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The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English
Book by Garcia Martinez, Florentino
513 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 8, 2024
The greatest archaeological find of the 20th century was the Dead Sea Scrolls. This volume presents all of the “non-biblical” often fragmentary scrolls found there. Indispensable for what these texts illuminate for us related to second temple jewish belief, practice, and exegesis.
March 19, 2009
You already know that when it takes me this long to finish a book, it's either tedious, dull, or both. Far from staying up to read it, I sometimes fell asleep in order not to! I told one friend that it wasn't too bad as long as I didn't concentrate on what I was reading. Just when I thought it was improving toward the very end, I had the fine pleasure of reading astronomical Enoch, very much in the tradition of pages 27-29, which may rank among the top five boring things I've ever read.
There's not too much to gain from the sundry texts, especially when so many are fragmentary (and then the compiler dredges us through multiple variations of the exact same fragment we just endured). One midrange and verbatim example (413)--meaning that some were far less complete--of the sort of stuff that really wasn't comprehensible enough to deserve publication, inasmuch as the only interested scholars would prefer an interlinear version anyhow:
For the most part, I now feel that those who describe the Qumran community at length must have a very resourceful imagination. The texts invite multiple possibilities, which was another of my gripes. Where we actually did have equivalents in the Old Testament passages (and I would much prefer a comparison between all of those scrolls), the translation waxed original enough that it would scarcely be recognizable unless you were quite acquainted with what lay behind the King James (Authorized) Version's wording. (It's hard to take a translator seriously who changes creeping things to "creepy-crawlies" (194).)
Anyway, these people were incredibly strict (see 41-42)! Sleeping during their meeting (11) could get you excluded for 30 days; interrupting, 10; giggling "inanely causing his voice to be heard," 30. I kind of like their idea, however, that the excommunicant "cannot judge anyone and no-one should ask his advice for two whole years" (13). Myriad are their maledictions against those who seek "easy interpretations." In one alternate version, this is translated as "those who seek smooth things during the last days" (S. Kent Brown and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Between the Testaments: From Malachi to Matthew [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2002], 200), a much more instructive notion. These letter of the law folks hoped for a Messiah who would reign over remnants "among [whom:] there is no-one who omits a regulation or who opposes the precepts of the king" (429).
I decline remarking much on the theology that was extracted at such high costs from this monstrosity. There are interesting hints at belief in predestination, the expected elitist covenant people view, and from page 110 onward there is a multiplicity of gods and councils of gods (ever keeping one preeminent) that puts the Shema in an interesting new light.
Overall, drier than the desert region from whence it came. I doubt I'll ever know anyone in my lifetime to whom I'd recommend this as a direct read.
There's not too much to gain from the sundry texts, especially when so many are fragmentary (and then the compiler dredges us through multiple variations of the exact same fragment we just endured). One midrange and verbatim example (413)--meaning that some were far less complete--of the sort of stuff that really wasn't comprehensible enough to deserve publication, inasmuch as the only interested scholars would prefer an interlinear version anyhow:
1 [...:] ... [...:] 2 [...:] our blood in the period [...:] 3 [...:] to tell us everything [...:] 4 ... [...:] You know everything [...:] 5 You divide and utter [...:] all the curses [...:] 6 in us, as you have said [...:] 7 Behold, you lie down with [...:] 8 [...:] ... [...:] 9-14 [...:] 15 [and:] in the abysses and in every [...:] 16 For, from eternity you hate [...:] 17 together in your presence [...:] 18 at the end of time [...:] 19 [the op:]ponent ... [...:] 20 [...:] to observe [...:] 21 [...:] ... [...:]
For the most part, I now feel that those who describe the Qumran community at length must have a very resourceful imagination. The texts invite multiple possibilities, which was another of my gripes. Where we actually did have equivalents in the Old Testament passages (and I would much prefer a comparison between all of those scrolls), the translation waxed original enough that it would scarcely be recognizable unless you were quite acquainted with what lay behind the King James (Authorized) Version's wording. (It's hard to take a translator seriously who changes creeping things to "creepy-crawlies" (194).)
Anyway, these people were incredibly strict (see 41-42)! Sleeping during their meeting (11) could get you excluded for 30 days; interrupting, 10; giggling "inanely causing his voice to be heard," 30. I kind of like their idea, however, that the excommunicant "cannot judge anyone and no-one should ask his advice for two whole years" (13). Myriad are their maledictions against those who seek "easy interpretations." In one alternate version, this is translated as "those who seek smooth things during the last days" (S. Kent Brown and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, Between the Testaments: From Malachi to Matthew [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 2002], 200), a much more instructive notion. These letter of the law folks hoped for a Messiah who would reign over remnants "among [whom:] there is no-one who omits a regulation or who opposes the precepts of the king" (429).
I decline remarking much on the theology that was extracted at such high costs from this monstrosity. There are interesting hints at belief in predestination, the expected elitist covenant people view, and from page 110 onward there is a multiplicity of gods and councils of gods (ever keeping one preeminent) that puts the Shema in an interesting new light.
Overall, drier than the desert region from whence it came. I doubt I'll ever know anyone in my lifetime to whom I'd recommend this as a direct read.
June 25, 2011
I haven't read all of this but what I have read has been interesting. This is more difficult to get through than the Penguin Classics edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This is MUST reading for serious Bible, theology, Christian history, and other inquiring people and students.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews