Professor Fernando Mattiolli Vieira
University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Exactly seventy years ago, it has happened the greatest archaeological discovery of ancient texts of the history, that received early the generic name Dead Sea Scrolls. It run between 1947 and 1965, with the texts being found mainly in caves over the escarpment between the border of the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert. Since the beginning, the discovery awakened the interest of the academic world and many researchers have disposed to work with the findings. After the first publications of the documents has been done, the researchers have realized that this new literary corpus would bring deep impacts in themes of several areas of the knowledge. Along these seventy years of studies, the texts helped to create a better defined framework, in several aspects, of the Judea of the centuries IV BCE to II CE, period that represents the diverse collections which composes the Dead Sea Scrolls.{1} They helped also to change the historical conceptions about the biblical text and the formation of its canon. Beside to other sources of that period, as biblical texts, texts of literate communities and classical authors, they share light under the period of formation of the Judaism and the Christianism. The trajectory of the bibliographical production that confirms it also has its history, including in Brazil.
The international historiographical marks
The progress of the world-wide researches was subject to certain conjunctures that delayed or accelerated the publications of the manuscripts and, consequently, the bibliographical production during these seventy years. Between the date of the discovery and the 1950s, the publications of the manuscripts were the result of a very particular projects, under the auspices and with little interference from public and private institutions. This freedom granted to the researchers was decisive so that the central texts found in Qumran Cave 1, one of the archaeological sites of the Dead Sea, had all been published in the 1950s. It should be noted the name of the archaeologist of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Eliezer Lipa Sukenik, who did what can be considered the first study of the manuscripts, still in the year of 1948. {2}
The other texts of the Cave 1 of Qumran would pass through the hands of the researchers of the American School of Oriental Research (ASOR), in Jerusalem, as Millar Burrows, Willian Brownlee and John Trever, those who together were responsible for publishing the texts at the beginning of 1950s.{3} The son of Sukenik, the also archaeologist Yigael Yadin, who succeeded in gathering all the most important manuscripts of the Qumran’s Cave 1, was responsible for conducting other publications in the mid-1950s.{4} After these initial publications, several names were responsible for primeval researches, which entered their names among the pioneers in the bibliographic production on the manuscripts.{5}
Yadin bought the manuscripts that had passed through the ASOR and were in the United States, being put up for sale by means of an announcement of The Wall Street Journal, in 1954.
If the level of the publications initially seemed to be compatible with that of the euphoria provoked by the discovery, the difficulties that would be outlined subsequently promoted the slowing down of the publications. After the researchers have realized that the Dead Sea region was of greater historical importance than what had been granted until then, a systematic search was made for sites that could contain more documents. This work was carried out with researchers led by the French archaeologist Roland G. de Vaux, in the service of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. However, they had to face the harsh competition of the Bedouins who knew the region better. Until the discovery of the Cave 11 of the Qumran valley in 1956, almost half of the caves in this area of the Dead Sea (the most important ones: 1Q, 4Q and 11Q) had been found by the Bedouins. The last cave containing textual material discovered by Bedouins occurred in 1962 at the site of Wadi Daliyeh.{6}
The Bedouins had a great interest in profiting from the manuscripts found, selling them on the black market of Jerusalem and elsewhere. Until the early 1960s, amid the site excavations and the discovery of new caves, specialists linked to the Department of Antiquities of Jordan undertook a search for manuscripts - most of them in a fragmented state - that met with individuals. It was a huge problem that disturbed the pace of the publications. However, others would arise. With regard to the treatment of ancient texts, a “natural order” presupposes, as an initial step, the work of organizing, translating and cataloging the texts, in order to be published later. But in the case of the Dead Sea Scrolls, other steps were required, such as the combination and the concordance of the fragments (only in Qumran Cave 4, about 15,000 fragments were found) and the reconstruction of the written text. Given the problem originated with the indigestible participation of the Bedouins and the black market, also appeared the necessity of proof of the authenticity of the fragments acquired through the purchase.
The researchers often situate in 1967 the first mark in the historiography of the Dead Sea Scrolls. An event of a political-military nature, the Six-Day War, radically altered the structural configuration of the region. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) took the place of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan in the political management of the texts. The year 1967 marked the end of two decades of oscillating production and the beginning of a new phase replete with imbroglios of political and organizational nature, characterized by the continuous decrease of the publications of the documents and, consequently, of the bibliographic production.
The Israel Antiquities Authority did not interfere with the work of de Vaux and his team, who held the vast majority of the unpublished manuscripts under his tutelage. However, the problems that were outlined before the political change became much more visible and deepening. The small number of researchers allowed to deal with the texts, the difficult conditions of packaging the amount, the very scientific difficulties in dealing with such material and the particular interests and the institutions involved in the project were the factors responsible for the delay in the publication of the documents to the global academic community. This apathetic scenario had no significant changes and spread throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
A new mark in the history of the bibliographic production of the manuscripts would occur between 1990-1991. After more than two decades without deep political intervention, the Israel Antiquities Authority intervened in the direction of the team, vastly expanding the number of researchers and removing the barriers that prevented access to documents. Between these years, other research institutions that had copies of unpublished texts began to make them available to the world academic community. The result of these actions was rapid: most of the idle material and the new works were quickly converted to publications. To better understand this boom of publications, we can use as a thermometer the official edition of the manuscripts, known as Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD), published by Oxford University Press. In the 1950s, there was only one volume with published documents (1955 [DJD I]). In 1960, the number rose to four (1961 [DJD II], 1962 [DJD III], 1965 [DJD IV] and 1968 [DJD V]), but slowed radically in the 1970s and 1980s with only one volume published in each of them (1977 [DJD VI] and 1982 [DJD VII]). In the 1990s, the number raised to 20, counting at that time with all the most important texts ever published.{7}
BLINDER, Caio. Researcher says that the divulgation of the Dead Sea Scrolls hurt ethics. Folha de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 24 set. de 1991. Mundo, p. 1.
Accompanying the pace of the publications, the number of scientific works has multiplied exponentially. The subjects studied could be deepened and many existing convictions had the possibility of being reconsidered.{8} Many ramblings, repetitions, and speculations (many of which had crystallized in manuscripts studies) were overcome with the emergence of new studies. The geographic horizon of the bibliographic production was also changed. Prior to the 1990s, most of the researches focused on countries that had institutions that fostered activities in Israel and with scholars who had some connection with them or with authorized researchers.{9} With the availability of the texts for the entire academic community worldwide, there is an increase in interest from professionals who have no more than the language as a barrier.
