The Shape of Qumran Theology

For cave men

THE SHAPE OF QUMRAN THEOLOGY
By Alex Deasley
Paternoster Press. 341 pages
ISBN 0 85364 786 0

On the shores of the Dead Sea, in the days of Jesus, lay a Jewish community which carefully buried its dead in a north-south direction, with the head propped so as to face east. This contrasted sharply with normal Jewish burial customs. What were the beliefs of this group, that led them into this and many other surprising practices? This book sets out to provide the answer.

The Nazarene College in Didsbury hold an outstanding annual series of lectures in which visiting speakers handle biblical and other topics relating to Christian belief. Paternoster publish the lectures and this is a greatly enlarged and updated version of the 1984 series by the Nazarene scholar Alex Deasley.

Deasley does not follow the common pattern of discussing the relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament. However, these scrolls from Qumran are the best primary source for understanding a form of Jewish theology from Jesus's time so a book such as Deasley's, which tries to look at them in their own terms, makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of the Bible. He aims his book at undergraduates and general readers. No understanding of Hebrew is needed but he interacts with the full range of Qumran scholars in 90 pages of notes. This leaves the main text free to carry forward the main discussion of the theological themes at Qumran.

Their key idea was that worship at the Temple was not being performed properly. This had brought, and would bring, judgement. God had now renewed his covenant by choosing the group from whom the Qumran community came. They were called to live perfect lives in accordance with God's Law. By doing this they would make atonement for Israel. A sharpness was given to all this because everything from 'performed properly' to 'live perfect lives' was actually defined by new revelations, given to the community, about how to interpret Scripture. Only those who followed this community's interpretations were following Scripture. Only they were Israel, the people of God's covenant.

Deasley's book is very helpful. In particular, he explores wide ranges of issues linked to any given theme. For example, he explores various implications of the Qumran concept of grace and forgiveness. The main question mark over his method is that he draws from many diverse texts. He is sensitive to this and notes various scholars' points about possible divergent views in the texts and possible development of ideas through time. However, this still leaves him jumping often from text to text without really demonstrating that the ideas in the two texts match. Deasley does try to set out a working method, focusing primarily on a few core documents, but he does not really justify how and when he brings in material from the others. Having said that, the task he undertakes is an important one. The Qumran sect do have distinctive views and many of the texts in their library clearly represent them. Deasley seems to do a good job of describing them within the constraints of the kind of book he is writing.

As for the north-south bodies facing east, they seem to represent a very strict interpretation of the resurrection in Ezekiel, including an expectation of the direction from which salvation will come. As Deasley shows, conforming to interpretative details such as this was central to the Qumran vision of what it meant to be perfect and hence save Israel.

For cave men

Peter Oakes

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