Comments on: Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls Airs on National Geographic Channel: Some Reflections

By: ‘writing the dead sea scrolls’ to re-air on national geographic channel december 11, 2010 « XKV8R: The Official Blog of Dr. Robert R. Cargill

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 23:59:02 +0000

[...] “Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls” is scheduled to re-air on NatGeo December 11, 2010. I’ve previously posted about this here. [...]

By: Matt Walker

Matt Walker — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:48:27 +0000

Just managed to catch this over here in the UK. I Really enjoyed it and thought it was excellent throughout.

By: David Stacey

David Stacey — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 07:03:11 +0000

Aaron, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The scenario I suggest is as, or more, likely than the notion that various groups from various sects fled for their lives from Jerusalem hotly pursued by Roman soldiers and all just happened to be carrying scrolls that they all, despite being pursued, just happened to deposit near Qumran, a site that the majority of them had probably never visited, let alone heard of.

By: Aaron Macks

Aaron Macks — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:06:25 +0000

@David
Not impossible but do we have an example of that having happened in the late Second Temple period? I can think of several “destructions” of heritical books but I don’t know of an example of the preservation of a heterodox library in the way you’re describing…

By: David Stacey

David Stacey — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:37:34 +0000

Aaron, If the High Priest confiscated docs whose ideology was opposed to the state he would have held them as ‘evidence’ for as long as there was any danger that their writers may have had influence, not as an ‘open shelf’ ‘library’ collection.

By: Aaron Macks

Aaron Macks — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:26:35 +0000

@David
I think there needs to be a distinction made between modern academic libraries and pre-modern religious ones. The Pontifical Library is a fine example, they have quite a collection of non-Catholic works, but how many of them predate 1500. A finer distinction, how many of Origen’s works, he was reputed to have authored 800 texts with an army of scribes, does the Vatican own.

The modern idea of an academic library, with books that oppose your group, even deny their validity, does not mesh with my understanding of pre-enlightenment religon…or even modern religon: The Brandeis University library probably has a copy of John Chrysostom’s “Against the Jews” but I’d be surprised if the Beit Midrash has one.

By: David Stacey

David Stacey — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:33:35 +0000

The establishment, pro-temple docs would, of course, stay in the temple. They would not have been weeded out for geniza deposits because they were still ‘active’. The sectarian docs some of which may have dated back to the 2nd cent BCE, would, on the other hand, have become irrelevant after a generation or two. Theoretically the most likely time for a good clear out of the temple library would have been when it was rebuilt by Herod, a time that might be supported by the, admittedly, sparse archaeological artifacts found in some of the scroll caves.

A question:- If Qumran was built as a fort it was presumably a Hasmonean state enterprise. Why then would the Hasmonean state tolerate a group of sectarians, apparently strongly antagonisitc towards it, to move in to what was not only a good watchtower guarding the path up to the Buqeia, but a water source which would have been important in the local economy, including that of the Royal Estate in Jericho, based on the transhumance of sheep?

By: bobcargill

bobcargill — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:37:39 +0000

it is unlikely, but not impossible. so for the sake of hypothetical argument, ok.

but my question is this: where are the pro-temple, pro-priesthood, solar-lunar calendar docs?

I have no problem with a group hypothetically collecting an opponent’s manuscripts. but, one would all the more expect a group’s own mss. in order to argue this scenario, one must argue that a group collected other groups’ mss, but none of their own (except maybe the prayer of Jonathan).

it’s possible, but unlikely statistically.

By: David Stacey

David Stacey — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 07:04:34 +0000

Suppose there was a sect whose ideology was strongly opposed to that of the High Priest and the Establishment. The ideology was regarded as dangerous by the High Priest and eventually it provoked a ‘conflict’ in which the High priest came out on top. The sect was suppressed and their ideological literature was confiscated and, on the basis of ‘know thine enemy’ was retained in a corner of the Temple ‘library’. (How many anti-Catholic docs are held by the Vatican ?)

The sect is disrupted/suppressed and, as time goes by, their ideology is no longer considered a danger to the status quo. Their writings become of little importance and merely gather dust and take up space in the Temple library and are gradually sent, together with other old, damaged, outmoded docs, as geniza deposits within the extremities of the High Priest’s Estate in Jericho, an estate that is of great importance to him because it provides him with a large, steady income, and pleasant R’n'R in the winter warmth away from the tensions of Jerusalem.

By: Brian Small

Brian Small — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:29:35 +0000

I just watched the documentary and thought it was interesting. I think the multiple authorship theory has some merit. My question about the fellow who said that Qumran was a pottery making factory. Why couldn’t the inhabitants at Qumran not have made pottery as well as writing the scrolls? Why does it have to be either/or? Why not both/and? After all the scrolls were housed in pottery jars and surely they used pottery for their own purposes.