emphasized above (notes 9-13), there is no
doctrine of celibacy expressed or implied in the Manual of
Discipline. What is more, Philo in his Apology for the
Jews stated that the Essenes "dwell in many cities of Judaea
and many villages and in large and populous societies"
(apud Eusebius, Preparatio Ev. VIII.11, cf. the translation
of Dunlop in ERE 5: p. 397); while Josephus says of them
that "they occupy no one city, but settle in large numbers in
every town" (War II.124, trans. Thackeray, II: p. 371).
It is only Pliny who states that the Essenes living near the
shore of the Dead Sea had only palm trees for company, but
he specifies that these were the celibate Essenes.
Against this it is claimed that, consonant with the state-
ment of Pliny, one finds in the Damascus Covenant and the
Manual of Discipline an espousal of communal life in the
wilderness, and that statements in the Manual also indicate
that the group described there actually lived in the desert
(cf. e.g. Cross, Ancient Library: pp. 55 ff.). The passages
of the Covenant cited in favor of this view, however, refer
to the migration of the group described there to Damascus
(cf. above note 24); statementsin the Covenant about living
in camps or settlementscannot be bent to take on the addi-
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[PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.
tional meaning of actually living in a wilderness. Two
passages in the Manual do, however, at firstglance have the
appearance of espousing an idea of this kind, and to show
that this is in fact not the case I translate them here: (a)
Manual VIII.12-15, "When all these become a unityin Israel,
they will be separated through these rules from the settle-
ment of the men of wickedness, going to the wilderness to
clear there the way of the Lord, as is written [Isaiah 40.3],
"In the desert clear ye the way of the [Lord], make ye
straight in the wilderness a path for our God"-this is the
expounding of the Torah which [the Lord] commanded
through Moses to do according to every revealed thing,
season by season. ..."; (b) ibid., IX.18-20, ". . . and thus
is [the instructor] to instructthem in the secrets of wonder
and truth; amongst the men of the Unity [one is] to walk
in perfectioneach man with his fellow man in all that is
revealed unto them-this is the clearing of the way in the
wilderness-and he is to instruct them [concerning] all that
is found [necessary] to do in this epoch. ... The first
passage shows that the authors of the Manual merely inter-
preted the quoted words of Isaiah as a metaphor implying
the virtue of studying the mystical teachings of the Torah
espoused in several pages of the text. The second passage
is to the same effect: a suitable paraphrase would be that
the meaning of "clearing the path in the wilderness" ex-
pressed by Isaiah is that the instructoris to teach the ini-
tiants how to comprehend the secrets and to walk in per-
fectionwith their fellow members during the epoch of Belial.
The authors of the Manual, as well as of the Covenant,
freely assign metaphorical interpretationsto Biblical texts
throughout these writings-the same process may be per-
ceived in much literature of this period found at Qumran-
and there is nothing in either of these last two passages
quoted to imply even remotely that those who would have
followed the rules of the Manual actually believed that they
should go to live in a desert.
27 Cf. Braun, Oriens Chistianus 1:
p. 304: The letter con-
tinues (I here quote the English translation appearing in
G. R. Driver, The Hebrew Scrolls from the Neighborhood
of Jericho anid the Dead Sea [Oxford 1951]: pp. 25-26):
"Since there was a scholar well-read in literature among
them, I asked him about many passages which are quoted in
our New Testament (as) from the Old Testament but are
not found anywhere in it, neither (in copies found) amongst
the Jews nor (in those found) amongst the Christians. He
said (that) they are there and can be found in the books
discovered there. When I heard this from the catechumen
and had also interrogatedthe others without him and heard
the same story without variations, I wrote about it to the
eminent Gabriel and also to gubhalmaran, Metropolitan of
Damascus, (asking them) to search those books and see
whether the passage (saying) 'He shall be called a Naza-
rene' . . . and other passages quoted in the New Testament
as coming from the Old Testament but not found in the
text which we have could be discovered anywhere in the
Prophets. I also asked him if the following words, namely,
'Have pity upon me, God, according to Thy mercy . . .
sprinkle me with the hyssop of the blood of Thy cross and
cleanse me,' should be found in those books, without fail
translate them for me. This expression does not appear in
the Septaugint nor in those other (translations) nor in the
Hebrew (text). But that Hebrew said to me: 'We have
found more than two hundred Psalms of David among our
books.' I wrote to them about this. I thought nevertheless
that these books had been deposited [in the cave] by the
prophet Jeremiah or Baruch or by some other of those who
had heard the word of God and had been moved by it. .
If these passages occur in the books named, they are clearly
more trustworthythan those (in use) amongst the Hebrews
and amongst us. I have received, however, no answer to my
VOL. 124, NO, 1, 19801 PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS
letter from them on these points, and I have no suitable per-
son whom I can send. This is as fire in my heart, burning
and blazing in my bones." Timotheus (726-819 A.D.) wrote
this letter to Sergius, Metropolitan of Elam (d. circa 805)
at an unspecifiedtime, but most writers place its composition
at about the turn of the century.
On the letter of Timotheus and its proposed connection
with Qumran, cf. especially 0. Eissfeldt, "Der Anlass zur
Entdeckung der Hohle und ihr ahnliche Vorgange," Theo-
logische Literaturzeitung,74 (1949): cols. 597-600, apuid 0.
Braun, "Der Katholikos Timotheus I und seine Briefe,"
Oriens Christianus I (1901): pp. 138-152. Cf. the studies
quoted in Rowley, The Zadokite Fragments and the DSS:
p. 22, note 4; and particularly P. Kahle, The Cairo Geniizah,
2nd ed. (Oxford 1959): p. 16, "It seems to me that far more
importance has to be attributed to this MS find about the
year 800 than has been done hitherto. Above all it is more
than likely that the cave found in 800 was the same as that
discovered anew under similar circumstances in 1947.
(De Vaux expressed a similar opinion in 1950 [Revue bib-
lique, 57, pp. 417 ff.] but appears to refrain from discussing
the matter in either the French or English version of his
work on the archaeology of the Qumran site.) Cf. further
Yadin, Message of the Scrolls: pp. 76 f., "Timotheus' letter
. . .shows that even at the end of the eighth centurymany
manuscripts of the kind found in 1947 and later were dis-
covered near the Dead Sea, perhaps even in the same
caves...." (I do not understandwhy Yadin uses the phrase
"near the Dead Sea," since Timotheus neither uses this term
nor indicates in what direction from Jericho the cave was
located in which the manuscripts discovered in the ninth
century were found.)
28The note of Origen, republished in modern times by
G. Mercati and thereafter discussed by E. Schwartz (see
Kahle, The Cairo Gentizah,2nd ed.: p. 241 notes 2 and 3)
reads in the English translation given by Kahle (ibid., p.
242) as follows: "The fifthedition"-i.e. of the Hexapla-
"which I found in Nicopolis near Actium: the marginal notes
in it show how far (another similar text) differs from it.
The sixth edition: found together with other Hebrew and
Greek books in a jar near Jericho in the time of the reign
of Antoninus (MS Antonius) Severus...." Eusebius was
familiar with this statementof Origen, for in describing the
latter's literary activity he states (Kahle, ibid., p. 241) that
"in the Hexapla of the Psalms, after the four well-known
editions, he placed beside them not only a fifthbut also a
sixth and seventh translation; and in the case of one of these
he has indicated again that it was found at Jericho in a jar
in the time of Antoninus the son of Severus." For various
writers who made referenceto the statementsof Origen and
Eusebius in the firstfew years after the Qumran discoveries
were initiated, cf. Rowley, The Zadokite Fragments and the
DSS: p. 49 note 6. Only two years after the first Qumran
scroll discovery it was suggested by de Vaux (Revue bib-
lique, 56, 1949: p. 236) that Origen had actually visited the
cave where the manuscripts were found (not, however, re-
iterated in either the French or English edition of Archae-
ology and the DSS).
29In addition to the above accounts, there are also state-
ments in medieval Hebrew and Arabic literature alluding to
discovery of manuscripts in caves, the most important of
which have to do with a Jewish sect known as the Maghari-
yah, or "men of the cave" who, according to the Qaraite
writer Qirqisani (10th century A.D.) were called by that
name only because their books had been found in a cave.
De Vaux and other writers also connected this sect with
the manuscripts found at Qumran; on this interpretation,
and difficultiesin the way of accepting it, cf. my article "Who
Were the Magariya ?", Jour. Amer. Orient. Soc. 80 (1960):
pp. 347-359
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17
30 Cf. the writers quoted and referred to in notes 26 and
28 above. Cf. further Kahle, The Cairo Genizah, 2nd ed.,
pp. 16 f.: "This cave Qumran I is the only one of the caves
near Khirbet Qumran in which more or less complete MS
scrolls were found. . . . As we have seen, most of the MSS
deposited in Qumran I were removed long ago. It is very
probable that this happened about the year 800." Cf. also e.g.
C. T. Fritsch, The Qumran Community (New York, 1956):
p. 89, "There is a strong possibility that the cave which the
Patriarch mentions may be Cave I of Qumran, and that his
letter may explain why so few manuscriptswere found when
it was discovered in 1947."
31 De Vaux, Archaeology and the DSS: p. 29, makes clear
in laying down his theory regarding the use of these tables
that the "scriptorium"from which the tables supposedly came
(see next note) was not the ground-floorroom of locus 30
whose walls were uncovered during the excavations but
rather a room of the same dimensions located directly above
it which was destroyed along with its furniture,fragments
thereofbeing found in the rubble of the ground floor during
the excavations. According to him (ibid., p. 11), the ground-
floor room, "equipped with a broad entrance bay," was not
a scriptoriumbut "could have been used for assemblies in-
volving large numbers." It is evident, therefore,that in his
hypothesis not only have all the parchments,papyri, and-
with the exception of two inkwells-writing materials dis-
appeared from that room, but the room itself is no longer
in existence.
32 Cf. de Vaux, ibid., p. 29 and, for the position of locus 30,
plate xxxix, grid D-4. De Vaux's theory soon came to be
treated as a fact, cf. e.g. G. Vermes, Discovery in the Judean
Desert (New York, 1956): p. 14, "A scriptoriumfound on
the upper floor was probably of the same size [as the hall
downstairs], judging by the remnants of two or three brick
tables...." Cf. furtherCross, Ancient Library: p. 49, "The
functionof one room in particular, is clear and significant.
A long central chamber in this quadrant . . . contained in the
debris of the second period, a narrow plaster table . . . as
well as two other shorter tables. Associated was a low
bench of equal length. Both originally had been built as
permanent fixtures,the table fixed into the plaster floor of
its room, the bench into the wall alongside. These are the
appurtenances of the ancient scriptoriumof the community.
Mingled in the debris were also two inkpots, one still con-
taining traces of dried ink." Cf. e.g. also Fritsch, The Qum-
ran Community: p. 5, "There is little doubt that this room
was the scriptoriumwhere manuscripts were copied by the
scribes of the community"and ibid., p. 4, "It was my privi-
lege to visit Qumran several times during this period [of
excavations in 1953 and 1954] and to be conducted around
the excavations by Pere de Vaux himself. So vivid was his
descriptionthat I could almost see the members of the com-
munityeating together in the large dining room, or copying
manuscripts in the scriptorium,or scurrying to the caves
with their precious library as the Roman Tenth Legion
marched down from Jericho to destroy the community."
33 Cf. particularly B. M. Metzger, "The Furniture of the
Scriptorium at Qumran," Revue de Qumran I (1959): pp.
509-515; idem, "When did Scribes Begin to Use Writing
Desks ?", Akten des XI. internationalen Byzntinisten-Kon-
gress 1958 (1960): pp. 355-362; and, in defense of his own
hypothesis,de Vaux, op. cit.: pp. 30 f. Cf. Greenfieldin his
review of de Vaux's book in JNES, 35 (1976): p. 288, "The
arguments against this being a writing table were ably mar-
shalled by . . . Metzger and have been found convincing by
many better qualified to judge than this reviewer. An ex-
amination of the supposed table in the Palestine Archeological
Museum strengthensthis negative attitude; yet de Vaux re-
fused to give an inch on his previous theory. . . . The whole
question of a scriptorium is far from decided. . . . If there
18 NORMAN GOLB
is no scriptorium,there is no copying, or better, the whole-
sale copying that some writers envision does not exist.
34 Cf. de Vaux's wording, op. cit.: p. 30: "Is it not rea-
sonable to regard these tables and inkwells as the furniture
of a room where writing was carried on, a scriptorium in
the sense in which this term later came to be applied to
similar rooms in monasteries of the Middle Ages?" On me-
dieval scriptoria, cf. e.g., J. W. Clark, The Care of Books
(Cambridge 1902): p. 70 (Ely and St. Albans), pp. 104-
105 (Citeaux), and p. 106 (Clairvaux).
35 For the position of the tower in relation to the room in
question,cf. de Vaux, op. cit.: plate xxxix, grids C-4 and D-4.
On military features of the site, cf. above note 18.
36 Cf. P. Benoit, J. T. Milik, R. de Vaux et al., Les Grottes
de Muraba'at. Texte (Discoveries in the Judaean Desert II,
Oxford 1961) and Planches (Discoveries ... II, Oxford 1961).
A preliminarydiscussion of the archeology of the site appears
ibid., Texte: pp. 3-63, while the non-literary Hebrew and
Aramaic texts are edited ibid., pp. 86-180, and are repro-
duced in the volume of plates as nos. 7-87 (plates xxv-lv).
Earlier publications of individual texts are cited by the edi-
tors in the discussions preceding the individual text-editions.
37 Cf. Y. Yadin, Bar-Kokhba (London and Jerusalem
1971): pp. 113-139, 172-183, 222-253. Full publication of
these texts has not yet taken place.
38 Among the places named in the Muraba'at texts are
Beth Mashk6 (no. 42), En Gedi (no. 46), Herodes (= Hero-
dion; no. 24), Jerusalem (nos. 25, 29, 30), Masadah (nos. 19,
72), Mesad IHasadin (= Masadah?; no. 45), and 'Ir Nahash
(no. 24). The documents from the wadis between En Gedi
and Masadah include referencesto Qiryath 'Arabaya (Yadin,
Bar Kokhba, p. 129), En Gedi (ibid., pp. 133, 175, 239, 246),
Mah6za (ibid., pp. 235, 236, 246, 247), and Petra (ibid., p.
249).
39 Cf. the statementof Cross in M. Baillet et al., Les 'Pe-
tites Grottes' de Qumran, Textes (Discoveries in the Ju-
daean Desert of Jordan III, Oxford 1962): p. 217, to the
effectthat a Herodian contract has been found in Cave IV.
By 1962 it had still not been published,and evidentlyremains
unpublished today.
While authors surveying the Qumran finds have taken ac-
tive notice of the Bar Kokhba documentarydiscoveries (cf.
e.g., Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran in Perspective:
pp. 23, 241-242; Cross, Ancient Library: pp. 13-14), no one
appears to have drawn the conclusion, at least in print, that
the finding of ancient Hebrew documents in the Judaean
wilderness,in regions having approximatelythe same climatic
conditions as those prevailing at Qumran, necessitates some
explanation of the lack of such texts at the latter site.
40 Cf. e.g. Cross, Ancient Library: p. 47, "Whether the
Essenes in whole or in part fled their settlementwith the
approach of the Romans, or were trapped in Qumran and
slaughtered, we cannot know with certainty. . . . At all
events the Essenes were prevented from carrying away their
manuscripts,with the result that their library, abandoned in
nearby caves, survived. . . ." Cf. furtherde Vaux, Archae-
ology and the DSS: p. 105, ". . . more than 400 [manu-
scripts] had been placed in Cave 4, and it is situated very
close to Khirbet Qumran. It is here that the communityli-
brary, normally kept together in the central buildings, was
hastily hidden at the moment when the settlementwas aban-
doned. A possible explanation of the important group of
Cave I is that it may be part of this same library,but stored
in a safe place more carefully,and furtherfrom the Khirbet.
Alternatively Cave I may have been the hiding-place chosen
by one group, more numerous than the rest, which had its
living quarters near this particular cave."
