The Dead Sea Scrolls: Insight into Traditioning Processes and the Growth of Gospel Traditions

This article proposes that parallel traditions among the Dead Sea Scrolls offer a comparative data-set by which to reassess “the Synoptic problem” in the New Testament gospels. The Dead Sea materials, not only shared traditions but also differences between them, whether in the manuscripts of the same work or overlapping portions of different works, show similarities to the ways in which the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and the putative “Q” overlap and depart from one another. The multiple degrees in which some Dead Sea texts evolved underscore the plausibility that, with or without the influence of oral tradition, texts could change and develop rapidly through literary activity in a relatively short period of time.