Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 30:3 (Sep 1987)
Article: Prophecy And Fulfillment In The Qumran Scrolls
Author: John J. Collins

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JETS 30:3 (September 1987) p. 267

Prophecy And Fulfillment In The Qumran Scrolls

John J. Collins*

It is a commonplace that the interpretation of older Scriptures is a major factor in the composition of Jewish writings of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The forms of interpretation are diverse. Geza Vermes makes a broad distinction between “pure” exegesis, intended to clarify the Biblical text, and “applied” exegesis, which establishes a connection between the Scripture and the new circumstances of the author.1 Both phenomena can be observed already in the Hebrew Bible, from the brief explanatory glosses in the text to the major rewriting of earlier material that we find in Chronicles.2 The distinction between the two kinds of exegesis is difficult to maintain in practice, since the need to clarify the text often arises precisely from the sensibilities of a new era. Nonetheless it has some heuristic value in indicating the poles of spectrum in early Jewish Biblical interpretation.

The literature of the Hellenistic period attests the continuation and development of the full range of inner-Biblical interpretation, but it also attests a significant new development. Now, for the first time, we find formal and systematic Biblical commentaries. These commentaries are of two kinds. On the one hand there are the commentaries of Philo, which explain the Biblical text in the categories of Hellenistic philosophy. On the other there are the pĕs̆ārîm from Qumran, which are in fact the oldest extant Biblical commentaries. Phi1o’s commentaries are devoted to the books of the Torah. They are allegorical in method and are heavily indebted to Greek philosophy. The pĕs̆ārîm expound the books of the prophets and the Psalms, which were also understood to be prophetic. They too make use of allegorical interpretation—e.g., “Lebanon is the council of the community” (lQpHab xii 3–4)— but more often they simply specify the references of the text (e.g. when the “wicked” is specified as the Wicked Priest).3 Since our concern here is with the interpretation of prophecy we will confine our attention to the Qumran commentaries.

*John Collins is professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

JETS 30:3 (September 1987) p. 268

I. The Character Of The Pesarîm

The texts hitherto published from Qumran include fifteen that have been identified with certainty as pĕs̆ārîm.4 These are based on the books of Habakk...

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