The Brazilian bibliographic production on the Dead Sea Scrolls
In the trajectory of the 70 years of the bibliographic production of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Brazil presents its contribution in a very particular way. In this long period of time (for a work of contemporary historiography), there is a quantitative and qualitative production that is closely linked to specific moments and must be understood on the basis of its particularities (but still characterized by progressivity). At the same time, the production in Brazil proved to be sensible to the changes that have taken place throughout the history of the world bibliographic production. Therefore, the events mentioned above about the publication of the documents determine an absolute chronological line that allows to understand the progress of the production in its time, the vehicles responsible for the information and the type of approach used - besides the own development of the researches on the Dead Sea Scrolls in Brazil.
A search in the main newspapers in the country shows that, since the mid-1950s, the manuscripts became known in Brazil. Academic works began to emerge shortly thereafter, even in that decade. The first study published in Brazil was that of the Mexican theologian Manuel Jimenez F. Bonhomme.{10} Bonhomme published some of his works in Brazil while doing his studies in philosophy and theology (completed in Germany, Rome and Jerusalem) and served as a passionate priest in Curitiba between the late 1950s and early 1960s. He would write other texts later, all published in the Revista de Cultura Bíblica (RCB) {11} - a periodical that became a kind of florilegium for the theologians who wrote about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Among those who published in this journal, the one who made the most profound considerations was the theologian Gaudêncio Gratzfeld. In articles on Jewish political-religious groups, on the supposed relations of the manuscripts with the origins of the Christianism and on the main theses developed up to the early 1960s,{12} Gratzfeld reflects the plurality of opinions existing up to that time, embracing some that would later be contradicted. The main one was that the Qumran manuscripts came from the Jerusalem Temple and not from a community that had inhabited the Qumran’s site (this opinion is still held today by a few researchers, the most famous being the American Norman Golb).{13}
Outside of the Revista de Cultura Bíblica, the number of published texts was minimal. There are articles from the early 1960s that should be highlighted. The first one is that of the theologian José Gonçalves Salvador. In an article published in the Revista de História, of the University of São Paulo (USP), in 1960, entitled Descobertas no Deserto da Judéia (Os manuscritos do Mar Morto) (Discoveries in the Judean Desert, the Dead Sea Scrolls), Salvador presents an overview of the discovery, the manuscripts found in Qumran Cave 1 and the excavations in the central site of that area. Like the authors of the Revista de Cultura Bíblica, the bibliography consulted by Salvador includes the books published in the 1950s written by that generation of researchers responsible for the first studies and for establishing some of the prerogatives that would become structural in the Qumran manuscripts searches. For example, what I call as the “Qumran triad” (Qumran manuscripts-Essenism-Qumran site), which is the result of the sum of the theories on the religious identity of the writers/keepers of the Qumran manuscripts (Jews of the Essene religious chain) and the housing of the Qumran installations by them, is also defended by Salvador in his article. He would no longer write about the Dead Sea Scrolls in his career, but would still be interested in topics related to the study of the religions.{14}
ROPS, Daniel. Was Jesus a Essene? O Estado de S. Paulo. 26 de agos. De 1956. Edição Nacional, Geral, p. 104.
The other article that should be highlighted is that of the theologian and historian Carl Valeer Frans Laga, published in 1963, in the journal Estudos Históricos, of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of Marília (São Paulo). Under the title Qumran, problema histórico (Qumran, historical problem), Laga demonstrates to be aware of the main discussions in the international context, especially when dealing with the contradictions of the archaeological dates, on the pseudonymous historical figures quoted in the Qumran manuscripts and especially on the possible relations of the manuscripts with the Christianism. The fact that he had access to very recent international publications was connected with the quality of his work. His concern with bibliographic sources made him the first Brazilian researcher to criticize the academic production of the Dead Sea Scrolls in this country.{15} From the depth and lucidity with which Laga approached the subjects treated (abdicating a religious vision and condemning sensationalism), his work becomes indispensable to understand the studies of the manuscripts at the time. Until that time, the publications were not characterized as proper studies of the manuscripts. Regardless, the approaches and conclusions of some of the authors were not low if we compare with international researchers who were not directly engaged in the team responsible for the documents. The religious formation of the most of them was decisive to come to that. This experience, added to the academic spirit, made them face the language barriers and also be closer to international publications. On the other hand, with the exception of Laga, there is a rather apologetic side in the discussions, especially when dealing with issues related to Christianism, which at times seems to compromise content.{16} EIn my opinion, this was the best phase of the Brazilian academic production on manuscripts until the 2000s.{17}
In the 1970s, when the publications of the documents had slowed down, the world bibliographic production was in its idlest period. In Brazil, there were no publications of academic works.{18} However, there was a work of divulgation that had not yet occurred until that moment and that would help to transcend the academic limits. The Brazilian researcher involved in this was the historian Nachman Falbel, from the University of São Paulo. Part of his academic formation was held in Israel during the 1960s. This facilitated his contact with discussions at the international level (although the study of the manuscripts did not figure among his research objects).
In 1977, two books of Bonhomme were translated in Brazil. At that moment, he had already returned to Mexico after taking part, along with de Vaux, of the archaeological searches and the translation of some texts of Qumran. The most important book, entitled Os misteriosos habitantes do Deserto de Judá: sua vida, seus escritos (The mysterious inhabitants of the Judah Desert: their life, their writings), talks about the history of the discovery of the Qumran texts, their nature and the identity of their producers. The other, Cantam essênios no deserto vivo (Sing Essenes in the living desert), brings the translation and commentary on the hymn literature present in the collection, especially the prominent text 1QHodayot (1QH), firstly worked in 1954 by Sukenik. Falbel was primarily engaged in the organization of workshops on events and the promotion of seminars on manuscripts, leveraged mainly by the translation of the Bonhomme’s books that year. However, Falbel’s activities did not become publications, but limited themselves to the divulgation work.{19}
MACHADO, Edgar da Mata. Dead (Sea) in Minas. Jornal do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro, 21 de maio, 1977. n. 43.
