Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State (Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature

by Hanan Eshel

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State  is the first book dedicated solely to the question of how we can learn political history from the Qumran scrolls. This English edition of Hanan Eshel's 2004 Hebrew publication updates that earlier work with more recent scholarship, now also including English-language resources.

Genres: History

228 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2008

Reviews

[Alex]

Knepig men synnerligen intressant

[Rodney Harvill]

Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls, the only source for the history of the Hasmonean state was Josephus. Because Josephus incorporated the work of various historians, at least some of whom were hostile to the Hasmoneans, his Antiquities of the Jews contain contradictions. On account of this, Dr. Eshel studied historical allusions in the Dead Sea Scrolls in an effort to shed more light on the Hasmonean state and either corroborate or refute what Josephus had to say. Aside from the fragmentary nature of a number of the manuscripts, his efforts were complicated by the use of code words in the Qumran writings, such as:

• The teacher of righteousness
• The wicked priest
• The man of lies
• Seekers after smooth things
• Ephraim
• Manasseh
• Judah
• The Kittim

My gut feel is that such code words were used by the Qumran sectarians so that their writings couldn’t necessarily be used against them by the authorities. For example, Dr. Eshel proposes that the wicked priest was none other than Jonathan the Hasmonean, high priest from 152-143. Whether the wicked priest was Jonathan or some other high priest, calling him out by name might have had severe consequences.

One modern consequence of the code words is that Dr. Eshel had to decipher the code words so he could nail down the historical allusions. Only then could he compare the historical allusions to Josephus’ Antiquities. So, if he is wrong about a code word, then any subsequent historical analysis is invalid. An engineer and not a historian, I am in no position to assess the accuracy of Dr. Eshel’s conclusions. Rather, I found his assessments to be both fascinating and educational, especially for the level of detail about the Hasmoneans.

[Anne]

This is kind of a historical contextual background to the Dead Sea Scrolls. I am not biblical scholar or expert, but I appreciated how even though Eshel makes specific arguments about the figure in the Dead Sea Scrolls, he also gives countering opinions of other scholars. It is quite a contextual book, however, and if you have no knowledge of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it might be difficult to read it. I read it for a class I took on the scrolls themselves, and without reading more, this book is sometimes hard to understand. But if you want to learn more about the Dead Sea Scrolls, Eshel's detailed research and understanding of history is for you.