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397 CHAPTER NINETEEN THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE MEAL FORMULA IN JOSEPH AND ASENETH: FROM QUMRAN FEVER TO QUMRAN LIGHT Randall D. Chesnutt As important for the study of early Judaism as the previously unknown texts recovered from the Judean Desert over the last fifty years is the reexamination of long-known texts in the light of those new discoveries. That all early Jewish literature should be scrutinized afresh in view of the startling finds at Qumran is natural and appropriate. Extensive primary sources in Hebrew and Aramaic which are clearly Jewish, Palestinian, from the Second Temple period, and unedited after that period, cannot help but illuminate our other sources, so many of which are extant only in late and heavily edited forms and are of uncertain date, provenance, original language, and even Jewishness. Nor is the potential illumination confined to the broad ideological landscape of these writings or even to specific language, ideas, genres, and practices for which Qumran provides parallels. For several works traditionally classified as Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the significance of the scrolls is much more direct: fragments of Tobit, the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach, the Letter of Jeremiah, four of the five works that comprise 1 Enoch, Jubilees, something akin to some of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and three of the five apocryphal Psalms of David have all been found at Qumran, in some cases prompting major reconsideration of the work’s compositional history and interpretation. The impact of the scrolls on the study of these and many other early Jewish and Christian texts has been truly—and rightfully—revolutionary. At the same time, the desire to explain the relationship between the Qumran community and other groups, individuals, and texts from antiquity has given rise to many speculative and sensational claims. Most notorious are the fanciful theories that link Qumran dramatis personae with familiar New Testament figures. B. E. Thiering’s identification of John the Baptist as the Teacher of Righteousness (the founder and early leader of the Qumran community) and Jesus as the Wicked Priest (the archenemy 398 THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS AND THE MEAL FORMULA of the Qumran group),1 and R. H. Eisenman’s contention that James, the brother of Jesus, is the Qumran Teacher of Righteousness and the author of at least one of the Qumran documents (4Q394-399 = 4QMMT, Some Works of the Torah), and that the apostle Paul is the hated adversary whom the scrolls call the Man of Lies,2 are only two examples. Not as widely publicized in popular media, but quite influential in scholarly circles, are the proposed links between various works of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and the community that preserved the Dead Sea Scrolls. In addition to the pseudepigraphical works actually represented among the Qumran manuscripts, the following have been frequently alleged to have close ties with the Qumran sect: the Testament of Abraham,3 the Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah,4 the Testament of Job,5 Pseudo-Philo’s Liber 1. Barbara E. Thiering, Redating the Teacher of Righteousness (Sydney: Theological Explorations, 1979); idem, The Gospels and Qumran: A New Hypothesis (Sydney: Theological Explorations, 1981); idem, The Qumran Origins of the Christian Church (Sydney: Theological Explorations, 1983); and idem, Jesus and the Riddle of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Unlocking the Secrets of His Life Story (San Francisco: Harper, 1992). 2. Robert H. Eisenman, Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians and Qumran: A New Hypothesis of Qumran Origins (StPB 34; Leiden: Brill, 1983); idem, James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher (StPB 35; Leiden: Brill, 1986); Robert H. Eisenman and Michael O. Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (Rockport, MA: Element, 1992); and Robert H. Eisenman, James the Brother of Jesus: The Key to Unlocking the Secrets of Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Viking, 1996). See esp. xxxiii and 520 in this last book with regard to Eisenman’s latest proposal—James’ authorship of Some Works of the Torah (4Q394–399 = 4QMMT). 3. Francis Schmidt, Le Testament d’Abraham: Introduction, édition de la recension courte, traduction et notes (2 vols.; Ph.D. diss., University of Strasbourg, 1971), 1:120; and Mathias Delcor, Le Testament d’Abraham: Introduction, traduction du texte grec et commentaire de la recension grecque longue (SVTP 2; Leiden: Brill, 1973), 69–73. 4. David Flusser, “The Apocryphal Book of Ascensio Isaiae and the Dead Sea Sect,” IEJ 3 (1953): 30–47; J. P. M. van der Ploeg, “Les manuscrits du désert de Juda: Études...

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