41 Cf. the discussion of de Vaux, ibid., pp. 3-41; and Cross,
op. cit.: pp. 42-47. It is their position, as that of others,
that Essenes inhabited the site for approximately two hun-
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[PROC. AMFR. PHIL. SOC.
dred years and that it was then destroyed by the Romans
in the summer of 68 A.D. However, even if one should take
the position that the site came to be occupied by this sect
only after the break in settlement(thought to have occurred
during the seventh decade of the first century B.C. and for
some years thereafter,de Vaux, op. cit.: pp. 20-24; and
Cross, op. cit.: p. 44), therestill remainsthe problemof seventy
years of continuous habitation of the "laura" or "mother-
house" by the main body of sectarian Essenes to be ac-
counted for.
It is primarilyde Vaux who is responsible for dating the
destructionof the site by the Romans in the summer of 68
A.D.; cf. Archaeology anid the DSS: pp. 36-41. This he
does by using the evidence of coins found at the site. The
latest Jewish coins are of the third year of the revolt=
68/spring69 A.D., while the earliest Roman coins (eleven all
together) are of Caesaria and Dora (near Caesaria) and of
67/68 A.D. In de Vaux's view, the summer of 68, which is
the time when the 10th legion took Jericho,is the appropriate
period to date the change of occupancy (i.e. the capture by
the Romans) particularlybecause of the apparent congruence
of the coin data with the events at Jericho. However, it is
difficultif not impossible to accept this view for several rea-
sons, foremost among them that the coin evidence does in-
deed not lead to that conclusion. Since the latest Jewish
coins in the possession of the Khirbet Qumran settlement
are of 68/69, it is reasonable to suppose that the settlement
was not taken by the Romans until at least a year or two
later, for during a revolt of serious and ramifieddimensions
such as that of the Jews against Rome in 66-73 A.D. is known
to have been, it is not likely that newly minted coins would
be found at once in an outlying settlement. Particularly is
this true in the case of the Qumran site: the capture of
Jericho by the Romans was, according to Josephus (War
IV. 486-490), for the purpose of laying siege to Jerusalem,
and thus communicationsbetween the capital and the settle-
ment near the shore of the Dead Sea would have been diffi-
cult after the summer of 68 by the normal route, so that both
the possibility and the need of securing the latest minted
coins would have been diminished. Similarly, the presence
of Roman coins from the region of Caesaria dating to 67/68
legitimatelyshows only that the Roman soldiers had coins of
this date in their possession when they later stormed the
Qumran site. De Vaux acknowledges, to be sure, that Jo-
sephus "does not mention any military action south of Jeri-
cho" (ibid., p. 40), but this somewhat understates the mat-
ter. There is no evidence that the Romans venturedinto any
part of the Judaean wilderness before Jerusalem had been
taken in 70 A.D. Had they stormed the Qumran site two
years previously, there is every reason to believe that they
would have moved thence southwestwardand taken the for-
tress of Herodium at that time, and not after the fall of
Jerusalem as actually happened (cf. note 73 below). This
would have enabled them to surround Jerusalem entirely,
rather than from three sides only (War V.50-277). In con-
trast to these possibilities, however, Josephus only states
(War V.69) that at the beginningof the siege on the capital
early in the spring of 70, the 10th Legion arrived at the
Mount of Olives, "having come by way of Jericho where a
party of soldiers had been posted to guard the pass formerly
taken by Vespasian" (translation Thackeray, vol. III [Lon-
don and New York, 1927]: p. 221). It is thus highly prefer-
able on both numismaticand historical grounds to place the
destructionof Qumran in the period after the fall of Jeru-
salem, when the Roman troops under Lucilius Bassus began
their entrance into the Judaean wilderness,the last remaining
area of Jewish resistance.
42 I am obliged to state that, until today, it is only in cor-
respondence or personal discussion over the period of a dec-
ade that I have been able to elicit from writers associated
VOL. 124, NO. 1, 1980] PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS
with the Qumran-Essene hypothesis some explanation of the
puzzling lack of original documents at the site. Two main
causes have been suggested to me: (1) Before hiding the
manuscripts, original letters and deeds were separated off
from the literarytexts and left to perish in the ruins; (2) as
the Essenes eschewed wealth and personal property, they
would have had no need for legal documents in the usual
sense. The firstexplanation does not go well with the widely
held idea that inhabitants gathered up their manuscripts in
haste upon hearing of the approach of Roman troops; while
the second, besides failing to take into consideration that
Essene communities would have had to have deeds if only
for use in dealing with outsiders and, in the case of the non-
celibates, marriage and divorce contracts for their own use,
disregards the question of lack of correspondence of either
an officialor personal kind, which among the Essene brethren
and particularly their spiritual leaders must have been con-
siderable, especially as between one settlementand another.
While, toObe sure, arguments from silence may never be said
to be conclusive in themselves,the lack of documentarytexts
at Qumran representsan anomaly in the standard hypothesis
which would seem to require somethingmore than the silence
this problem has received in discussions of the discoveries
over the past decade.
43 De Vaux, op. cit.: p. 104, states that "Certainly manu-
scripts were copied in the scriptoriumof Qumran, and in the
case of several manuscriptsit is possible to discern the hands
of the same scribes. We may also suppose, even before
studying their content,that certain works were composed at
Khirbet Qumran...." With respect to the Manual of Disci-
pline (the "Rule"), Cross, op. cit., states that a few copies
are of the firstquarter of the firstcentury B.C. and that one
on papyrus is still earlier, but adds that "it is unlikely that
even the oldest of them is the autograph copy." Yadin,
Message of the Scrolls: p. 161, recognizes that a distinction
must be drawn between the date of authorship of the Qumn-
ran texts and the "date of the copies now in our possession."
Neither these writers nor others, however, have seen the
need for exploring the problem of disparity between lack of
autograph texts at Qumran on the one hand and the Qumran-
Essene hypothesis, with its emphasis on the presence of a
spirituallyand intellectuallyactive sectarian movementat the
site for perhaps two hundred years, on the other; cf. Cross,
op. cit.: p. 90, "Further we should postulate a certain inter-
val between the decisive events which created the sect and
sent it and the Righteous Teacher into exile in the desert,
and the composition of the systematic discipline of the com-
munity. The Essene Rule is not a programmaticwork writ-
ten before the founding of the sect; it reflectsthe discipline
of the firstcommunityin the wilderness at Qumran at a time
when its practices had been systematically worked out."
When Cross states elsewhere in the same book, however,
that "In the scriptoriummany of the scrolls must have been
penned, almost certainly those copied by scribes whose work
turns up repeatedly on scrolls from several caves" (p. 49),
it is impossible to know whether in the first clause he is
referringto the activity of authors or of scribes.
44 In his recent The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran in Per-
spective, Vermes evidently fails entirely to distinguish be-
tween literaryautographs and scribal copies of literary texts.
When he states (p. 136) that the "absence from the Dead
Sea Scrolls of historical texts proper should not surprise
us," he makes clear that he refers only to chronicles as
opposed to the literarygenres known at Qumran. He speaks
several times of the Qumran scrolls as "documents" (e.g.,
pp. 45, 46, 87), as indeed ancient texts of a literary nature
are sometimes loosely called, but his silence regarding the
absence of autographs of either a documentary or literary
nature at Qumran gives cause for some uneasiness in his free
use of that term. While not giving attentionto the archeo-
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19
logical particulars of the Khirbet Qumran site, he is firmly
committedto the idea that it was a sect of Essenes who were
living there, speaking among other things of "Qumran his-
tory" (ibid., p. 148) and of the "establishmentof the sect at
Qumran" (p. 147) without referenceto the problem of lack
of autographs. It must be emphasized that during the first
several years of Qumran research, no distinction whatever
appears to have been made in the minds of writers on the
subject between autographs and copies of manuscripts. A
discussion of this problem is particularly missed in the im-
portant and influentialwritings on Qumran by A. Dupont-
Sommer, the leading exponent of the Qumran-Essene hy-
pothesis in France whose books on the subject, beginning
with his AperCus pre'liminairessur les manuscrits de la mer
Morte (Paris, 1950), helped to turn scholarly opinion de-
cisively in favor of that hypothesis. We here quote some
statementsfrom his more recent work The Essene Writings
from Quinran (Oxford 1961: a translationof the second re-
vised and enlarged edition of Les lcrits esse'niensdecouverts
pres de la mer Morte [Paris, 1959]) which indicate that,
while championing the idea of the Qumran settlementas the
main center of the Essenes and not hesitatingto endorse the
idea of a scriptoriumand of the Qumran scrolls emanating
from it, he does not seem to have had in mind any aspect of
the above described problem. Cf. e.g. p. 15, "From now on,
the Qumran documents take us into the heart of the Essene
sect and lift the veil from its mysteries,rites and customs.