In the 1980s, when the publications of the documents were still in their less expressive period, Falbel would again be responsible for some activity linked to them in Brazil. In 1989, he granted interviews that were published in widely circulated magazines.{20} A year earlier, in 1988, under his academic advising, it was concluded the first doctoral thesis in Brazil that used the manuscripts as a source.{21} The orientations of dissertations and theses were never constant and would reach a greater proportion only after 2000s on, counting again with the contribution of Falbel.
Labyrinths of Faith. Veja, São Paulo, pp. 67-70, set. 1989. Interview by Falbel.
Starting in the 1990s, the Brazilian production and divulgation of the Dead Sea Scrolls took advantage of the benefits of the worldwide opening. It is interesting to begin by highlighting the translations of books of specialized researchers during this decade. Until 1990, there were few translated books.{22} The translations increased rapidly in the first half of the decade. The books that had been published in other languages by researchers who were linked to the official team responsible for the publications of the documents or by independent researchers came to be translated. In 1992, the American researcher Hershel Shanks published his Understanding Dead Sea Scrolls, translated in Brazil in the follow-up year for Laura Rumchinsky, with the title Para compreender os Manuscritos do Mar Morto (in my opinion, the best book to beginners ever translated in Brazil). The Theologian Ivoni Richter Reimer (Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás) translated the book Qumran und Jesus: Wahrheit unter Verschluss? (Qumran e Jesus: Uma verdade escondida?), from German theologian Klaus Berger, in 1994, one year after its presentation in Germany. The year 1995 reserved the most “complete” translation of the Qumran manuscripts in Brazil, with the theologian Valmor Silva (Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás), entitled Textos de Qumran (from the Spanish Textos de Qumrán), by the Spanish biblical scholar Florentino García Martínez.{23} This edition, besides the major manuscripts, had the texts released after the 1990-1991 opening.{24}
By a stricto sensu look, translations are not part of the Brazilian historiography about the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, the accessibility brought with them meant that bibliographical production in Brazil had a significant boost in this unproductive scenario until the 1990s. While, on the one hand, language should not be considered as an obstacle for a specialized researcher (as it was not for the writers of the 1950s and 1960s), on the other, it is for a younger generation, a beginner in the studies. The current generation of researchers used these books, which emerged as an object of curiosity and/or a research tool - the present author fits into this situation.In the academic field, the translations in Brazil collaborated for the birth of a small national production, which had its maximum expression limited to articles. It was they who mainly helped theologians to begin writing articles such as Qumran e Jesus, Jesus e Qumran ([Qumran and Jesus, Jesus and Qumran] Cadernos de Teologia, Campinas, v.1, pp. 25-37, 1995), by Cássio Murilo Dias da Silva (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul), Qumran e o Novo Testamento ([Qumran and the New Testament] Teocomunicação, Porto Alegre, v. 25, p. 305-316, 1995), by Irineu José Rebuske (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul), and the similarly-related article Os Manuscritos de Qumran e o Novo Testamento: Observações Preliminares e a Questão do Corpus Johanneum ([The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament: Preliminary Observations about the Questions of the Corpus Johanneum] Atualidade Teológica, Rio de Janeiro, v. 3, n.4, p.9-49, 1999), by Pedro Paulo Alves dos Santos (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro). Valmor, who had done the translation of the Textos de Qumran in 1995, has published some reviews on the newly released book. Also interviews were done in magazines and media programs, as well as the organization of events for reception of specialists from abroad who worked with the manuscripts.{25}
It is possible to perceive, both in translation work and in the elaboration of scholarly articles, the meaningful participation of theologians. This influenced the themes worked: the majority of them are of a theological nature (to the detriment of political, cultural or economic themes), exploring subjects that had parallels with religious groups of the period and their sources. With this, the main approach of these subjects was done in a comparative perspective: some subject of the manuscripts compared to another known in the historiography; in general, about Judaism, and, in most cases, about Christianism. The articles quoted above express well this trend, with titles similar to Qumran and Jesus or Qumran and the New Testament. However, although these works were done as a result of some particular interest, such researchers did not have the Dead Sea Scrolls as the main object of their researches (which in itself did not compromise the quality of the work).
With the increase in publications since the 1990s, it is possible to verify a new facet of the information about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which is of unscientific or pseudoscientific content. A good example of this is the book published by journalists Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception (1991), translated “opportunely” in Brazil as As intrigas em torno dos Manuscritos do Mar Morto (The intrigues around the Dead Sea Scrolls, 1994). The authors’ intention is to polemic about issues that until today have not become consensual due to the lack of evidence in the texts and to discuss the problems involving the publications in the previous decades. Among the various “polemic” topics, it could be pointed out that, according the authors, there was a possible control of the information by the Catholic Church, since the publication of the manuscripts would “threaten” the foundations of the Christian faith. The book was widely criticized by international experts, but it had a significant reach among the beginners and lay public in Brazil.{26}
Works like the one quoted above helped to reinforce the exotic and sensationalist side of the Dead Sea Scrolls. A collection of texts discovered after two thousand years and which was contemporary to the birth of the Christianism, in fact, aroused much interest in Western societies. However, in many cases, the way in which the subjects were approached disregarded any scientific rigor. For example, icons of the Christianism, such as Jesus of Nazareth, John the Baptist, and Paul, were compared to the extreme with the Teacher of Righteousness - a historical individual portrayed in the Qumran texts. The manuscripts were posited by some as a “pre-Gospel”, resulting from the work of an ascetic community that would have links with Christian communities or their leaderships. However, from the earliest researches it was proved that any direct connection between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the early Christianism had no basis. All these ideas were created by authors outside Brazil and fed a wide range of non-scientific literature that had support outside the most competent academic environments in the international scenario.{27}
In the 1990s, these opinions came to Brazil and had granted space in unscientific vehicles. The number of the publications on Dead Sea Scrolls in non-specialized newspapers and magazines has increased expressively. It is common in the production of textual material that newspaper articles and interviews come to the attention of the general public rather than specialized scholarly production (thanks to less scientific concern with the character of the information and the dynamics of the production), especially when it deals with an archaeological discovery of this nature. The main newspapers of the country, Folha de S. Paulo, O Estado de S. Paulo and O Globo, published more on the manuscripts in the 1990s than in all previous decades summed.{28} There are announcements that are very important to understand the events linked to the publications and the divulgation during those years (which after the political opening until the middle of the decade, would complete the 50th anniversary in 1997). In turn, when referring to the content of the texts, a sensationalist approach is very common.{29}
Another question that becomes most apparent in this decade is the depth of the written academic articles. While on the one hand they are able to ignore the exoticism and sensationalism present in some translations and journalistic matters, on the other hand, they have not yet promoted the study of the manuscripts. Researchers would expand their themes to subjects that had parallels with the manuscripts, but would not make them central objects in their searches. The “general matters”, as Salvador had worked in 1960, referring to the discovery and its impacts, to the Qumran triad and to the relationship of the manuscripts to Christianism, were present in their works. The deepening of the manuscripts searches would only occur in the next decade, when dissertations and theses would again appear, this time frequently, in the Brazilian academy.
