An interview with Emanuel Tov

For anyone with even limited knowledge of the world of biblical studies Emanuel Tov, J.L. Magnes Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, needs no introduction. He is, in fact, one of the leading scholars in this field, the author of countless publications and head of a large number of research projects, above all on textual criticism – with regard to both the Hebrew and Greek Bibles – and the Qumran manuscripts. To avoid prolixity, suffice it to mention that between 1990 and 2009 he was Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project, a huge undertaking that, over the years, resulted in the publication of thirty-two volumes of the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD). In 2009 he is also receiving the prestigious Israel Prize, awarded by the Israeli government, for his contribution to biblical studies. (For more detailed information about Professor Tov’s activities visit his web site at http://pluto.huji.ac.il/~tov). This semester, he is the Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn Visiting Professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, teaching a course titled “Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls” organized by the Cardinal Bea Centre in cooperation with the Pontifical Biblical Institute. On May 21st he will hold a public lecture on “The Septuagint between Judaism and Christianity”. Taking advantage of his extraordinary knowledge, we have asked him for an interview for our Newsletter.

How should the Qumran manuscripts be described: as Jewish or Christian?

“When the scrolls were found, people knew they were Jewish, but they were often presented as if they were Christian. We can observe this even today, when we see popular television programs about Qumran: there are Christian pictures and Gregorian chants in the background. Since the very beginning, when the scrolls were discovered, people hoped to find mention of Jesus Christ or of John the Baptist; this hope stayed until now, and remained as a hope. Even before they were found, Renan, in the nineteenth century, had the impression that Jesus had been taught by the Essenes, described by Josephus. When the scrolls were discovered, since many of the first scholars who dealt with them were Christians, they were often treated as if they were Christian scrolls. Until 1980 most of the research was done on the first scrolls we have known, discovered in Cave 1: The Community Rule, The Thanksgiving Songs, The War Scroll… On their basis, people often saw more of a closeness between the scrolls and Christianity. In the meantime, we know many more scrolls, as the ones from Cave 4, and we see that they are basically very Jewish”.

They are very Jewish, but they also have elements in common with early Christianity.

“The Jewishness of the scrolls is their very frequent use of the Old Testament, the prayers, the closeness to the Jewish laws. There is a text unknown in the very beginning, 4QMMT (4QSome Works of the Law), so close to Jewish laws that you can nearly find literal resemblances with passages in the Talmud and rabbinic literature. On the other hand, the scrolls are never Christian, but in some points they provide the background material for the knowledge of the New Testament. For example, 4Q525 (4QBeatitudes) has a list of sayings that begin with ‘Blessed are…’, and is very close to the ‘beatitudes’ in Mattew 5 and in Luke 6; the closeness is also in details. Another text, 4Q246 (4QpsDand), was earlier called 4QSon of God because in column II,1, is written: ‘He will be called the son of God, and they will call him the son of the Most High’; this very phrase is parallel to Luke 1,32. Then there is 4Q521 (4QMessianic Apocalypse), which contains a list of features that are expected from the Messiah, and shares elements with Isaiah 35 and Luke 7.

Among other things, the Qumran text and Luke have details in common not mentioned in Isaiah, such as the raising of the dead and the healing of the wounded. But these are only some texts. Anyway, there are several ideas that the early Christians and the Qumranites share, as the stress on common meals, on the purity of the body, on the immersion in water. Beyond all this, the two groups have in common their deviation from the main stream of Judaism. They both wanted to prove that their ideas were already found in the Hebrew Bible. That’s why the Qumranites interpreted the Bible, they wanted to make the point that the Old Testament already speaks about them, their enemies, their ‘Teacher of Righteousness’: in other words, the Old Testament proves their views. In the same way, the New Testament wants to make the point all the time as well: what Jesus has done and said was already foreshadowed by the Old Testament. Another parallel between the Essenes and the early Christians is that they both applied the term ‘New Covenant’ to themselves”.

How can we summarize our discussion?

“I would say that in the first, second, and third place, the Qumran scrolls should be understood as background for the study of the Jewish people in the last two centuries before Christ and in the first century after Christ. That includes the early Christians since they were also Jews. In the fourth place they should be understood as background for the study of the New Testament”.