They are, of course only a remnantof an immense corpus of
literature,now largely lost...." Ibid., p. 18: "All the dis-
covered manuscripts proceed from an Essene community
settled in the Qumran area, from the Essene communitymen-
tioned by Pliny . . . the communitywhich [the Teacher of
Righteousness] founded hid its books in the neighbouring
caves and left Qumran at the time of the great Jewish
War...." Ibid., p. 63: ". . . the remains of a scriptorium
have been discovered, and of a very long narrow table . . .
and pieces of one or two shorter tables. These were doubt-
less writing tables, since two inkpots were found in the same
place. . . . It therefore seems that this was the place in
which the scrolls from the caves were copied. The copyists
who bent over these tables and dipped their pens in these
inkpots were not . . . just ordinary secular scribes. . . . No,
the copying of the Essene books, which were holy and secret,
required scribes recruited from among the members of the
sect itself...." Ibid., pp. 66-67: ". .. in the solemn quiet-
ness of the bare and torrid desert it is possible to imagine
the people . . . who led such a hard and exceedingly austere
life there. . . . It is now time to read the books which nour-
ished their spirit,books to which they committedtheir mystic
beliefs. . . . These books were secret, but . . . they are now
in our hands, in their authentic text . . . j ust as they were
writtenand copied about two thousand years ago. . . . These
documents are not all of the same age and can betray, from
one document to the next, a certain evolution in institutions
and beliefs. Traces of a similar evolution may even be seen
in one and the same document,between one passage and the
next.
This criticism,however, should not deter one from recog-
nizing the immense contributionmade by Dupont-Sommer to
the study of the Qumran scrolls, both through his valuable
translationsof the texts and the classical erudition which he
brought to bear upon their study and by which he demon-
strated their exceptional importancefor knowledge of Pales-
tinian Judaism in the period prior to the rise of Christianity.
One might but hope for a reevaluation on the author's part
of the totalityof evidence bearing on the subject of Qumran
which is now available, particularly after the Masadalh dis-
coveries of the 1960's (see here, pp. 9-10).
45 Cf. above notes 3, 13, 43, and 44.
46 Cf. e.g. Cross, AntcientLibrary: p. 20, note
32, "The
20 NORMAN GOLB
paucity of sherds in the caves certainly indicates that the
scrolls of Cave IV were not left stored away in jars."
47 Cross, Ancient Library: p. 80, states that the "library
found at Qumran contains no document which can be called
properly a historical work. Historiography was not an in-
terest of the sect's authors. Nevertheless, the scrolls, espe-
cially the class of documents inexactly called biblical com-
mentaries, contain many allusions to contemporary events,
both in the inner historyof the sect, and in the political his-
tory of Syria-Palestine." Twenty years later, Vermes in his
The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran in Perspective, has ex-
pressed a similar view in saying (p. 136) that one should
not be surprised by the absence of historical texts properly
speaking from among the scrolls since "Neither in the inter-
Testamental period, nor in earlier biblical times, was the
recording of history as we understand it a strong point
among the Jews." These opinions, however, appear to skirt
the issue, which is that writers have in effectbeen creating a
history of the Qumran settlement on the basis of literary
texts as opposed to documentaryfindings. Not only can the
texts not even be classified as literary chronicles-but rather
only as writings of an imaginative, legal, religious or exe-
getical character with but some historical allusions-but
moreover they contain no colophons and no references to
their places of composition. One cannot even learn from
any of the scrolls which may be said to be of a heterodox
nature whether the Teacher of Righteousness and his follow-
ers, or the individuals whose social and religious ideas are
expressed in the Manual of Discipline, ever in fact settled in
a wilderness. It is appropriate to ask whether the materials
used warrant the conclusions attained.
48 This text, found in two portions in Qumran Cave III,
has been published several times: J. Allegro, The Treasure
of the Copper Scrolls (London 1960); J. T. Milik, "Le Rou-
leau de Cuivre provenant de la grotte 3Q (3Q15)" in M.
Baillet et al., Les 'Petites Grottes' de Qumran. Textes (Dis-
coveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan III, Oxford 1962):
pp. 211-302, 314-317, and Planches (Oxford 1962): plates
xliii-lxxi; B.-Z. Lurie, Megillat hanehoshet (Jerusalem,
1963).
49 Cf. e.g. Milik, "Le Rouleau de Cuivre": pp. 221 f.
50 Here one must agree with the judgment of Dupont-
Sommer, Essene Writings from Quinran, p. 383, that the
Copper Scroll "is a documentdraftedwith all the baldness of
book-keeping, and the reason for its having been engraved
on resistantmaterial, and kept in two copies, is that it is an
important archive, not of invented riches, but of very real
ones." For importanttexts which were inscribed on copper
in Palestine in the intertestamentalperiod, cf. Lurie, op. cit.:
p. 3.
51 Among the geographic names given in the Copper Scroll,
most of which may be connected with the plain of the Jordan
and the Judaean wilderness, are Sekhakha, Jericho, the
Valley of Achor, Har6bah, Duq, Kohlat, Milham, the Cleft
of the Qidron [River], Beth ha-Kerem, and Masad[a]; for
these and the other toponymsof the text, cf. Milik, op. cit.:
pp. 259-275, and Lurie's discussions on the individual sections
of the text. The readings and identificationsof a consider-
able number of the toponymsremain uncertain.
52 Mention of books buried with the treasures is made in
Col. VI line 5, sefer ehcudtahto ("one book [or scroll] is
beneath it"), and at several other points in the text, e.g.
VIII.3 and X.11; but at times the editors have read a mean-
ingless btkn 'sln instead of ktbnt'sln = ketWbinesldn ("writ-
ings are near it") or ketfibdneslan ("their writing is near
it), cf. Cols. V.7; XI,1,4,11,15-thus unfortunatelydiminish-
ing the number of these precious notices. Cf. furtherbelow,
notes 59-63.
53 Cf. Col. XII.10-13, and Milik, op. cit.: p. 298. The
crucial words are mishne haketab hazeh, "the duplicate of
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[PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.
this writing." The words which appear afterwards may be
translated "and their explanation, their measurements( ?) and
detailing of each one."
54 It was, however, the belief of Dupont-Sommer,expressed
before the text of the Copper Scroll was actually published,
that it did contain an enumeration of the treasures of the
Essenes, cf. his Essene Writings from Qumrani,pp. 379 ff.
He reaffirmed this view after appearance of a tentativetrans-
lation of the text by Milik in the Revue biblique, 66 (1959),
pp. 321-357, cf. Dupont-Sommer,Essene Writings: pp. 389 ff.
When the full text was published by Allegro in the form of
line drawings in 1960, however, he stated (Essente Writings:
p. 393) that Allegro's publication revealed "the complexity
and difficulty of the manifold problems involved in the study"
of this manuscript,and indicated that he would await Milik's
publication of the complete work before himself "attempting
a thorough study of this still highly enigmatic document."
A study of this kind has not appeared, and so I am uncertain
whether Dupont-Sommer still adheres to his original position
regarding the origin of the manuscript. Allegro had also be-
lieved originally that the scroll described Essene treasures
(cf. his The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of Christianity
[Hammondsworth 1956]: p. 184), but had changed his mind
by the time he published the text in 1960.
The idea that the scroll describes Essene treasures origi-
nated with K. G. Kuhn, who in 1953 had read some words
appearing in relief on the exterior of the still unopened scroll
portions; cf. his hypothesis as presented in Revue biblique,
61 (1954): pp. 193-205. Subsequently, however, he modi-
fied his position, proposing that the text might contain an
inventory of treasures from the Temple, cf. Theologische
Literaturzeitung,81 (1956): cols. 541-546. This hypothesis
had been anticipated by Ch. Rabin in an article appearing in
the Jewish Chronicle,June 15, 1956.
The number of 4,000 Essenes is given by Philo in Quod
omnis probuis liber, Par. 12 ("over 4,000 according to my
judgment") and by Josephus in Ant. XVIII.i.2 ("about 4,000
men").
