Tales of the Patriarchs, The Commentary on Habakkuk, and Temple Scroll from Dead Sea Scrolls containing rewrites, commentaries, and additions to the Bible, contribute to biblical analysis through the authors’ attempts to recover the original content and intention of the Bible. The important documents from Dead Sea Scrolls, although not included in the Bible due to questionable authorship and discrepant anachronism, provide evidence for biblical analysis. In comparing Dead Sea Scrolls to Old Testament, readers can verify and criticize the integrity of both sources of biblical texts through similarities and discrepancies between the two. The author of Tales of the Patriarchs attempts to supplement the original biblical-text with clarifying details to guide the readers to interpret the biblical-text in the author’s perspective. On the other hand, The Commentary on Habakkuk (Pesher Habakkuk, 1QpHab) simply analyzes the first two chapters of the biblical book on prophet Habakkuk. Aside from rewrites and commentaries, additions to the Bible (in Dead Sea Scrolls) further explain terms set by Yahweh and his prophets through elaborated instructions on how to please Yahweh. Designated to decipher Yahweh's intentions rather than to add new concepts to the Bible, Temple Scrolls presents an idealized set of rules for the establishment the perfect temple (for Yahweh).
Despite his uses of anachronism, the writer of Tales of the Patriarchs attempted to fix what he perceived as difficulties in Genesis in his rewrite of Genesis and Exodus. In Tales of the Patriarchs, the writer aimed to provide a proper clarification of the biblical text where readers may misinterpret. The information found in the "Tales of the Patriarchs" uses parts of Genesis as its basis, but heavily expands on the stories, filling in gaps. Readers should also note that the expanded material is not original. Tales of the Patriarchs, also known as Genesis Apocryphon is a collection of stories under the category “rewritten Bible” from the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scroll tells the stories of the biblical patriarchs Enoch, Lamech, Noah, and Abram mostly from a first person perspective, while the narrative ties to stories known from Genesis 6-15. (Tales, Col.0-22) (Genesis 6-15). With this modus operandi in mind, the author of the scroll rearranged, anticipated, harmonized, added, and subtracted varied information from the scriptural narrative in order to provide a more coherent story of the patriarchs.
In his interpretation written so far past the actual events, the author introduces anachronism. A subtle anachronism is that the book is written in Aramaic. There are portions of the Old Testament which are written in this language, but they all come from the period of time of the Babylonian captivity when Aramaic became the prominent language in Israel. If "Tales of the Patriarchs" truly dated from the time of Genesis, then it should have been written in Hebrew. Another anachronism is that as Abraham describes five years past his entry into the land of Egypt, he says "I read to them from the Book of the words of Enoch."(Tales, Col.19) However, The Book of Enoch did not exist in Abraham's day. Although some errors could be found in terms of chronology, the author evidently paid attention to the timeline. At the time the scroll is written, Abraham already beared the name "Abraham" after the Lord said to him "'No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham.'" (Genesis 17, 5). the author writes "Abram" as when the event happened. Abram had already become Abraham when the scroll is written but as the author cares for the accuracy of the rewrite, still writes "Abram" as Abraham's name.
The information found in the Tales of the Patriarchs uses parts of Genesis as its basis, but alters details to avoid problematic interpretations– there are differences from the biblical text. For example, Noah "drank some of the wine and became drunk" in the vineyard Yahweh told him to plant. (Genesis 9, 21) The author switched Noah's drunkenness in Genesis 9 from a sin to a opportunity to receive divine revelation through hallucination in Col. 13 of Tales of the Patriarchs. After Noah "opened this vessel and began to drink it on the first day of the fifth year since planting" the vineyard, Noah, instead of being drunk, "watch the olive tree, and behold, the olive tree grew tall, with many perfumed blossoms in the radiance of its dense foliage […]". (Tales, Col. 13, 14) The author possibly changed Noah's drunkenness to revelation because readers could interpret Noah's decisions and actions post-drinking as irrational. Another example is that instead of Abram telling Sarai to say she was his sister because of his fear (Genesis 12:11-13) changes the story to say that it was Sarai's idea and due to her fear. It also states that the idea to lie came five years after being in Egypt though Genesis states that the idea was proposed as they were entering Egypt. These types of alterations surely rationalize and corrects the characters' actions but also cause the text to fail a long standing biblical test for prophecy.
In Commentaries on Habakkuk (Pesher Habakkuk, 1QpHab), the author copies the first two chapters of the biblical book of Habakkuk in the text’s original order and accompanies each paragraph from Habakkuk with a commentary. It is difficult to fix the date of the book, but the mention of the Chaldeans as Yahweh’s agent (Habakkuk 1:6) suggests the period of Chaldean power following their successful revolt against the Assyrians in 626 BC. A more precise date depends on the identity of “the wicked” and “the righteous” who are mentioned in the book. If “the wicked” are the Assyrians and “the righteous” are the Judaeans, then the book must be dated before the Assyrian Empire finally fell.
According to this interpretation, Habakkuk announced the eventual collapse of the wicked oppressors (Assyrians) of the people of Judah. In the meantime, Habakkuk consoled, “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk, 2:4).The biggest differences of the copied texts include word order, small grammatical variations, addition or omission of conjunctions, and spelling variations, but these are small enough to not do damage to the meaning of the text. In the biblical story, Habakkuk complains to God about the oppression and violence which are rife in the nation, and God tells him that the Chaldeans are being raised up to be the executors of his judgment against the unrighteous rulers of Judah. But Habakkuk has to renew his complaint before long, than those upon whom they executed God’s judgment. This time God tells him that the Chaldeans, too, will be dealt with when they have served his purpose; righteousness will one day be established throughout the earth, but for the present the prophet and those like-minded must exercise patience and trust in God: "the righteous shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk, 2:4). However, in the commentaries, the author uses a prophetic tone to address events of the author's time. After quoting the text of Habakkuk 1-5, " 'Look, traitors, and see, and be shocked– and amazed — for the LORD is doing something in your time that you would not believe it if told' ", the commentator says the text's interpretation concerns "the traitors with the Man of the Lie, because they have not obeyed the words of the Teacher of Righteousness from the mouth of God." (Commentary On Habakkuk, Col. 2). The commentator then then proceeds to give his opinion mainly in terms of persons and events of the his (commentator's) immediate or preceeding time period.
