Sukenik and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Part II

The Non-Biblical Scrolls

Eleazar Sukenik, National Library of Israel, Schwadron collection

Regarding the non-biblical scrolls, in this early use of the War Scroll and the Hodayot that were in his possession, but also the Pesher Habakkuk and Rule of the Community that he had seen but not been able to purchase, he recognized that previously unknown texts provided an entrée to understanding the religious lifeof the last two centuries B.C.E.  He saw Pesher Habakkuk as showing the antiquity of midrashic literature among the Jews, although he later clarified this position.  Sukenik recognized the script of the scrolls from various tombs that had been found in an area of Jerusalem.  This, in fact, is how he dated the scrolls.  (He saw as especially close the Uzziah inscription that he had himself discovered.)  He also noted the peculiar spelling system of the scrolls, which he saw as dating to this early date.

Sukenik also pointed to earlier discoveries in the same area. In 1917 there had been a discovery of Hebrew and Greek biblical manuscripts hidden in dry vessels, including in one report, a Greek Psalm text used by Origen in the Hexapla.

Sukenik concluded his general discussion in Sekirah Aleph by being as far as I know the first to suggest, based on his inspection of the Rule of the Community (1QS), that these texts had belonged to the Essenes who had lived on the western shore of the Dead Sea “near Ein Gedi,” in his words.

By the time his Sekirah Bet was published in 1950, he knew much more about the scrolls, both those in Israeli hands and also those in the hands of others.  In the interim, the “genizah” cave had been found and some had even tried to dispute the antiquity of the scrolls.  The date was now firm in the light of the finding of additional manuscript fragments scattered among pottery definitely dated to the late Hellenistic period.  In the second volume he published several texts and even improved photos of texts he had previously published.  Here he already noted that Isaiah B, in Israeli possession, was closer to Masoretic Text than Isaiah A, in the hands of Athanasius Samuel. (His thanks to John Trever and R. de Vaux for their help bespeak a level of cooperation that does not seem to have continued.)  In the introduction to this volume he began by telling the familiar story of the discovery of the scrolls, including some otherwise unknown specifics regarding the abortive involvement of the Hebrew University, as well as his own involvement.  He also gave a full account of the then know archaeological data.  He stated that the pottery proved that the scrolls had been hidden in the cave (he only had one cave) no later than the 1^st century B.C.E.