55 Cf. the discussions of Allegro, Rabin, and Kuhn referred
to above, note 48 and last paragraph of note 54; and the
articles supportingthis hypothesisreviewed by H. Bardtke in
Theologische Rundschau N.F. 33 (1968): pp. 185-204. Du-
pont-Sommer takes the position (Essente Writings: pp.
385 ff.) that the treasures could not have emanated from the
Temple insofar as Josephus to the contrary states that the
Romans found treasures of the Temple within its precincts
after the city had been taken. On such a point as this, how-
ever, one cannot accept Josephus's account hyperliterally,
particularly since he had not been within Jerusalem at the
time of the siege. As Dupont-Sommer mentions (ibid., p.
387), Josephus also reports that the Romans found "many
precious things" in trenches under the city. The Copper
Scroll appears to do no more than supplement his account,
by hinting that, in addition to treasures left in the Temple
and hidden underground within the city, others had been
buried in caches deposited to its east. Sequestering of the
treasures could have begun any time after November of
77 A.D., cf. below, note 74.
56 This and related aspects of the text appear to have been
of concern to writers supporting the Qumran-Essene hy-
pothesis in the 1950's. Cf. e.g., Dupont-Sommer, op. cit.: pp.
392 f.: "It may be that in going thoroughlyinto the problems
raised by the still enigmatic inscription Allegro will have
been led to modifyhis firstopinion to a certain extent. While
awaiting the publication of his book, he has kindly let me
know that he resolutely maintains, against Milik, the theory
of a genuine inventory,and also that the particular interpre-
tation which he suggests concerning the copper scrolls is in
no way opposed to the general thesis of an Essene origin of
the . . . writings from Qumran."
VOL. 124, NO. 1, 19801 PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS
In my opinion it is only this concern which can satisfac-
torily explain the events of 1956 reported upon so succinctly
by Wilson in his The Dead Sea Scrolls, 1947-1969: pp. 170-
175. In order to make the nature of the anxiety as clear as
possible, I here quote from that report: ". . . one of these
scrolls was sent to the Manchester College of Science and
Technology in the hope that it might be possible to devise
some method of opening them. This was managed in 1955-
1956 by Dr. H. Wright Baker. . . . The second scroll was
now sent on, and the pair proved to be two sections of the
same document. This was deciphered by Mr. Allegro and
turned out to be, indeed, directions for discovering a hidden
treasure.... Yet was it really the treasure of the monastery,
whose inmates were supposed to have led so austere a life?
There was a good deal of money involved, and vessels of
gold and silver. These scrolls were found at some distance
from fragments of broken jars, which suggested that they
might have been deposited separately. Allegro came to be-
lieve that the Essenes had nothing to do with these scrolls
except, no doubt, to allow them to be hidden in a cave near
the monastery,and that the treasure was that of the Temple
in Jerusalem. . . . He gave out to a Manchester paper a
statement about the cutting of the scrolls, and at once re-
ceived from Jerusalem an order to say nothing more about
them. He was also reprimanded by Dr. Baker for having
photographed the process of cutting open the first scroll.
Allegro had not made and did not make any public announce-
ment of the contentsof the scrolls, but six months after they
had been opened, Dr. Baker relayed to the press a statement
from de Vaux and his colleagues that the hidden treasure
listed in them was almost certainly imaginary. This be-
came a kind of officialview. Though Allegro . . . had been
the first to decipher the scrolls, it was made clear to him
that they had been assigned for editing to J. T. Milik....
In dudgeon or under orders, Father Milik refuses, in his
volume, even to mention the work of Allegro until the very
end. . . . In regard to the directions in the copper scrolls,
Milik adheres firmlyto what Allegro calls the 'party line,'
with which other scholars are inclined to disagree: That the
treasure is imaginary,and the scrolls are an attempt to add
documentationto an oriental fantasy.
The statementof de Vaux and his colleagues referred to
by Wilson is described more carefully by Dupont-Sommer,
op. cit.: pp. 381 f., ". . . an officialannouncementwas made
by G. Lankester Harding and Fr. R. de Vaux on June 1st
1956, simultaneouslyin Jordan, France, Great Britain and the
United States; it was read on the same day before the Acade-
mie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. . . . [The extracts
from it] certainlygive the impressionthat we are faced with
real deposits, carefully described and scrupulously indicated.
But the report of June 1st expressly dismisses this interpre-
tation: the inscription,it says, is nothing but a collection of
traditions relating to places where ancient treasure was sup-
posed to have been hidden. It continues as follows: 'It is
difficultto understand why the Essenes of Qumran were so
concerned with these stories of hidden treasure, and espe-
cially why they saw fit to engrave them on copper, which
at that time was a costly metal.... At all events, this
guide to hidden treasure is the most ancient document of its
kind to have been found,and is of interestto the historian of
folk-lore.'" Dupont-Sommer (ibid., p. 385) also quotes de
Vaux as having stated that the Copper Scroll was the "whimsi-
cal product of a deranged mind." The actions and statements
described here show a concerted effort,even prior to publi-
cation of the text, to convince the public that its existence
casts no doubt upon and does not disturb the Qumran-Essene
hypothesisemphasizing the sectarian origin of the texts and
the singularityof the findsin the Qumran caves.
57 Besides opinions quoted in the above three notes, cf. e.g.
Milik, "Le Rouleau de Cuivre," pp. 275 ff.and various stud-
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21
ies discussed by Bardtke in Theologische Rundschau N.F. 33
(1968): pp. 185-204. In this interpretationthe connection
with Essenes and with the other Qumran texts, while as a
rule not denied, is often minimized. Cf. e.g. Cross, Ancient
Library: p. 18, note 29, "I should prefer to propose, tenta-
tively to be sure, that we have to do with traditional, i.e.
fabulous treasures, perhaps of the temple of Solomon . . . it
is just possible to imagine a priestlyhermit of Qumran tak-
ing such folkloristic traditions seriously enough to preserve
them in copper...." On the other hand, de Vaux in his
last publication on Qumran (Archaeology anid the DSS: pp.
108-109) would wish both to deny the genuineness of the
descriptions in the Copper Scroll and to separate it entirely
from the other Qumran texts physically as well as with
respect to time, viz. (p. 109), "The only point we would
make here is that this exception [= the Copper Scroll], if it
were indeed shown to be such, would serve to prove the
rule: it would be easier to explain the unique character of
this document, so foreign to the outlook and preoccupations
of the community,if it emanated from some other source
and had been deposited at a later stage. This would confirm
our conclusion: none of the manuscripts belonging to the
community is later than the ruin of Khirbet Qumran in
A.D. 68."
58 Cf. the articles discussed by Bardtke in Theol. Rund-
schau N.F. 33: pp. 185-204; and especially Allegro in the
introductionto his Treasure of the Copper Scrolls. On the
positions of C. Roth, G. R. Driver, and K. H. Rengstorf,
cf. below note 80.
59 Cf. Milik, "Rouleau de Cuivre," p. 290, and Baillet et al.,
Les 'Petites Grottes' de Qumran, Planches, plates lviii and lix.
The same readings of the words are given by Allegro and
Lurie in their editions of the Copper Scroll.
60 Cf. Milik, op. cit.: p. 289 bottom,and Baillet, op. cit.:
plates lvi and lvii. Allegro had read the words differently,
but Lurie, who usually follows Allegro in his transcriptions
and interpretationsof the text, recognized the error at this
point after seeing Milik's text and translation. The crucial
words quite clearly read babi'ah miriho lisekhakha, "in com-
ing fromJerichoto Sekhakha." It musthere be emphasizedthat
despite the outstandingwork done on this text by the above-
mentionededitors, and despite Milik's painstakinglythorough
and elaborate commentaries on it, there remain readings
which are questionable and uncertain,and which can, in my
opinion, be improved upon by patient examination of the
photographsgiven by Milik in his edition. The original text
(now in Amman) should, moreover, be the subject of con-
tinuing investigation with the aim of securing still more
definitivereadings of the words.
