Friday, November 05, 2004

NORMAN GOLB AND THE NEW QUMRAN EXCAVATIONS:
Excavations reinforce Golb�s contention of where Dead Sea scrolls originated
(University of Chicago Chronicle)
By William Harms
News Office

Discoveries in Israel now reinforce the view of Norman Golb that the Dead Sea Scrolls were not written exclusively or even largely by the Essene sect of antiquity, famous for its abstemious celibacy. Golb, the Ludwig Rosenberger Professor of Jewish History and Civilization in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and the College, contends that the scrolls were the product of many hands and represent a broad range of perspectives rather than just the thinking of a tight-knit religious group.

[...]

Read it all. I think Golb's theory that the Scrolls are not a sectarian ("Essene") collection and that they come from literary archives in Jerusalem is wrong, but I also think he's been asking the right questions and raising some important and useful points. For more on his ideas see The Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Hebrew MSS Project web page at the University of Chicago.

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