Unlike what happens in the early 1990s, there is no specific event that can be used as a world historiographical mark ever since. Nevertheless, in Brazil, from the year 2000, there is an extremely significant evolution in the researches on the Dead Sea Scrolls that inaugurates a new position of the bibliographical production. The scenario, which began to develop in the 1990s, reached its most advanced stage. There has been a deepening of the researches by experts. This resulted in the progressive increase of dissertations, theses, articles, scientific initiation projects, term papers, research groups, lectures, congresses, exchanges with international researchers, and what we will have for the first time: national books.
The number of articles in newspapers and magazines of great circulation remained similar to that of the previous decade. Important events involving the manuscripts, such as the publication of the remnant fragments, the availability of the texts by digital means to the general public and expositions of texts and artifacts in different places of the world, are among the most frequently found information. Among them - but not as common as in previous decades - are still “polemic” matters, usually related to Christianism.
It should be noted the beginning of the approach of Brazil to the international scenario of the manuscripts studies. The growing interest of the Brazilian public has led that the Israel Antiquities Authority would insert Brazil in the script for the exhibition Pergaminhos do Mar Morto – Um Legado para a Humanidade (Scrolls of the Dead Sea: A Legacy to Humanity), which brought some texts and artifacts to Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo between August 2004 and February 2005 - the first time that original manuscripts were exhibited in a Latin American country.{30} The public did not exceed the expectations projected by the organizers (which were based on the viewers reached with the exhibition in other countries, some of which had surpassed one million viewers), but was larger than other exhibitions of well-known themes.{31} The scope of the event was quite positive, as it was able to present to a broader and less specialized audience a more coherent introduction to the reality of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This was the first opportunity to gather researchers to talk about the manuscripts at panel discussions organized by the event’s administration in the two exhibitions.
JANSEN, Roberta. Dead Sea Manuscripts on exhibition in Rio. O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, Domingo, 16 de maio de 2004. O Mundo/Ciência e Vida, p. 42.
FARAH, Paulo Daniel. Mythical Testament - Exhibition exhibits parchments and archeological artifacts in SP. Folha de S. Paulo. São Paulo, 25 de nov. de 2004.
This approach with the exterior was not limited to the realization of an exhibition. More important than that, focusing on the field of the researches, were the academic advising that put Brazilian students close to the researchers from abroad and some of the most privileged research institutions in the world in subjects related to manuscripts.{32} In an opposite but no less productive direction, specialized researchers came to Brazil to provide lectures and courses, as well as to start publishing articles in the country. This has happened quite often in a recent period, involving names such as those of Adolfo Daniel Roitman (researcher and curator of the Shrine of the Book, where the best preserved Dead Sea Scrolls are found), who have been constantly giving lectures in Brazil; of César Carbullanca Núñes (a Chilean researcher from the Catholic University of Maule, Talca, who has a strong link with researchers from the state of São Paulo and who is a member of the Brazilian Biblical Research Association - ABIB), who has published and lectured in the country; of the Spanish biblical scholar Florentino García Martínez (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium), who in addition to his world-class publications, has published articles in Brazilian journals.{33}
Some of the researchers who started production during the 1990s continued to publish in the 2000s, such as Valmor da Silva and Pedro Paulo Alves dos Santos.{34} Alongside them, other names would begin to appear on the national scene. We can highlight those of Edgard Leite Ferreira Neto (Rio de Janeiro State University - UERJ) and Paulo Augusto de Souza Nogueira (Methodist University of São Paulo - UMESP). The first one had a very significant production, with texts in newspapers, articles in journals, lectures, interviews and academic advising. Worth mentioning is his book As origens da Bíblia e os Manuscritos do Mar Morto (The Origins of the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls), from the year 2009 (which received a second edition in 2013). Already Nogueira, should be remembered mainly for organizing a circle of young researchers, through study groups and academic advising at the Methodist University of São Paulo. Several among his ancient students would use the Dead Sea Scrolls in their researches and publications.
It was during the 2000s that was born what I call as “Qumranists”: researchers who dedicate almost exclusively to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and have practically all their academic production in the area. I highlight the work of Clarisse Ferreira da Silva, advised by Falbel. She completed her master’s and doctoral studies during the 2000s and has since published her research results. She is one of the researchers with the largest number of publications on issues related to Dead Sea Scrolls in the country. Her master’s and doctoral level works became books, with very innovative themes: O Comentário (Pesher) de Habacuc: a Comunidade de Qumran reinterpreta o passado (Pesher Habacuc: The Qumran Community reinterprets the past, 2010) and O Novo Templo e a Aliança Sacerdotal da Comunidade de Qumran (The New Temple and the Priestly Alliance of the Qumran Community, 2013). Her experience in History contributed to the fact that the themes most explored by the researchers were left aside, starting to use as objects very specific points, involving History and Society. Her production increases at the beginning of the current decade, contributing with articles of themes unheard in the country, such as Women among the Essenes or Women at Qumran? A Study on Gender in the Damascus Document, the Rule Scroll, and the Historical Sources related to the Essenes (Revista Mare Nostrum. Estudos sobre o Mediterrâneo Antigo, v. 5, p. 18-43, 2014), bringing to the Brazilian public a worldwide discussion on the participation and role of women among the group holding the Qumran manuscripts. She was the first researcher in Brazil to do a postdoctoral study using the manuscripts as a source (2009-2012). In my opinion, based on the quality and quantity of her work, Silva is the largest researcher on the Dead Sea Scrolls in Brazil.