61 This place has been identifiedby Cross and Milik with
Khirbet Samrah, an important ruin of the Buqei'ah region
(cf. the studies cited by Milik, "Rouleau de Cuivre," p. 263,
no. 7), but the identificationis rejected by Lurie (Megillat
hanehoshet: p. 84) for the cogent reason that Sekhakha is
mentionedelsewhere in the Copper Scroll in connectionwith a
nearby dam, whereas the area surroundingKh. Samrah is en-
tirely unsuitable for constructionof a dam. The site cannot,
at all events, have been more than a few or several kilome-
ters from Jericho since no intervening place is mentioned
in the directions. The place described is specificallya tomb
"at Nahal Hakippa [= the Brook of the Dome] as [one is]
coming from Jericho to Sekhakha." Were there intervening
places such as abounded in the wider area around Jericho,
between that city and Sekhakha, the scribe would have rea-
sonably named the most appropriate nearby place to clarify
his directions,rather than resortingto the use of Jericho for
this purpose.
62 In the firsttwo lines of this column, where directionsare
given to enable one to arrive at this burial-place,the editions
of Milik and Allegro diverge. Allegro reads [ba'a]ma she-
22 NORMAN GOLB [PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

bederekhmizrahbet osar shemizrahha'aton whereasMilik 69 It is unclearwhether the theoryis thatonly the special
(op. cit.: p. 292) [ba'a]ma shebederekhmizrah bet ahsar liturgicalscroll came fromQumranor that otherMasadah
shemizrah.ahzar. Neither of these decipherments of this scrolls also came fromthe same place, cf. the quotations
portionof the text,which is very difficult to read at this givenin note 71 below.
point,is in myopinionentirelysatisfactory.The photograph 70 Cf. Josephus, JewishWar II.567 (ed. and trans.Thack-
followingColumnVIII in thevolumeof platesaccompanying eray,Londonand New York 1927: pp. 540-541) and III.11
Milik's edition (Baillet, op. cit.: plates lxii and lxiii) ap- (ibid., pp. 578-579). This general was the commanderof
pears to show traces of the followingwords: (1st line) the northwestregionof Judaea,and died in the battle of
[bd'a]md shebederekh miriho1- (2nd line) ahsar shemizrah Ashkelonin 67 A.D.
ahzar,viz., (lst line), "[in theaque]ductwhichis on theroad 71 Cf. Yadin, Excavations: pp. 107-108; and Masada: p.
fromJerichoto (2nd line) Ahsar, which is to the east of 174. In the formerwork (p. 108) he assertedthatJosephus
Ahzar," the (otherwiseunknown)place being spelled pho- had statedthat"manysectsof Jewrytookpartin [therevolt
neticallyonce withemphatics and the othertime withthe againstRome], eitheras a whole or in part or at a certain
softersibilantz. This reading,while followingthe traces stage of its developments," but the only passages pertaining
of the lettersas carefullyas theycan be made out in the to Essenes to whichYadin refersat thatpointare the two
photograph, at the same timeeliminatesthe repetition of the mentioning Johnthe Essene, Josephushimselfdoes not ap-
word for "east" (mizrdh) appearingin each of these two pear to allude to militaryactivityof groupsof Essenes any-
lines both in the editionsof Allegro and of Milik, which wherein his writings.
impartsto the directionsin the text an ambiguousand un- This hypothesis is givenin slightlydifferentformin Masa-
clear sense. The firstthreewords of line 3, however,may dah: p. 174. Insistingthatthereis "in fact directevidence
be clearly read kelP dema' usefdrin, indicatingunequivo- in the writingsof Josephusof Essene participation in the
cally thatritualvessels and books (in the plural) are to be war," Yadin continues:"It will be recalled that Josephus,
foundthere; cf. the editionsof Allegro,Milik,and Lurie. at the beginningof the revolt,was one of the Jewishcom-
3Here it mustbe emphasizedthat I do not mean to say mandersresponsible for the Galilee region,and he certainly
that the statements in the Copper Scroll referto the very was acquaintedwithothercommanders of the revolt. When
same hiding-places where scrollswere foundin the timeof he liststhe namesof the commanders of the revoltand their
Origenand of Timotheus, but ratherthatthe same phenome- sectors,he relatesthatthe commander of the important cen-
non,i.e., of scrollsbeingconcealedin caches near Jerichoin tral sector . . . was someone named John the Essene. Is it
antiquity,is indicated. likelythatonlyone Essene joined the revoltand becamean
64 See note61 above. For the identification of othertopo- outstanding commander?I thinknot. It is morelikelythat
nymsoccurringin the Copper Scroll, whichdelineateareas a considerablenumberof Essenes also joined the rebellion.
near Jerusalemand throughlarge partsof the Judaeanwil- And afterthe countryhad been destroyedand Masada re-
derness,the plain of Jericho,and the wadi-system between mainedthe sole strongholdand outpostin the war against
Jerusalemon the one hand and Jerichoand the Dead Sea the Romans,it is likelythat all who had foughttogether
area on the other,cf. Milik, "Rouleau de Cuivre,"pp. 259- and survivedfoundshelterthere,among themEssene par-
275. Cf. further the discussionhere,pp. 10-11. ticipants. It would have been naturalfor all such groups
65 Cf. Y. Yadin, The Excavationof Masada 1963/64.Pre- to have broughtwith them their holy writings. This, it
liminaryReport (Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem seemsto me,explainsthe presenceof the Qumranicsectarian
1965) pp. 1-120, and idem, Masada, Herod's Fortressand scrollin Masada.
the Zealots' Last Stand (London, 1966). Since it is evidentthat the handwritings of the literary
68 Cf. Yadin, Excavationof Masada: pp. 103 ff; Masada: textsfoundat Masadah are of the same typesas thosefound
pp. 168-191. The Biblical texts includefragments of Gene- at Qumran,and insofaras the ratio of Biblical to extra-
sis, Leviticus,Deuteronomy, Ezekiel and Psalms, while in Biblical textsat both places seemsto be similar,one would
additionto the non-canonical writingsmentioned above,frag- have expectedYadin to offersome explanationof the origin
ments of three other such texts evidentlyunknownfrom of the other Masadah texts,in the event he believesthey
other sources were found,cf. Yadin, Excavations: p. 105. came fromelsewherethan Qumran. Particularlyas in his
Some bona fidedocumentswere also discoveredat Masadah view it wouldhave been naturalfor thosewho had survived
(Yadin, ibid.: pp. 109 f.) as well as various ostraca in the fightagainst the Romans to have broughttheir holy
Aramaicand Hebrew (ibid.: pp. 109 f. and Masada: p. 189). writingswiththemin seekingshelterat Masadah, it would
The figureof fourteenscrollsas the numberof the literary seem reasonablethathe would hold,or raise the possibility,
textsfoundthereis givenby Yadin, Masada: p. 189. that at least some of themcame fromJerusalem, the main
It is of importance to observethat,judgingby the photo- centerof Jewishresistanceagainstthe Romanspriorto its
graphssuppliedby Yadin, the handwriting stylesof the lit- capture. He is, however,silent on this importantmatter.
eraryscrollsare of thesamekindsas thosefoundat Qumran. No subsequenttreatment by other writersof the Masadah
Of the Genesis fragment no. 1039-317,Yadin states (Excava- literary finds,to the best of my knowledge,raises this prob-
tions: p. 104) that the "scriptresembles,on the whole,that lem despiteits self-evident nature. It wouldbe of particular
of the Isaiah MS A" (viz., of Qumran),whileof the Leviti- importanceto learn whetheradherentsof the standardhy-
cus fragment no. 1039-270he states (ibid.) that the "script pothesisare willingto grantthatthe likelihoodis good that
is Herodianand resemblesthatof the Thanksgiving Hymns" some of the scrolls foundat Masadah were broughtthere
(viz. also fromQumran). fromJerusalem,or whethertheyexclude this as a reason-
67 Cf. Yadin, Excavations: pp. 105-108. Fragmentsof the able probability.
Qumran text were publishedpreviouslyby J. Strugnell, That the scrollor scrollsof Masadah were,in the opinion
"The Angelic Liturgyat Qumran-4Q Serek Sir6t 'Olat of Yadin,broughttherenotby Essenes in generalbutby the
Hassabbat," Vetus TestamentumSupplementae7 (Leiden Essenes of Qumranis clear fromstatements made by him
1960): pp. 318-345. in the paragraphjust priorto the one quoteddirectlyabove.
