Greater than the Sum of the Parts: Organization and Structure in 4QpPsa (Psalm Pesher 1/4Q171)

Among the scrolls discovered in the Qumran Caves of the Judean Desert, the continuous pesharim have been especially significant because they have given scholars insight into how Jews living in the late Second Temple Period interpreted their Scriptures. Yet, in light of the atomistic hermeneutics employed at Qumran, scholars have not paid much attention to the structural organization of the pesharim. This study examines the pesher commentary on Psalm 37 (4QpPs^a) to show that it has a heretofore unobserved overarching organizational unity. The article argues that the author of 4QpPs^a structures the text in a way that preserves the structure of Psalm 37 itself while clearly articulating an overarching theme in the commentary; namely, the "two fates" theme, which contrasts the judgment of the wicked with the reward of the righteous. The first section of the paper examines the way in which the pesher organizes and presents the Scripture citations, demonstrating that the author of Psalm Pesher 1 has left several formal indicators of structural development. The second section focuses on the commentary portions of 4QpPs^a, arguing that distinct themes tie together clusters of glosses which are demarcated by vacats, and that a single unifying theme ties together the various clusters. The study concludes by presenting some implications for other major pesharim and the current consensus regarding the genre of pesharim as a whole; it is suggested that future studies should examine the organization of the lemmata and the glosses in other pesharim as this article has done with 4QpPs^a, providing further insight into the distinctive hermeneutical thinking of the Qumran community.