The Dead Sea Scrolls And The New Testament [Paperback]

This collection of essays by George Brooke, professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Manchester, brings together a wide body of work that has appeared in different places. I was familiar with several of the articles-turned-chapters in this book from some of these other sources - for example, chapter 15 appeared in briefer form in Biblical Archaeology Review, one of my favourite magazines. Other chapters appear as essays in other books on my shelves, but it is worthwhile to have the assembled collection under one cover.

According to Brooke, most of the essays have been revised, some of them significantly. A comparison of several with sources I already had bears this out. In some cases, later research has corrected details (scholarship regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls is an ever-growing body of work); in other cases, the information has been expanded and deepened.

I am always wary of books that combine the terms 'Dead Sea Scrolls' and 'New Testament', because in fact there is no Dead Sea Scroll that contains New Testament writing - there are some controversial fragments of a few words (and sometimes only a character or two), but current scholarly thinking believes that there are no authentic New Testament writings among the scrolls. Brooke discusses this in his introduction, among the three points of significance he brings up relating the New Testament to the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls provide context and contemporary or near-contemporary writing to the New Testament, and are thus very valuable.

Not only are the content and context of the Scrolls of interest, but also the history of the scholarship surrounding them is fascinating. Brooke's first chapter covers this subject well in brief but fairly comprehensive fashion (this chapter also appeared in a BAR publication, 'The Dead Sea Scrolls at 50'). The subsequent chapters in the first part of the book look at the Scrolls in more general terms. The second major part of the book looks at particular scrolls and texts - the Temple Scroll, MMT and Luke-Acts, the Apocryphon of Levi and the Messianic Servant High Priest, and other scrolls are examined here. The final major part of the book has chapters that lok at scrolls that have special relationship or insight to bear on each of the four canonical gospels. Brooke describes these as 'mutual illumination of the Scrolls and the Gospels', as each can provide new exegetical and hermeneutic possibilities for the other.

The idea of mutual illumination is Brooke's main focus, seeing the future of Scroll and New Testament research being one in which each can influence and strengthen the other - in as far as Jesus, Paul and the other early Christians were deeply rooted in Jewish traditions, an understanding of the Scrolls can deepen the understanding the world in which they lived. Additionally, the ways in which the early New Testament writers worked can shed light on the Scrolls.

This is a valuable text to have as part of my Dead Sea Scrolls collection.

"Those few scholars who persist in the view that a direct link can be made between Qumran and the New Testament are probably constructing an approach to the evidence which cannot be sustained. those links between the Qumran and the New Testament are more likely to be indirect." George Brooke, pp. xviii

The Messianic Scroll:
In 1991 the DSS scholarship community was stunned to learn about a five-line scroll that contained fascinating similarity on the death of the Messiah. This remarkable scroll was translated by Dr. Robert Eisenman, of Cal State University, published for the first time, it revealed incredible references to a Messiah who suffered crucifixion for the sins of men. Although the scroll translators kept claiming that there was no evidence of early Christianity in the unpublished scrolls, this new scroll radically contradicts their statements. This earth-shaking scroll is of vital importance, as U. Chicago professor Golb stated, "that contrary to what some of the (DSS) editors said, there are lots of surprises in the scrolls, and this is one of them." This scroll provides an amazing parallel to the New Testament revelation of the Messiah who has suffered death before He would ultimately return to rule the nations, a dual role of the Messiah as Christians came to believe. This same scroll identified the Messiah as the 'Shoot of Jesse', while being 'pierced' stresses Psalms 22:16 Messianic prophecy: "They pierced my hands and feet." Here is a reminder of Isaiah who prophesied that the messiah would be wounded for our own transgressions!

Mutual Illumination:
In the conclusion to his book's introduction Brooke states, "... Those concerned to appreciate some of the exegetical details preserved in the DSS would do well not to omit evidence of the New Testament in their research of contemporary Jewish literature, which might help in the explanation of challenging fragmentary passages. New Testament scholars in turn, should recognize that the value of the DSS for the better appreciation of the Jewish background of much in the New Testament does not lie exclusively in particular matters of organization or Messianic belief, but much more broadly in the ways in which Jews contemporary with Jesus and Paul constructed their own self understandings and identities..., interpretations which gave life to texts written in earlier generations."

Tripartite Essays:
In his first five 'Generally Illuminating' essays, the author traces the history of DSS discussing the relation of Jesus to the Essenes and his sayings to their scrolls. In the Canon within the canon he explores, under the argument his Rylands chair predecessor FF Bruce strerssed for the New Testament, focusing on four OT books, Genesis, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Psalms. He debates that the scrolls are more than a quarry for NT ideas.
* Part Two, Particular Scrolls illuminate their NT Counterparts, in six essays, discusses the Temple Scroll in relation to the NT. In addition that they both understand the Crucifixion in a similar way, he compares divorce, and the messianic servant, between others.
* Part Three, of five essays entitled, 'Mutual Illumination of Particular Passages,' where he refers to Puech's Matthean (4Q) Beatitudes, in proof of the significance of DSS in interpreting NT writings. He also discusses the parable of the vineyard, in Isaiah 5, and gives a fascinating interpretation of the 153 Fish of John 21:11, a theme that Evagrius Ponticas has used for 153 chapters on Prayer.

Sixteen Essays:
Like the thirty sayings of Amenemope, preserved in Proverbs, G. Brooke, distinguished Scrolls scholar, and editor of the Journal of Dead Sea Scrolls Discoveries, who teaches biblical criticism and exegesis, took to the hard task by gathering and editing sixteen of his own related essays. He exclaims, "How can one summarize briefly 50 years or more of scholarship on the Qumran scrolls and the study of the New Testament? ... that there is some kind of relationship between Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls, and that the DSS enhance how Jesus' Jewishness is best understood." He reveals his privileged background on the cutting edge of scroll research,' in the words of M. Moore, of fuller Theo. Seminary. Praised by the eminent J. VanderKam who wrote, "Brooke, basing himself on his extensive knowledge of, and experience with both bodies of literature, sets forth intriguing cases for interrelations between them and does so with his accustomed care and thoroughness."

The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance For Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity

Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Anchor Bible Reference)

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament offers expert analysis in the study of The Dead Sea Scrolls by George J. Brooke, Rylands Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Manchester, England. While most studies draw links between The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Old Testament, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament demonstrates how scholars can use the Scrolls to learn more about the linguistic, historical, religious, and social contexts of first-century Palestine and therefore better understand the New Testament. An extensively researched and scholarly accounting, with a select bibliography, and separate indexes of Bible references and Non-Biblical sources.

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