The Hebrew Bible and/as Second Temple Literature: Methodological Reflections

This essay offers methodological reflections on the relationship between studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls and studies of the Hebrew Bible. These reflections center around three main claims: (1) that the Hebrew Bible is Second Temple literature; (2) that the internal development of the Hebrew Bible is, in a specific and important sense, a history of exegesis; and (3) that Second Temple interpretation outside of the scriptural corpus is inseparable from the history of exegesis within it. These claims all point to the problematic and artificial nature of the boundaries between the two disciplines; and they illustrate how both fields require each other in order to understand their respective objects of inquiry in a rigorous and historically appropriate manner.