KAILA WARD | staff writer
Many scholars believe the Dead Sea Scolls are among the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century, and according to Dr. Robert Duke, assistant professor of biblical studies, they are even greater than that. A recent claim made by Rachel Elior, a scholar of Jewish mysticism at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, attacks the somewhat unanimous or accepted wisdom regarding the derivation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
“I would even go beyond saying the 20th century. I would throw in ‘forever,’” Duke said.
Most scholars believe a sect of ascetic Jews, known as the Essenes, wrote the scrolls. Some Essenes are thought to have lived during the late Second Temple period in a commune at Qumran, an established site west of the Dead Sea, which borders the 11 caves in which the scrolls were discovered.
Elior not only claims that the Essenes were not the authors, but moreover that they never even existed. She believes that the authorship belongs to a group of temple priests, who are actually mentioned in the scrolls as “priests, sons of Zadok.”
“It’s very clear to any unbiased reader that these are texts of a distinctly priestly nature,” Elior said. “Why go to the Essenes if the scrolls themselves say ‘the priests, sons of Zadok?’”
Elior’s bold theory raised the interest of other scholars, especially that of Hanan Eshel, an expert on the scrolls from Bar Ilan University in Israel. Eshel believes that the Qumran sect was one group among the larger movement of the Essenes, and was behind many of the scrolls.
To claim that decades of scholarship have been in ignorance, Eshel believes, is inappropriate.
Because of the tremendous amount of interest, but also the scarcity of public admiration in the scrolls, Eshel is not surprised at the high amplitude of media attention Elior’s claims are receiving.
“Every person who writes a new theory gets on the front page of the New York Times,” Eshel said.
Dr. Duke, who accompanied Eshel on a week-long archaeological dig in the Qumran area in 2001, agrees.
Duke does not necessarily believe Elior’s claim is all that revolutionary, but that it is interesting enough to generate interest and media attention.
Duke parallels this event to a scandal earlier this month involving the son of Norman Golb, one of the scholars who has disputed the connection between the Essenes and the scrolls. Raphael Golb was arrested for impersonating, one of his father’s rivals, Lawrence Schiffman on the Internet. He did this in an attempt to demean Schiffman’s ideas, therefore elevating his father’s case.
This, according to Duke, is an example of the insanity that the Dead Sea Scrolls can generate. The insanity is inevitable because of the meaning the scrolls illustrate for scholars and Christians.
“The two most significant roles the Dead Sea Scrolls play in the history of Christianity is giving us confidence in the biblical text and it also paints a dynamic picture of Judaism when Jesus was on Earth,” Duke said.
Illustrating Judaism in a different light, rather than merely accepting the parochial ideas of the anti-Semites, is imperative for full engagement and understanding of true Judaism.
The initial idealist, Eleazar Sukenik, who purchased three scrolls from a Bethlehem antiquities dealer in November and December of 1947, and was the first scholar to propose that the scrolls might have a connection with the Essenes, upholds Dr. Duke’s firm acceptance of Eshel’s claim.
Duke believes the Manual of Discipline, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which defined the way of life for a wilderness sect, is too coincidental along with Roman geographer Pliny the Elder’s account of the geographical layout along the Dead Sea.
Duke said, “Looking at all the data, it really starts developing a clear view of what’s going on, and that’s the Essenes.”
