The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State.

Davies, Philip R.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hasmonean State. By HANAN ESHEL. Grand Rapids. Michigan: WILLIAM B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY, 2008. Pp. xii + 208, illus. $28 (paper).

The greatest frustration engendered by the Dead Sea Scrolls is that despite their enormous importance for the religious history of Judea and Judaism, they reveal so little of public events and figures. The early decades of Scrolls scholarship witnessed a struggle to identify the persons behind the sobriquets, with little consensus and, as time progressed, less confidence in the quest.

Since then, available scrolls have multiplied to 900. and two named, identifiable figures have emerged: Shelomzion, queen and successor (139-67 B.C.E.) of Alexander Jannaeus, and Aemilius (Scaurus), Pompey's legate who preceded his master's arrival in Jerusalem in 65-64 B.C.E. In addition, Jannaeus is the one outstanding candidate for the "King Jonathan" named in a Prayer (4Q448). Otherwise, there arc numerous colorful sobriquets and descriptions of events that might conceal real occurrences, creatively remembered ones, or even incidents inferred from biblical texts (a device of which Matthew's nativity account is perhaps the best-known example). Or they might be stereotypical, applicable to anything that came along (like much "prophecy").

The book follows a chronological sequence, from "The Roots of the Hasmonean Revolt" to "The Assassination of Pompey," in which the historical circumstances are described (using our extant witnesses, I and 2 Maccabees and Josephus) and then relevant or possibly relevant Qumran texts are adduced. In chapter one, "Roots of the Hasmonean Revolt," these are 4Q248, a pseudo-historical text like Daniel 11. mentioning an "Antiochus" identified by Eshel as IV ("Epiphanes"). Here the lack of reference to his anti-Jewish measures suggests to Eshel a date before 176. pointing to "messianic" expectations in Judea at this time (p. 19; but we are not told why these expectations should have arisen).

Chapter two rehearses a well-trodden discussion of the "Teacher of Righteousness," the "Man of Lies," and the "Wicked Priest." Eshel identifies the latter with Jonathan ben Mattathias. the one additional ingredient being that he is also the addressee of 4QMMT. It is strange that Eshel, who is very familiar with Qumran archaeology, does not note that according to the current consensus Qumran itself was probably not reoccupied before about 100 B.C.E., whereas Jonathan died in 142. Chapter three deals with Joshua's curse on Jericho (Josh. 6:26). cited and applied to a recent figure and his two sons in Q4175 (Testimonia) and 4Q379 (Psalms of Joshua). Scholars have disagreed over whether the interpretation applies to Jerusalem or Jericho and to whom it refers. Eshel opts for John Hyrcanus and his Jericho palace.

Alexander Jannaeus and his war with Ptolemy Lathyrus feature in chapters four through six. Eshel ingeniously links the two texts in 4Q448, one a "Prayer for the Welfare of King Jonathan." the other some parts of Ps. 154. This Psalm (otherwise extant in Syriac) invokes Hezekiah's rescue from Sennacherib, and Eshel suggests that the Prayer celebrates the deliverance of Jannaeus and Jerusalem from Lathyrus. In chapter six, considering Jannaeus's conflict with Pharisees and his crucifixion of several of them (in the Nahum pesher) Eshel suggests that the author, like that of 4Q390. was an opponent of Jannaeus. The identification of the Qumranic "Furious Lion-Cub" with Jannaeus is widely accepted--but again, not unchallenged.

Chapter seven covers Jannaeus's successors and Pompey's conquest of Judea, as reflected in the Nahum pesher and in 4Q471. Here the "Annalistic Calendars" (4Q33I-33) come into play, with their clear references to Shelomzion and "Aemilius." A further name, "Potlias" (4Q468e) is also conjecturally identified with a Peitholaus mentioned in War 1.180. The references to famine in various pesharim are related to a famine in 65 b.c.e. on the eve of the Roman entry into Jerusalem. But as with the destruction of Jerusalem and laments over it, there is a fine line between specific and archetypal. Do we learn anything about the specific event?

In chapter eight a "wicked one" who will die in Memphis (in 4Q386, "Pseudo-Ezekiel"), is associated with the assassination of Pompey. In the final chapter. Eshel concedes that some Qumran references changed over lime: in 1QM he finds the Seleucids, but in (he pesharim the Romans. But this reviewer has argued that 1QM is composed of sources from different periods, and that in discussing the meaning of "Kittim" it is necessary to distinguish sources and their redaction. The lack of any literary-critical analysis of the Scrolls is one of the drawbacks of this book. For example, the most notorious sobriquets--"teacher of righteousness," "liar," and "wicked priest" are sometimes pluralized. sometimes omitted, and sometimes confused with each other among the various texts. Should we simply assume they nonetheless refer to a distinct historical person and just guess who it might be? The result of this kind of speculation, however argued, is a lot more that we might know but very little extra that we actually do.

There are some other rather old-fashioned attitudes, too. Can we simply speak of "Hellenistic residents in the Land of Israel rather than of the Jews" (p. 7)? Is this how we should understand second-century Judah? Indeed, Hellenism has often been imported by scholars into the Qumran texts, but in actuality they do not seem to be concerned with it. Much less seriously, would Josephus really have written the first edition of his Jewish War in Hebrew rather than Aramaic (p. 5)? A couple of Greek names are also misspelled: Appollonius should be Apollonius (p. 13) and Philipus (twice) should be Philippus (p. 157).

This is a serious, learned, and somewhat useful book with several interesting and plausible suggestions, but methodologically obsolete: we cannot make even speculative history from ancient texts if we read them one-dimensionally.

PHILIP R. DAVIES

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD