Among the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran are seventeen of the earliest known biblical commentaries, the "Pesharim." Since their discovery, researchers have been in intense debate over thei
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran are seventeen of the earliest known biblical commentaries, the "Pesharim." Since their discovery, researchers have been in intense debate over their true nature. In this fascinating volume James Charlesworth introduces the Pesharim to general readers and makes a signal contribution to our understanding of these invaluable ancient documents.
Ought these Jewish writings be viewed as historiography in the guise of biblical commentary, or are they simply examples of the way the Qumran community read and interpreted the Hebrew scriptures? Charlesworth takes the middle path in this debate, demonstrating that there are indeed important historical allusions in the Pesharim. In the course of the book, he provides a summary of the interpretive methods used in the Pesharim, isolates the historical allusions in them, and relates these allusions to a synopsis of Qumran history.
The volume also includes appendixes by Lidija Novakovic that explain exegetical terminology and cite scriptural quotations.
David Noel Freedman
— University of California, San Diego
"James Charlesworth has produced yet another valuable volume for the ongoing and ever-increasing library on the Dead Sea Scrolls. This indispensable book provides a thoroughgoing commentary on the Pesharim, the early Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Bible. Charlesworth is a faithful reporter of the scholarly battlefield, and he steers a moderate middle course among the treacherous minefields in which the Scrolls have been lodged ever since their discovery. Charlesworth is sound and safe and solid, citing the best authorities and hewing to the established lines in Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. Thus he brings us up to date on the issues and their likely resolutions, and he prepares us for the future completion of current labors and the possible and hoped-for consensus regarding the main chronological and historical events in the experience of the people of Qumran."
James A. Sanders
— Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center, Claremont, California
"Charlesworth explores the understanding of Scripture that the Jewish sectarians at Qumran had and the way they read and applied Scripture to their time in history. They lived in the tumultuous period of Roman oppression just before the rise of Christianity, and they had essentially the same hermeneutics of Scripture as the New Testament writers ? that is, they believed that the Bible addresses the end time, that they were living in the last days, and that Scripture therefore spoke directly to their situation. Charlesworth's study starkly illumines the same kind of hermeneutics evident in present-day Christian eschatological sects. The appendixes by Lidija Novakovic of biblical quotations and textual variants are alone worth the price of the book."
Doron Mendels
— Hebrew University of Jerusalem
"This illuminating study of the Pesharim is a major contribution to the fields of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. In a masterful manner Charlesworth goes through the texts and analyzes them against the backdrop of Hellenistic and Jewish historiography as well as of biblical literature. The book is brilliantly written and should be read by scholars and the general public. It is a learned and important scholarly book, but it is also a very enjoyable book to read."
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James H. Charlesworth is George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature and director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at Princeton Theological Seminary. He has authored or edited over sixty books.
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