68 Cf. especiallyA. Jaubert, La Date de la Cene (Paris He states (pp. 173 f.) : "Most scholarsbelievethatthe sect
1957); and S. Talmon, "The Calendar Reckoningof the which had the scrolls of Qumran was the Essenes. . . . These
Sect fromthe Judean Desert," Scripta Hierosolymitana, 4 say thatthe Essenes lived on the westernshoreof the Dead
(Jerusalem1958): pp. 162 ff. Cf. further, e.g. Vermes,The Sea in an area which very much suggeststhe locationof
Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumranin Perspective:pp. 175-178. Khirbet Qumran. . . . I believe that the evidence in the

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VOL. 124, NO. 1, 19801 PROBLEM OF DEAD SEA SCROLLS 23

hands of the majorityof scholarswho identify the Qumran remarked,the Romans would never surmountthe walls of
sect withthe Essenes is so strongthatone needsto findan- Jerusalem.. . By theseharanguesmostof the youthwere
otherexplanationfor the presenceof a Qumranicscroll in seducedintohis serviceand incitedto war; but of the sober
the Masada stronghold of the Zealots. It seems to me that and elder men therewas not one who did not foreseethe
the discoveryof this scroll serves as proofindeedthat the futureand mournfor the city as if it had alreadymet its
Essenes also participatedin the great revolt against the doom.. . ." (War IV.121-128; trans.Thackeray,Vol. III,
Romans...." Wilson,secondingthishypothesis(The Dead pp. 37-39). These eventstook place late in the autumnof
Sea Scrolls: 1947-1969:pp. 210 f.), statesthatthe Masadah 67 A.D., soon afterthe captureof Gamala on November10th
scroll of whichfragments have also been foundat Qumran (War IV.83).
"musthave been broughtthereby someonefromthe Sect, 75 Cf. War V.499 ff. The areas takenin by thishugewall
who . . . wanted to keep to his [Sectarian] schedule.... are explicitlydescribedibid.,V.504-507. Cf. furtherbelow,
Josephus,as Yadin points out, speaks twice of John the note 78.
Essene as one of the generals. . . . And is it not possible 76 Cf. above,notes41 and 73. The factthatno documen-
that some of the Essenes, still clingingto the scheduleof tarymaterialsof this timefromJerusalemhave been found
their dissidentcalendar,had come up fromthe vulnerable in the Judaeanwildernessmay be in part attributed to the
Qumran on the shore to the formidableheightsof Mas- fact thatthe city'sArchiveshad been burntduringthe fac-
ada ?...." tionalstrifein Augustof 66 A.D. Cf. Josephus,War II.427-
72 On the capture of Masadah from the Roman guards 428, ". . . they next carried their combustiblesto the public
stationedtherein the summerof 66, cf. Josephus,Wars II. archives,eager to destroythe money-lenders' bonds and to
408; for subsequentactivitiesof the sicarii operatingfrom preventthe recoveryof debts,in orderto win over a host
Masada, cf. ibid.,IV.399 f., 503 ff.,516; VII.252 ff. Various of gratefuldebtorsand to cause a risingof the poor against
membersof the rebellionare describedas going or fleeing the rich. . . . The keepers of the Record Office having fled,
therefromJerusalemor elsewhere,cf. e.g. ibid., II.433-434 theyset lightto the building...." (trans.Thackeray,Vol.
(Menahaemson of Judas and his friends); II.447 (Eleazar II, p. 491). The buildingitselfwas later destroyedby the
son of Jair and others); II.653 (Simon son of Gioras and Romans in Septemberof 70 A.D., cf. War VI.354.
his band). Three thousandJews are reportedby Josephus 77 Cf. CopperScroll VIII.8, beyegershel pi spiq haqidroit
to have been slain in the battleof the forestof Jardesafter (ed. Milik,p. 292). The meaningof the termyegeris un-
fleeingfromJerusalemand Machaerus (Wars VII.210 ff); certain. Milik translatesit as "tumulus,"but Lurie, at the
othersmusthave joined the sicarii at Masadah at thistime. firstoccurrenceof the term in the scroll (Megillat hanie-
Accordingto Josephus,the total numberof suicidesat the b.oshet, p. 83) on cogentgroundssuggeststhemeaning"dam."
end of the siege of Masadah was 960, whiletwo womenand It is reasonableto surmisethat a dam was situatedat the
fivechildrensurvived(ibid.,VII.399-400). mouthof the gorge of the Qidron,but more difficult to be-
73The fourmain eventsin the JewishWar followingthe lieve thata tumuluswas locatedpreciselythere. On various
captureand destructionof Jerusalemwere the captureby other hydraulicemplacements and constructions mentioned
Bassus of Herodium (Wars VII.163), the siege and sur- in theCopperScroll,and theirconnection withthe regionof
renderof the fortressof Machaerus (ibid., VII.164-209), Jerichoand the Judaean wilderness,cf. especially Lurie,
the battleof the forestof Jardes (ibid., VII.210-215), and Megillathanehoshet:pp. 19 ff. Two passagesin the Copper
the siege of Masadah (ibid., VII.252-406). All of these Scroll makementionof the Valley of Achor (I.1 and IV.6),
sites are in the southeastern portionof Judaea except Ma- a wadi whichin moderntimeshas oftenbeen identified either
chaerus,whichwas locatedbeyondthe Dead Sea highabove with the Wadi Qelt or with the Wadi Mukallik (cf. map
the bluffsnear its easternshore,and approximately ten miles 3). Some recentwriters,however,identify it withthe Wadi
northof the River Arnon. JosephusdescribesMachaerus Nu'eimahto the northand northeastof Jericho,whenceit
in the contextof the assaulton Judaea,to whichit was evi- emptiesintotheJordan(cf. e.g. Milik,"Rouleaude Cuivre,"
dentlyconsidereda strategicadjunct althoughitselfbeing p. 262). The identification of the Biblical Vale of Achor
withinPeraea. In Josephus'saccount,refugeesof the battles appears to have shiftedin antiquity,and cannot now be
are describedas fleeingbothfromJerusalemand Machaerus. absolutelyascertained. Besides the foregoing,it may also
In addition,duringthe openingstages of the siege on the be identifiedwith the Wadi Makkuk,the main east-west
capital the southernside of the city was not underattack, wadi approximately four kilometersnorth of Wadi Qelt
the legions underTitus being deployedto the north,west, endingin the gorge below Quruntuland near the Tell al-
and east of the city. The escape routewas therefore toward Sultan; this would place the area of the Achor treasurede-
Herodionand the south,so that the conclusionis inevitable positsmentionedin the Copper Scroll closer in towardthe
that at least a portionof the escapees found refuge at majorityof the otherdepositsdescribedthere.
Masadah. 78 The complexof wadis and gorges leading away from
74Cf. War IV.1-120. In the last sentenceof this descrip- JerusalemtowardJerichoand the Dead Sea was attainable
tion of the finalsubjugationof Galilee,Josephusstatesthat by inhabitantsof the capital throughvarious routes and
"Galilee was thus now whollysubdued,afteraffording the passages some of whichwere unknownto the Romans. Cf.
Romans a strenuoustrainingfor the impendingJerusalem e.g. the statement of Josephusregardingthe escape of Judas
campaign"(translationThackeray,Vol. III, p. 37). Imme- son of Ari, to the effectthathe had been in commandof a
diatelythereafter he describesthe entranceof the fugitives companyat the siege of Jerusalemand had "secretlyescaped
led by John of Gischala into Jerusalem: ". . . the whole popu- throughsome of the underground passages" (War VII.215;
lationpouredforthand each of the fugitiveswas surrounded trans.ThackerayVol. III, p. 567), fleeingthento the forest
by a vast crowd, eagerly asking what had befallenout- of Jardes. In particular,the Jerusalemites were able to
side. . . . They casually mentionedthe fall of Gischala. ... utilizepointsof egressin the southern partof thecity,where
When, however,the storyof the prisonerscame out, pro- Roman troopswere not to concentrate untilthe captureof
foundconsternation took possessionof the people,who drew the second wall of the capital had been completed(end of
thereuponplain indicationsof theirown impendingcapture. May, 70 A.D., cf. War V.347 and also V.331 ff.). The reason
But John. . . went round the several groups,instigating forthrowing up the siege-wallin Juneof 70 A.D. is givenby
themto war by the hopeshe raised,makingout the Romans Josephus, duringhis descriptionof the war councilcalled by
to be weak, extollingtheirown power,and ridiculingthe Titus, as follows: ". . . [Titus] pointed out the extreme diffi-
ignoranceof the inexperienced;even had they wings, he cultyof throwing up earthworks, owingto lack of materials,

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24 NORMAN GOLB
and the even greater difficultyof guarding against sallies;
for to encompass the city with troops would, owing to its
extent and the obstacles presented by the ground, be no easy
matter, and would, moreover, expose them to the risk of
enemy attacks. They might guard the obvious outlets, but
the Jews from necessity and their knowledge of the locality
would contrivesecret routes; and, should supplies be furtively
smuggled in, the siege would be still furtherprotracted.