Another researcher who must be considered as imminent Qumranist is Jonas Machado (Theology Baptist Faculty of the of São Paulo - FTBSP). He, who belonged to Nogueira’s circle, had his closest involvement with Dead Sea Scrolls subjects in a more recent period when he began his postdoctoral studies (2010-2013). Machado has been responsible for a relevant production, revisiting some themes of the manuscripts and presenting them in a fairly updated perspective. The fruit of this proposal can be seen in his book Os Manuscritos do Mar Morto: Uma introdução atualizada (The Dead Sea Scrolls: An updated introduction, 2012), released in partnership with Pedro Paulo Abreu Funari (State University of Campinas - UNICAMP). His book is a must-read for every beginner. The book fulfills, in my opinion, with the objective proposed in its introduction, that is to pass an updated reading on the manuscripts.
Other researchers do not have a quantitatively significant production, but must be recognized for the quality of their texts and for inserting less common themes in the researches of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Brazil. It should be highlighted the name of Edson de Faria Francisco (UMESP). Thanks to his academic formation (Hebrew Language, Jewish Literature and Culture), he has performed quite technical work comparing the biblical manuscripts found in Qumran with the Hebrew biblical text of the Masoretic tradition. An example can be seen in his article A Ortografia de 1QIsa e de 1QIsb e a Ortografia do Códice de Leningrado B19a e do Códice de Alepo: Diferenças e Semelhanças (The Spelling of 1QIsa and 1QIsb and the Spelling of the Codex of Leningrad B19a and the Codex of Aleppo: Differences and Similarities, In. Miscelánea de Estudios Árabes y Hebraicos. Sección A, v. 57, 2008, p. 125-148).{35}
In addition to the aforementioned researchers, who collaborated more intensely in the development of the Brazilian bibliographic production on the Dead Sea Scrolls, we had several others, from the most diverse sciences, that transited for this field of studies, producing one or two articles in journal or texts in magazines, presenting lectures and advising beginners works. It is striking that half or more of the few who produced dissertations and theses did not continue to produce academically on the manuscripts. It is impossible to stipulate a general cause about this, but it can be affirmed that it does not necessarily have to do with a later disinterest, but with the common difficulties that affect all the new masters or doctors that arrive at the job market.{36}
It should be noted that regardless of the increase in scientific publications, non-specialized vehicles continue to publish introductory material to the present day. Newspapers and magazines played an important role in covering events related to manuscripts, such as the exhibition held in Brazil, the coming of researchers from abroad for lectures, the conclusion of the publications of the remaining manuscripts and the release of the digitized collection to the general public. The mystery dossal gives way to the neutral character in the information. The tabloid content, in turn, has migrated to the countless non-specialized web pages (mainly for blogs, New Religious Movements [NRMs] and esoteric websites), which continue to exploit comparisons too much (especially with Christianism).
Jesus was not the only “son of God”: Part of the Dead Sea Scrolls quotes another “son of God” who might even be the “Antichrist”. Folha de S. Paulo, São Paulo, 9 de mar. de 1992. Primeiro Caderno, p.16.
Some considerations about the 70 years of the Brazilian bibliographic production
Throughout the 70 years of the Brazilian bibliographical production on the Dead Sea Scrolls, even if we can not separate it from international events, we realize that there are particular causes that affect each of the characteristics of the production. One of them is that relates the quantitative progress of the Brazilian bibliographical production with the international historiographic marks. It is easy to see that the Brazilian production is very small and marked by long intervals until the end of the 1980s. If the Revista de Cultura Bíblica is excepted (as it should be, given its exceptionality), the 1967 mark presented little or none impact on the progress of the production compared to the international scenario. Production has been very low in both the preceding and subsequent 20 years - which makes it impossible to feel any difference in the quantitative progress of the production or the qualitative level of the publications. Only from 1990 was it possible to confirm the existence of a less sterile soil, which began to germinate from the following decade. For this reason, only the mark 1990-1991 period effectively focused on bibliographic production in Brazil.
Still related to the historical marks, we have seen that, from the 2000s, the Brazilian bibliographic production on the Dead Sea Scrolls reached a new level, both quantitative and qualitative. This was not only related to the release of the manuscripts to the international academic community in the previous decade. Bibliometric indicators have shown a continuous and significant increase in scientific production and the number of the publications in Brazil. The analysts position this new moment from the mid-1990s or early 2000s.{37} These two situations, together, are responsible for the increase in bibliographical production on manuscripts in Brazil. From that time on, many of those who started out in academic life found the object of their researches in the manuscripts. This allowed the arrival of professionals from different areas, such as religious scientists, historians, archaeologists and other professionals, to a space that was dominated by theologians. The introduction of these professionals promoted the use of new themes, new methods, new approaches, and fostered interdisciplinary in manuscripts studies.
Another peculiarity that is noticed in the historiography of the manuscripts relates to the connection, through the production, between a generation and another one. Unlike what happened in the international scenario, in Brazil, the little that was written was not used by the following generations.{38} This aspect is quite negative, constituting the absence of dialogue between the generations of researchers. One of the consequences was the exaggerated repetition of some themes and the little deepening of them - a fact that will be noticeable from the 1990s. It should be noted here that the researchers of the 1950s and 1960s had access to books and journals recently published in their original languages, while the vast majority of those who wrote from the 1990s onwards used the translated books, which only contained introductory and panoramic studies (what was more interesting to publishers). Knowing the texts of these generations, I conclude that it would have been more productive that the researchers of the last decades had turned to the texts of Bonhomme, Gratzfeld, Salvador and Laga, among others.
Brazilian bibliographic production can be divided into three types, according to the subjects’ approaches. Two of them were present since the first articles of the 1950s: what has an introductory character and the proper scientific. The first of them corresponds to the works that outline general visions about the studies of the manuscripts. Most often, they talk about the importance of the findings and/or make diverse comparisons with the sources of other religious groups of the period (which does not necessarily characterize the work as being of poor quality).{39} This type of material is the most found in Brazilian bibliographic production. The scientific production, which can be characterized by a systematic study of the manuscripts, was much smaller all the time, but has increased since the 2000s. These two types of production began to divide the space with the unscientific material (or pseudo-scientific and sensationalist) from the 1990s.{40} All these three approaches are found in current publications.