The first two chapters of Habakkuk describes the oracle of God which Habakkuk the prophet saw. This commentary mentions the major issues of religious struggles of Jerusalem, politics of Temple priesthood, and repercussions against the appearance of the Romans (Chaldeans or Kittim). (Commentary On Habakkuk, Col. 2, 11-12)( Although no historical personages are mentioned by name, there are allusions to such individuals as "the Teacher of Righteousness," "the Wicked Priest," "the Man of Lies," and others, whose exact identities have yet to be established. (Commentary On Habakkuk, Col. 1, 13-14)
The divergences between the Hebrew text of the scroll and the standard Bible appears startlingly minimal. This scroll reflects the writer's perception of his community and he community's enemies (Chaldeans or Kittim). But, as the Qumran community viewed the matter, all the prophecies did not apply to exact figures but exited as "code-names" for what the Qumran community faced. The prophecies referred to the author's own days and the days immediately to follow. Habakkuk, to the author, through the commentaries, would exhibit coherence and intelligibility when read, not in the light of the prophets’ own times, but in the context of these latter days (the author's days). The commentator treats Habakkuk’s ‘Chaldeans’ as a "code-word" for ‘Kitti’im’. Prophet Habakkuk said ‘Chaldeans’, but he was not speaking of the historical Chaldeans; he was pointing at the armies of another Gentile empire which was to arise centuries after his own day.
Designated to interpret as well as to add to the Bible, The Temple Scroll presents an idealized description and revelation of a divine Temple for Yahweh with courts as large as the city of Jerusalem from which all gentiles and impures are excluded and reforms the cycle of feast based on a 364-day solar calendar. (Temple Scroll, Col. 37) The author of Temple Scrolls uses pseudepigraphy method, a biblical interpretation technique attested at Qumran. This technique is used for elaborating on biblical prophecy, narrative, or law. The author has compiled in the scroll, "a new law for life in the land intended to guide Israel during the Last Days. In doing so, the author extracts from the "old law" from mainly Deuteronomy, and also weaves in information from Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. (Dead Sea Scrolls, Pg. 593)
The Temple Scroll includes God's instructions to Moses at Sinai, in Moses's discourse in Deuteronomy. Though the first column is lost, col. II gives the setting of the revelation to Moses at Mount Sinai after Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 7. While 11Q19 provides measures for the Outer Court, the following columns describe the temple. Temple Scroll illustrates the ideal Temple's equipments and related laws from a priestly view concentrating on holiness and purity.
The description starts from the Temple House in the center of sacrificial service and expands to the outer parts of the Temple.The oversized measurements of the Outer Court make a realistic demand for translation into action unlikely. The Temple, as described in the scroll consists of three concentric square courts—the inner court, the middle court and the outer court. The square outer court would be 1,600 cubits, about 2,500 feet or half a mile, on a side. In addition, the Temple described in the Temple Scroll would be surrounded by a moat 100 cubits (165 feet) wide. (Temple Scroll, Col. 41-42)
The cycle of feast from the Temple Scroll mostly paraphrases the Torah, but the dating of feasts is based on the sect's 364-day solar calendar. Furthermore, laws that concern only priests in the Torah are applied to all Israel in the Temple Scroll. On top of that, three additional festivals are introduced: The New Wine, New Oil festivals, and the Wood Festival. The first-fruits festivals which follow also had a communal impact. For example, at the climax of the New Wine Festival there was a libation for the altar, then cups of wine would be passed out to the mass of celebrants overflowing into the outer court. And then, at a given sign, they lifted their cups and recited a blessing to God, asking Him in thanksgiving and prayer for an abundant harvest. The New Oil Festival was celebrated the same way. At its climax there was libation of oil for the altar and for everyone present. The last of the new festivals is a Wood Festival. The Qumran sect ordained that the wood offering should be brought by all twelve tribes during a six-day festival, two tribes per day. This indicates the tendency of the Temple Scroll towards a more complex religious practice, which also can be seen in the requiring of cereal offering and drink offering to accompany the sin offering. By generally coming first, the sin offering acquires the function as a preparatory purification rite, hinting at a very strong sense for ritual purity which can be seen in various other laws.
The Dead Sea Scrolls provide a extraordinary window of insight into the transformation sprawn from Pharisaic Judaism into the "standard-version" of the Bible. As previously examined, aside from anachronism, the writer of Tales of the Patriarchs attempted to fix what he perceived as difficulties in Genesis in his rewrite of Genesis and Exodus. On the other hand, Commentaries on Habakkuk copies the first two chapters of the biblical book of Habakkuk in the text’s original order and accompanies each paragraph from Habakkuk with the author's original analysis. Different from the purposes of commentaries, The Temple Scroll adds new practices to Qumran community's religious practice. A close study of the similarities and differences between the rewrites, commentaries, and additions from Dead Sea Scrolls and the “original” texts from the Bible explores the relationship between the two texts. The Dead Sea Scrolls provide valuable information about a complex time period to which Latter-day Saints texts trace their roots. In comparing the ideas and practices from the modern bible to the Dead Sea Scrolls, readers can better conduct critical analysis on biblical texts from a non-religious perspective.
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