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Ausgabe: | Januar/2024 |
Spalte: | 46-48 |
Kategorie: | Judaistik |
Autor/Hrsg.: | Vanonen, Hanna |
Titel/Untertitel: | War Traditions from the Qumran Caves. Re-Thinking Textual Stability and Fluidity in the War Text Manuscripts. |
Verlag: | Leiden u. a.: Brill 2022. 352 S. = Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, 139. Geb. EUR 132,00. ISBN 9789004512061. |
Rezensent: | Jean Duhaime |
This book is a revised version of the author’s Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Helsinki. As Hanna Vanonen states in the introduction (1–27), her study was prompted by a desire to understand the polarized thinking of some ancient Jewish manuscripts. She focussed her attention on a group of ten manuscripts that have been related in some way or another to the famous War Scroll found in Qumran Cave 1 (1QMilḥamah or 1QM). Her aim is first to provide a material and textual analysis of these manuscripts »treating them as important material on their own right« (25), and then to compare them with one another and with 1QM at material, lexical and thematic levels. The study is divided in two uneven parts labelled »Analysis« (29–245) and »Discussion« (247–300).
In Part 1, a first chapter (31–48) is devoted to a brief analysis of 1QM. V. emphases the »material facts« of 1QM and how they may help to better understand this manuscript. With its wide margins, fine calligraphy, and few corrections, 1QM stands as a large and beautiful manuscript, as compared with the more »workaday quality« of the War Texts from Cave 4 and 11. As illustrated in Table 3 (42–43), the text was apparently structured as a set of rules (serekhs), divided into sections indicated by large or small spaces (vacats), which »probably concern the transmission process (…) and may provide a hint as to where the text was reworked« (47). As a whole, 1QM »does not appear to be a coherent war narrative; it is more like a compilation of material related to war« (48).
The War Texts from Cave 4 and 11 are studied in the next six chapters, according to a division made to reflect the results of V.’s analysis. She first examines the best readable manuscripts. The first one from Cave 4 (4Q491) raises a particular problem. As edited by M. Baillet, it consisted of 37 fragments, 16 of which have been sorted according to their similarities with the content of 1QM; the others have been classified by genre (fragments 17–25), or left undetermined. But this arrangement was challenged and it has been argued that the fragments belonged to two or three different manuscripts. V. summarizes this debate and accepts, as a working hypothesis, the division of the fragments in two manuscripts. The first one, labelled 4Q491a, is studied in Chapter 2, which also includes an analysis of 4Q492, both overlapping with other War texts. The second, 4Q491b, is studied in Chapter 3, along with 4Q493 which also contains »unestablished war visions«. V. then turns to the more difficult manuscripts: two texts which have been considered as overlapping with 1QM 2 (Chap. 4: 4Q494 and 4Q471), one thought to preserve remnants having parallels in 1QM 10 and 13 (Chap. 5: 4Q495), two papyrus manuscripts on which War Texts are written on the opposite side of liturgical ones (Chap. 6: 4Q496 and 497), and two manuscripts which, even if edited as Sefer ha-Milḥamah (»Book of the War«), have only a vague relation to War Texts (Chap. 7: 4Q285 and 11Q14).
Each manuscript receives a similar treatment. A physical description provides information about its material, the number and size of its fragments (with a discussion of joints made by the editor when relevant), and other features like the size of the margins, the number of letters per lines and of lines per columns, the type of script and its date. Each fragment which includes enough text is transcribed according to Jean Duhaime’s »minimalistic« edition (»War Scroll and related Documents« in J. H. Charlesworth [ed.], The Dead Sea Scrolls, vol. 2, Tübingen 1995); small corrections are made here and there when necessary; the translation appears in paragraphs rather than line by line. A third section provides a close study of the content and of the major themes of the text. A fourth one explores its relationship to the other War Text manuscripts; the similarities and variations are visualized with synoptic tables in color and tentative explanations for the differences are suggested.
In Part 2, V. considers three questions related to the War Text material as a whole. Challenging the current categorization of the War Texts (Chap. 8), she proposes to group the manuscripts dealing with war traditions under the general siglum »M«, to give up the label »War Scroll-like« (for 4Q471 and 4Q497), and to replace Sefer ha-Milḥamah (for 4Q285 and 11Q14) by something like »M-related blessings«. The material features and the content of these manuscripts suggest different purposes and different audiences. The subgenres of the M traditions (Chap. 9) found in Battle Instructions were transmitted with slight changes, whereas the Encouragement Speeches and the Hymnic material show much more variations both in form and content. Some of the Section Markers (Chap. 10) used in these manuscripts could indicate not only divisions in the content of the text, but also areas where a source was inserted or where the text could be expanded.
In the last chapter (301–312), V. summarizes the results of her research and draws conclusion about the polarized thinking expressed in the War Texts from Qumran. She notes that the growing emphasis given to angelic forces and heavenly intervention in the war »probably indicates that the texts were not found to be violence-provoking. What was most important was to trust in God, not to take the law into one’s own hands« (311). The book ends with a comprehensive Bibliography, an Index of ancient sources, and an Index of modern authors.
V. has provided a solid and well documented study of all significant fragments of the War Texts from Cave 4 and 11. In Part 1, her careful observation of the material facts is a fresh and important contribution to the understanding of the various purposes, audiences, and uses of these manuscripts. Her transcription is usually very accurate and her analysis of the contents and themes of these fragments should be taken into account in any future study on the War Texts. Part 2 also contains a lot of insightful remarks, even if some suggestions would need more support, e. g. through a comparative analysis with other groups of texts, as V. herself notes. The 49 tables are quite clear and very helpful but not always easy to consult, particularly when synoptic tables are in landscape format and located a few pages after the discussion of their content.
A few questions are deliberately left open, such as the sequence of the fragments in 4Q491 and whether or not they belong to one single or two (or even three) manuscripts. The comparison of War Texts material from Cave 4 and 11 contributes to a better understanding of 1QM, particularly as a text reworking earlier material; but this should not prevent attempts to envision the final form of 1QM as a coherent whole. In relation with this, V.’s choice to discuss Hymns and Speeches of encouragement together is legitimate; a distinct treatment of each type of discourse, however, would per- haps have provided elements for a more precise comparison with similar material found in 1QM, where they are generally separated.