What is the best way to deal with this variety of approaches and the amount of the material produced over these 70 years? There are no conditions to make a survey of the Brazilian bibliographic production on the Dead Sea Scrolls taking into account only the production of books and scientific articles. Due to the low productivity up to the 1980s, it is not appropriate to neglect any activity related to the manuscripts. All kinds of divulgation during this period, like texts in newspapers and magazines of great circulation, translations and presentations, serve as a thermometer to measure both the progress of the production and research in Brazil. It is only from the 2000s, when it is possible to perceive a new position in Brazilian bibliographic production, it is possible to disregard the production of a more introductory character and of divulgation in favor of a purely scientific production - I believe it has been done here.{41}
Regarding the researchers involved in Brazilian bibliographic production, it is important to highlight the contributions of the theologians. They represented the first and main interested in the academic researches on the manuscripts and were responsible for the great majority of the publications to the present day in Brazil. Their interest has to do on the one hand with the transmission of the biblical texts and, on the other, with the roots, birth and structuring of Christian groups in the first century CE, especially in the manuscripts helping to compose, with greater clarity, biblical studies and the social scene of the Jewish society of the intertestamental period. The chart below shows the division of the researchers who were dedicated to the research of the manuscripts in Brazil.
The geography of the bibliographical production of the manuscripts does not distune much of the map of the scientific production in Brazil. Most of the researches comes from institutions in the Southeast region of the country, followed by the South, then Central-West and finally by the Northeast. There were no researchers responsible for any type of production in the North region of the country.
In the Southeast region, the role played by the Methodist University of São Paulo (UMESP) stands out, with a large number of researchers who have already published about the manuscripts (the great majority of them linked to the Nogueira circle). After this, the highlight is the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC), present in the states of São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul and Goiás. With the analysis of the two charts, it is possible to perceive the strong connection between the academic formation of the researchers and the research institutions, since they are avant-garde institutions in researches in the areas of Theology and Sciences of Religion.
Conclusions
The selection of outstanding publications, as in all historiography work, is an arbitrary act. It is possible that some of them have been omitted or they have not understood the value they have. The same arbitrariness can occur in relation to the subjects considered in the publications. Some could be treated with more appreciation, while others were omitted in the approach. Faced with the difficulty in performing such a work, it is hoped that a good sense has directed it to some quality - it will be up to the reader to make such a judgment.
What to predict for the hereafter for a bibliographic production of the Dead Sea Scrolls? The Psalms says that our days come to seventy years, but eighty are trouble and sorrow (90:10). If we analyze the current indexes of the publications, one can take the biblical psalm to make an analogy with the current state of the bibliographical production on manuscripts. Current data show that in recent years there has been a reduction in the number of the publications in the world.{42} Faced with this portrait, one may question: is it possible that, on the way to the eighty years of the discovery, a bibliographic production reaches the state of trouble and sorrow? It is difficult to make predictions of this nature because there are many factors involved. However, I do not believe it is absurd to think that the studies are reaching a “natural limit” at the world level, as the excitement caused by the publications of the documents is more distant each year and the generations of researchers involved are passing. This perspective, however, is valid for the quantitative and not for the qualitative. It would be a mistake to think that all the issues have been exhausted and that the methods and approaches can not be renewed. The databases on the sources of the intertestamental period point to the Dead Sea Scrolls as the largest documentary corpus of that period in Judea. Of course, there is still much to draw from it all.
In Brazil, unlike the traditional countries in the manuscripts research, there is a portrait, with plenty of space, still to be filled. The arrival of the Qumranists and other researchers has been important, since besides promoting the deepening of the studies, they also place themselves as a direct link with the generations to come. In addition to these changes, there are goals that can be proposed for the future. One of them is the expansion of the participation of Brazilian researchers in the international scenario, through joint publications and participation in events. Another is the narrowing of the ties between Brazilian researchers. In September 2017, a book entitled Manuscritos do Mar Morto: 70 anos da descoberta (Dead Sea Scrolls: 70 Years of the Discovery), was released in Brazil to celebrate the seventieth anniversary of the discovery. It counted with the participation of the main Brazilian researchers and important names from abroad. This work, the first in the country, responds to these two goals for the future. Perhaps this initiative taken by the Brazilian authors marks a new posture of our researchers and, perhaps, a new moment in Brazilian historiography. The future will tell.
Notas de Rodapé
1 With some extraordinary exceptions to before and after that period.
2 SUKENIK, Eleazar L. Megilloth Genuzoth (Hebrew). Jerusalem: Bialik, 1948.
3 BURROWS, Millar; BROWNLEE, William H.; TREVER, John C.; The Dead Sea Scrolls of St. Mark’s Monastery (2 v.). New Haven: ASOR, 1950-1951. BROWNLEE, William H. The Dead Sea Manual of Discipline: Translation and Notes. New Haven: ASOR, 1951.
4 YADIN, Yigael. The Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light (Hebrew, with summary in English) Jerusalem: Bialik, 1955. YADIN, Yigael; AVIGAD, Nahman. A Genesis Apocryphon. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1956.
YADIN, Yigael; AVIGAD, Nahman. A Genesis Apocryphon. Jerusalém: Magnes, 1956.
5 It could be cited the names of: André Dupont-Sommer, with his Aperçus préliminaires sur les manuscripts de la mer Morte (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1950) and The Jewish Sect of Qumran and the Essenes (New York: Macmillan, 1956); Frank Moore Cross, with The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Biblical Studies (New York: Doubleday, 1956), and Edmund Wilson, with The Scrolls of the Dead Sea (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955).
6 The latest discoveries of textual material were made thanks to an excavation project of the fortress of Massada, led by Yadin, between 1963 and 1965.
7 For more detailed information about the problems related with the production of the official team and the events linked to it, see MACHADO, Jonas; FUNARI, Pedro P. A. Conteúdo e publicações. In: Os Manuscritos do Mar Morto: Uma Introdução Atualizada. São Paulo: Annablume, 2012.
