Traditional History and Cultural Memory in the Pesharim

This article explores the type and function of historiography in the pesharim, a group of biblical commentaries in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Although the unabashedly subjective viewpoint of history in the pesharim strongly contrasts modern notions of historiography, they nevertheless present a kind of history writing. In particular, historiography in the pesharim is analogous to traditional history, a type of history writing found in oral epics from around the world. Like traditional history, the pesharim owe their primary allegiance to a special register of language that is both traditional and adaptable. Rather than a factual record, the pesharim are formative cultural texts that use history to create and transmit cultural memory. More specifically, traditional history in the pesharim constructs a common descent of membership and “instrumentalizes” the past for identity formation in the present.