Jude
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 58, No. 1 – Fall 2015
Managing Editor: W. Madison Grace II
2nd ed. 2 vols. Edited by Donald W. Parry and Emanuel Tov. Leiden: Brill, 2014. 2218 pages. Paperback, $349.00.
Ten years ago Parry and Tov’s first edition of The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader (Leiden: Brille, 2004 [DSSR I]) was received with high praise. This six-volume reference set offered scholars and students convenient and relatively affordable access to the authoritative transcriptions and English translations of nearly all of the nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls. Now, in the two-volume second edition of The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader(DSSR II), Parry and Tov expand and improve the earlier set.
DSSR II preserves most of the positive qualities of the first edition. Hebrew/ Aramaic transcriptions and English translations are presented on opposing pages. Texts in the second edition, as in the first, are grouped according to genre, facilitating analysis of related texts. DSSR II also, like its predecessor, contains the most authoritative scholarly transcriptions and translations of the non-biblical Dead Sea Scrolls. In most cases these are derived from the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series [DJD]. In the case of some texts, however, other editions that have become the scholarly standard are used. For example, DSSR II, like DSSR I, contains J. Duhaime’s transcription of 1QM from the Princeton Theological Seminary edition.
The texts included in the volumes have been upgraded in several respects. Numerous texts not published in the first edition appear in the second. According to this reviewer’s count, DSSR II contains approximately 90 texts not published in DSSR I, including a large number of “unclassified” manuscripts. DSSR II also contains updated versions of several of the texts that were included in DSSR I. These include those texts for which DSSR I was able to offer only preliminary editions, but which have in the last decade appeared in more refined, published form, such as Puech’s transcription of the Aramaic Book of Giants from DJD XXXVII. In contrast, some of the smaller, less-significant fragments that were included in DSSR I have not been included in DSSR II.
With regard to the grouping of texts, DSSR II has made one very welcome change. In DSSR I, texts of mixed genre were divided into its various components, which were then distributed to various sections of the work (e.g, the cases of 1QS and 1QapGen). These texts have been recombined in the more recent edition. This policy of presenting texts in unified form is preferable to the policy of the earlier edition in that it allows readers to study each text in the form in which it actually exists in the manuscript remains.
On the whole, consolidation to just two volumes in the second edition is a change for the better. The two volumes, to be sure, are hefty, each being around 1100 pages in length. And the complete set is only slightly more affordable than its sixvolume predecessor. The two-volume format, however, makes for more convenient use and is to be compared with García Martínez and Tigchelaar’s two-volume The Dead Sea Scrolls: Study Edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999 [DSSSE]).
Unfortunately, the cost of these volumes will likely be prohibitive for most students. One potential drawback of the two-volume format, perhaps, is that it is no longer possible to purchase only a smaller portion of the collection. One must either purchase half of the collection or the entire set, either of which would stretch most students’ budgets. For use in the classroom, this reviewer will likely continue to encourage his students to acquire DSSSE, although the transcriptions and translations of DSSR II are generally to be preferred to those of DSSSE. For biblical scholars and advanced students who want convenient access to the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic transcriptions and English translations of the non-biblical Dead Sea Scrolls, DSSR II offers an affordable alternative to DJD.