8 For example, in the 1990s many fragments of normative texts from Qumran’s cave 4 were published, such as 4QSb-j and 4QDa-h. These texts confirmed the existence of a broader set of laws than those present in the great manuscripts published in the 1950s. This discovery profoundly altered the normative and historical conception of the group that wrote and lived under the authority of those texts.
9 The American biblical scholar Frank Moore Cross, for example, used to allow his students to have privileged access to texts not yet published in official editions. Situations like this have occurred basically in Israel, the United States and some European countries.
10 Apresentação dos Hinos Rituais de Qumrân. RCB, São Paulo, v. 1, n. 3, p. 108-113, 1957.
11 Menções femininas nos textos de Qumrân. RCB, São Paulo, v. 2, n. 9, p. 268-276, 1958. A escatologia de Qumrân (I). RCB, São Paulo, v. 4, n. 15, p. 78-88, 1960. A escatologia de Qumrân (II). RCB, São Paulo, v. 4, n. 16, p. 148-59, 1960.
12 Qumrân e a política partidária judaica. RCB, São Paulo, v. 3. n. 12, 170-8, 1959. Qumrân, a seita dos essênios. RCB, São Paulo, v. 3, n. 13, 1959. p. 224-235. Qumrân e o novo testamento. RCB, São Paulo, v. 4, n. 14, p. 4-13, 1960. O ideal messiânico entre os qumranitas. RCB, São Paulo, v. 6, n. 21, p. 31-42, 1962.
13 Novo rumo na investigação qumrânica. RCB, São Paulo, v. 5, n. 20, 1961. p. 417.
14 In 1967, Salvador became a Ph.D in History from the University of São Paulo, with a thesis dealing on New Christians - a theme that would mark his recognition in the Brazilian academy from that moment on.
15 Laga blames the Brazilian university media and mainly theologians for not collaborating for accessibility to subjects related to manuscripts. He cites the work of Salvador as an exception in Brazil and a small collaboration of the Portuguese bibliographical production that helped to fill this lack (Qumran, problema histórico. Estudos Históricos, v. 1, n.2, pp. 88-92, 1963).
16 In one for the texts of the Revista de Cultura Bíblica, the author refers to Dupont-Sommer as “apostate”, for deconstructing the image of Jesus of Nazareth based on the Teacher of Righteousness of the Dead Sea Scrolls (PENNOCK, A. L. G. Qumrân e o Cristianismo. RCB, v. 2, n. 6, 1958. p. 5).
17 Between Salvador and Laga, another Brazilian theologian would show interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls during this period. João Augusto Anchieta Amazonas Mac Dowell, in the year 1961, would write a work about 60 pages entitled João Batista e a Seita de Qumran, in German, resulting from a seminar held that year at the Sankt Georgen School of Theology, Frankfurt, Germany. The work has a reasonably in-depth discussion, since in addition to the books that presented a more general view, Mac Dowell had access to important periodicals with more specific discussions, like the Revue de Qumran, Revue Biblique and The Biblical Archaeologist. Two years later, in 1963, he would finish his master’s degree entitled Os escritos de Qumran e as origens do Cristianismo (which I did not gain access to). His works have not been published either in Germany or in Brazil. After that, Mac Dowell would not publish again on the manuscripts. I am immensely grateful for the clarifications that he has given to me.
18 The Revista de Cultura Bíblica, which was silent from the second half of the 1960s, would present only two more articles on the manuscripts; one in the late 1970s (DATTLER, Frederico. O Rolo do Templo: O ultimo escrito de Qumrân. RCB, v. 3, 11-12, pp. 232-234, 1979 [this text is not characterized as a study]), and another in the 1990s (TERRA, Dom João Evangelista Martins. Papiro 7Q5 de Qumran e a nova datação dos evangelhos sinóticos. RCB, v. 21, no. 81/82, pp. 65-93, 1997).
19 Cf. CINTRA, Raimundo Almeida. Os misteriosos habitantes do Deserto de Judá. Revista de História, USP, n. 111, 1997.
20 See. Labirintos da Fé. Veja, São Paulo, p. 67-70, set. 1989.
21 The thesis was by Nancy Pitrowisky Antunes Tsupal, with the title Educação Qumranico-Essênia e Cristã Primitiva - A Mensagem, os Valores, o Discipulado; Subsídios para a História e Filosofia da Educação, defended at USP in 1988. In fact, her academic advisor was Nicolas Boer, who died in 1987. From then on, she would be directly advised by Falbel. Her thesis is of very good quality. The author uses many texts from the first generation of researchers. She also makes a translation of the book Community Rule (1QS). However, the researcher would not continue her studies in the field.
22 Prior to the Bonhomme’s books cited above, we have: LAPERROUSAZ, Ernest-Marie. Os manuscritos do Mar Morto. Trad. Maria Stela Gonçalves and Adail Ubirajara Sobral. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1961 (work reprinted by the publisher Círculo do Livro em 1992); SCHELKLE, Karl Hermann. A comunidade de Qumran e a igreja do novo testamento. Trad. Benedictine nuns of the Abbey of Santa Maria, of São Paulo. São Paulo: Paulinas, 1972; STUMPF, Hans Einsle. A aventura dos mistérios bíblicos da arca de Noé aos rolos manuscritos de Qumran. Trad. Trude von Laschan Solstein. São Paulo: Melhoramentos, 1972.
23 There was a Portuguese edition of the text of Millar Borrows, The Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Viking Press, 1955) that circulated in Brazil, translated as Os Documentos do Mar Morto (trad. Ironildo Aguilar. Porto: Ed. Porto [1957?]). Another Portuguese edition, by John Marco Allegro (a member of the official translation team), called The Dead Sea Scrolls (Pelican Books: Hammondsworth, 1958), was translated as Os manuscritos do mar Morto (trad. Eurico da Costa. Lisboa: Europa América, 1958). Among the Brazilian researchers of the first decades, only Carl Laga was aware of it. It would be Laga who, a few years later, would translate into Brazil a small number of selected texts, found in Textos históricos: Antiguidade e Idade Média, of 1965. He selected portions of the Qumran texts known as the Community Rule (1QS), War Scroll (1QM), Thanksgiving Hymns (1QH) - published by Jean Carmignac and Pierre Guilbert in Les Textes de Qumran: traduits et annotes. La Règle de la Communauté, La Règle de la Guerre, Le Hymnes (Paris: Letouzey & Ané, 1961) - Pesher de Naun (1QpNaun) and Pesher de Habacuc (1QpHab) - from the translation of Geza Vermes, The Essene Writings from Qumran (Oxford, Blakwell, 1961), originally published in French by André Dupont-Sommer (Les Écrits esseniens découverts près de la Mer Morte. Paris: Payot, 1959). The texts are small and do not allow in-depth study.
