Additional Offering C. Articles

Time Magazine put out a whole cover story on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and I am in the process of gaining access to that, but for now I read a short article about the authors of the Scrolls.

Scholar Claims Dead Sea Scrolls 'Authors' Never Existed
Rachel Elior argues that the author of the Dead Sea Scrolls continues to be unknown, but in particular it is not the Essenes, to whom most scholars give credit.  She claims the Scrolls do not mention this group of "Jews," adding also that they lived in contradiction, celibacy, to Judaic exhortation to "go forth and multiply."  James Charlesworth, a director of the Dead Sea Scrolls project at Princeton Theological Seminary and an expert on Josephus, rebuttals that the community's name is not explicitly stated but mentioned as "men of holiness" or "sons of light."  Elior blames the misunderstanding on Flavius Josephus, an ancient historian, who's articles were the bases for fact.  The article does not support one side or the other and research is still to be done.  

The article presents both sides of the argument of whether the Essenes wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it does not give a point of view to a source that supports multiple authors.   Scholars today continue to study the authors of many of the accepted religious texts in the Bible, so to assume from one fact that the Essenes were not the writers is poor judgement.  Elior takes a literal side to the Dead Sea Scrolls when she says there is no mention of the Essenes.  Charlesworth had a more broad acceptance when he proposed the authors were hinted at.  Historians, whether in the Bible or high school textbooks, all have bias.  History is written by the survivors.  We cannot expect the authors to do as they do in present time writing: written by... Their culture was much different than it is today.  The article's description of what Elior believes is vague.  They ask, "Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?" and the next line states that Elior believes the Essenes were a decendent of a tribe.  It has nothing to do with the authors of the Scrolls; it tries to decredit the Essenes, not propose another source.  Philo and Pliny the Elder are then thrown in at the end of the article as men who knew of the Essenes, when previously Elior stated they did not exist.  
Thought the article focuses on one aspect of the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls to keep things simple, there is not enough explanation.  From being in Old Testament Survey only three weeks, I can say confidently that the authors of many Biblical texts are unknown, but that they do not matter to the message.  

Tim McGirk, Jerusalem
March 16, 2009 
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885421,00.html#ixzz26lfrsOEN