(War V.496-497; trans. Thackeray Vol. III, p. 355).
79 In October of 1967 announcementwas made by Y. Yadin
in Jerusalem of the recovery of another scroll stored origi-
nally, it would seem, in one of the Qumran caves, which con-
tained inter alia rules relating to an idealized Temple of
Jerusalem and thus was given the title "The Temple Scroll."
In the firstnews release pertainingto this scroll (New York
Times, Oct. 23, 1967), the statement is attributed to Yadin
that the scroll also deals with hitherto unknown rules for
preparedness and mobilization differing "entirely from the
descriptionin the . . . 'War of the Sons of Light against the
Sons of Darkness"' and that, unlike the other scrolls, "the
words are given as those of God and are writtenin the first
person in most cases." In later statements Yadin affirmed
his view, expressed already at the time of announcementof
the discovery, that the scroll at all events belonged, like the
others, to the Qumran-Essene sect. The Hebrew text and
Yadin's commentaryhave since appeared (Y. Yadin, Megillat
hamiqdash: 3 vols., Jerusalem, 1977), with the same view
again being urged. However, a positive identificationof this
singular kind is not borne out by the text which contains
abundant laws, clearly of a theoretical nature and written
by an apocalypticist,that while resembling those of the Es-
senes in some particulars also resemble those of other ancient
Jewishgroups in otherparticulars. This leads Yadin at the con-
cluding segment of his work (Vol. 3, p. 304) to state, in an-
swer to his own question whetherthe text was writtenby mem-
bers of the Qumran sect, that this question "can be answered, it
seems to me, positively,even thoughthe possibilityshould not be
denied that withinthe scroll is embodied-to a greater or lesser
extent-also the teaching of a wider movementwhich is not
to be definedas a sect, a movementfrom which in the course
of time there developed the sect of Qumran" (translation
mine). Here too, as in the case of Sanders' treatmentof the
apocryphal psalms (cf. above, note 25), there is an implicit
recognition of the differencesbetween the text being ana-
lyzed and the known doctrines of the Essenes or of those
who wrote the Manual of Discipline, but the overriding be-
lief in the Qumran-Essene identificationprevents the author
from drawing conclusions at variance with that idea.
With respect to the question of the provenience of the
manuscript,it must be said that despite assurances that this
text also was found in a Qumran cave, the actual circum-
stances of its discovery and later appearance in the shop of
an antiquities dealer remain unknown,at least to the reading
public.
80The view has ben presented by C. Roth, The Historical
Background of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford 1958), and
by G. R. Driver, The Judaean Scrolls: the Problem and a
Solution (Oxford, 1965), that the Qumran site was inhabited
by Zealots and that it was to them that the scrolls found in
the caves and at Masadah belonged. Because of the great
variety of ideas, often conflictingones, which are found in
the scrolls, and insofar as no firmevidence exists to connect
the manuscriptsfound in the caves with the Khirbet Qumran
site in an organic way, I do not believe that this thesis is
acceptable in its present form. However, it has the merit of
attempting to connect the contents of the scrolls with the
salient event of Jewish history in that period, that is, the
war of 66-73 A.D. While it is clear that at least the vast
majority of the scrolls was composed long before the Zealots
had come into existence, there is no reason to doubt that they
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[PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.
would have been among those influenced by theircontents.
It is also quite possiblethatthe KhirbetQumransettlement,
showingobvious militaryaspects,came to be inhabitedby
sicariior Zealots duringthe war againstRome.
On the otherhand,in 1960K. H. Rengstorf expressedthe
view,even beforethe CopperScroll had beenfullypublished,
that the treasuresalreadyknownin thatyear to have been
describedin thattext belongedto the Temple,thatQumran
and the surrounding territoryrepresented
an outlyingagri-
culturalstationbelongingto the Temple,and thatthe scrolls
werewritingsof priestlycirclesand otherwritingsof Pales-
tinianJudaismat large kept at firstin the libraryof the
Templeand whichwere hiddenaway at Qumranalong with
the treasuresdescribedin the Copper Scroll at the time of
the revolt. Cf. his Hirbet Qumran und die Bibliothek vom
Toten Meer (Stuttgart 1960) and idem, Hirbet Qumrdn and
the Problem of the Library of the Dead Sea Caves (Leiden
1963). While it is true that a numberof the scrolls give
prominence to the sons of Zadok and the priestlyorder,the
majorityof themdo not,so thatthe assignment of all of the
scrollsto the singlelibraryof the Templebecomesa matter
of arbitrarychoice,yet somewhatnarrowingdown the con-
ceptionof intellectualand sprirituallife prevailingwithin
Jerusalembeforethe war. In addition,the interpretation of
the site as an agriculturalsettlement
belongingto the Jeru-
salem priesthoodhas grave difficulties attachingto it; cf.
especially H. Bardtke in Theologische Literaturzeitung 87
(1962): cols. 820-823, and idem, Theologische Rundschau 33
(1968): pp. 101-105. The overlyspecificnatureof partsof
Rengstorff'shypothesisis due, in my opinion,to his not
knowingfullythecontents of theCopperScroll in 1960,in not
yet knowingof the Masadah discoveries(these had not yet
been made), in not having consideredthe statementsof
Origenand Timotheusin the lightof the latterfinds(which
also could not have been done in 1960), and in not taking
into consideratonthe lack of autographsand documentsat
thecaves. (Were thescrollsall fromtheTemplelibrary, which
Rengstorfappropriately connectswith the Temple archive
[cf. e.g. his Hirbet Qumran and the Problem of the Library
of theDSS: p. 19], the lack of autographsand documentary
materialswould have to be considereda highlypuzzling
matter.) However,evenwithaspectsthatmaybe considered
to constituteshortcomings,the hypothesisof Rengstorff
has,
in my opinion,the meritof havingexpressedthe possibility
of a Jerusalemprovenience of the Qumrantexts,and in a
way whichtakes cogentaccountof historicalcircumstances
in 66-73 A.D. It may thereforebe judgedto be a forerunner
of the one presentedabove, althoughI was unawareof it
when,havingreturnedto the studyof the scrolls duringa
lengthystay in Jerusalem,I presenteda preliminary paper
expressingmy views on the provenience of thesetextsat a
seminarheld at the AmericanSchool of OrientalResearch
(the AlbrightInstitute)on January12, 1970.
CREDITS: Maps by Christopher Mueller-Willeof the
University
of ChicagoCartographicServicesUnit.
FIG. 1-A. (a) War of the Sons of Light, ed. E. Sukenik
(Jerusalem 1950), col. 31. (b) Manual of Discipline,
ed. Burrows,Treverand Brownlee(New Haven 1951).
pi. II. (c) llQPsa, ed. J.A. Sanders,Discoveriesin the
Judaeant Desert IV (Oxford 1965), p1. VIII. (d) 4Q
174 ("Florilegium"),ed. J. Allegro,Discoveriesin the
JudaeanDesert V (Oxford 1968), pi. XIX. (e) Y.
Yadin, The Excavation of Masada 1963/64. Preliminary
Report(Jerusalem1965), pi. 19 A. (f) Ibid., pi. 19 B.
FIG. 1-B. (a) Benoit,Milik and de Vaux, Discoveries in the
JudaeanDesert II (Oxford 1961), pi. XXXVI. (b)
Ibid., pl. XLVI. (c) Ibid., pi. XLVI.
FIG. 2. Baillet,Milik and de Vaux, Discoveries in the Ju-
daean Desert III (Oxford 1962), p1.XLV.