24 The first collection of the Qumran manuscripts published in Brazil was from 1987, called Manuscritos do Mar Morto (from the English version The Dead Sea Scrolls in English), from the British biblical scholar Geza Vermes. The text of Vermes was to be revised and expanded several times in the 1990s. Still, until that moment, it would not reach the same amount of texts as the Martinez edition. In my opinion, the translation of the text of Vermes was very compromised.
25 Like Jane Bichmacher de Glasman (State University of Rio de Janeiro), for the French historian Mireille Hadas-Lebel (who owns books published in Brazil on subjects close to the Dead Sea Scrolls), in the year of 1996.
26 To this day, this type of material has been translated into Brazil and has achieved some space. One can cite Robert Feather’s book, The Mystery of the Copper Scroll of Qumran: The Essene Record of the Treasury of Akhenaten (1. ed. 2003), translated in Brazil three years later, which states that the Copper Scroll (3Q15), from the Cave 3 of Qumran, would prove the link between Pharaoh Akhenaten’s religious reform and the Hebrew monotheism.
27 Carl Laga accused sensationalism in the study of the manuscripts since the publication of the first documents, even in the international academic world (1963: 98). In Brazil, this would only become visible from the 1990s on.
28 A survey of the data in these three newspapers shows a total of 38 articles (short and long texts) related to the Dead Sea Scrolls for the 1990s. Between the 1950s and 1980s, the total is 28. It draws attention also the fact that in the 1970s and 1980s the number of articles published was less than half published in the 1950s and 1960s (19 articles for the 1950s and 1960s, but only 9 for the 1970s and 1980s).
29 The impact on non-academic space and beginners in the manuscripts research was very negative. During all the years that I have been working with the Dead Sea Scrolls, I have heard many “opinions” from the general public who have had no contact with any scientific literature on the subject. One was that the group holding the manuscripts was the first gay community in history. This view was probably based on the supposed asceticism of the group that held the manuscripts.
30 Three original texts and seven replicas were made available (the original texts presented in Rio de Janeiro were different from those in São Paulo, since original texts can not be more than three months outside Israel), as well as about 80 artifacts. On the occasion, a catalog entitled Pergaminhos do Mar Morto – Um Legado para a Humanidade (Scrolls of the Dead Sea: A Legacy to Humanity), organized by Luiz Calina and Andréa Calina (São Paulo, 2004) was published.
31 According the records of the organization of the event, in Rio de Janeiro the number was 150 thousand people. In São Paulo, the numbers were not counted.
32 This occurred with Clarisse Ferreira da Silva, who was linked to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, during her doctoral studies; with Jonas Machado, in his post-doctorate internship in the University of Oxford, England; and with me, during my doctoral research, where I was connected to the Shrine of the Book, under the advice of Adolfo Daniel Roitman.
33 The first record of a conference on the manuscripts in Brazil is of 1962; a conference in Rio de Janeiro conducted by Melvin Rughes, a British man with no background in the area but interested in biblical subjects and who met de Vaux in Jerusalem (cf. Manuscritos do Mar Morto serão tema de conferência [Dead Sea Scrolls will be a conference theme]. Jornal O Globo, Rio de Janeiro, 23 de ago. de 1962. Matutina, Geral, p. 12).
34 In this period, Pedro Paulo’s production was more intense, with texts in magazines, articles in journals, conferences and scientific initiation advising.
35 Also for this year, two more works by the same author are awaited: the translation of the book by Emanuel Tov, Crítica Textual da Bíblia Hebraica (Niterói: BV Books), which is the translation of the Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (3. ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2012), which features chapters examining portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls in comparison to the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch; and the production of the Antigo Testamento Interlinear Hebraico-Português, v. 3: Profetas Posteriores (Hebrew-Portuguese Interlinear Old Testament, v. 3: Later Prophets). Barueri: Sociedade Bíblica do Brasil). In this last work, there is a chapter called “Textual Difficulties” in which the author mentions and comments many non-orthographic textual variants of the biblical manuscripts of the 11 Qumran caves. The two works will be an important contribution to the researches of the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Brazil.
36 We could mention the cases of Sandrélly da Mata Mendonça dos Santos, with the thesis O Cristo-Luz no Quarto Evangelho e o Tema da “Luz” em Qumran. Perspectiva Literária do Quarto Evangelho a Partir de sua Relação com a Regra da Comunidade (The Christ-Light in the Fourth Gospel and the Theme of the “Light” in Qumran. Literary Perspective of the Fourth Gospel from its Relationship with the Rule of the Community [Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, 2009]) and Ademir Rubini, with the thesis A justiça de Deus em perspectiva: (des)construções na teologia paulina, na comunidade de Qumran e na tradição judaica (The justice of God in perspective: (de)constructions in Pauline theology, in the community of Qumran and in Jewish tradition [Superior Scholl of Theology, São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, 2015]). Each of these researchers had a different trajectory after the end of their academic work and none of them continued publishing on the manuscripts.
37 Many studies, carried out mainly by governmental research institutions (interested in pointing out the relationship between investment in research and scientific production), present in detail the evolution from that period. Some of them can be found on the internet.
38 This is not the case in Antunes Tsupal’s thesis, which, produced before the opening of 1990-1991, also used some works published in Brazil.
39 All researches on the Dead Sea Scrolls needs an introduction of this nature, since the author will need to build (or deconstruct) a basis for reaching his conclusions. For example, scholarly works dealing with the normative set of Qumran manuscripts need to address introductory themes, such as the writers’ identity.
40 However, a number of newspaper articles already have such an approach long before that period.
41 Some of the “filters” applied here focus on the impact achieved by the work and on the production performed only by those who would finish their doctoral studies.
42 The database that may help this conclusion is provided by the Orion Center, created by the Institute for Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for studies related to the Dead Sea Scrolls (orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/, accessed on: 06/07/2017).
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