The Use of Scripture in the Damascus Document 1-8, 19-20

Description

This monograph, a reworking of an Oxford D. Phil. dissertation (1991) written under the supervision of G. Vermes, focuses on the scriptural background of one of the major texts of the Qumran community, the Damascus Document (D). After a useful summary of the research on D (pp. 4-8), a general discussion of the use of the Bible at Qumran, and a review of a monograph by O. J. R. Schwarz examining exactly the same topic as Campbell, Der erste Teil der Damaskusschrift und das alte Testament (Diest: Lichtland, 1965), the author reaches the main topic of the analysis: scripture in the historical and midrashic sections of D (pp. 49-174). These two entities are separated as the author expects to detect in them a different approach to scripture. However, the exact demarcation of the units is presented with so many caveats that the reader wonders about the viability of the division. The author explains his definition of the historical section (I:1-II: 1; II: 14-IV: 12a; V:15b-VI:11a) as follows: "In any case, it is clear that adopting the designation 'historical' for these three parts of the Admonition, with the necessary caveats, does not imply that other portions of the work contain no similar material. But where this is the case, such units tend to be shorter, or they belong to sections where material of a different character predominates, or else they focus more clearly on what appears to be contemporary referents within a narrower time-scale" (p. 51). The author expresses similar doubts regarding the subdivision of all of D.