The Conquest of the Temple Scroll and the Creation of the Scholarly Text

Abstract

The story of the discovery of the Temple Scroll, frequently retold, is a gripping tale. It mixes archaeology with espionage, and even military victory. In that sense, it is unique. However, in other ways, it participates in conventions of discovery narratives nearly as old as writing itself. Like ancient find accounts, it establishes a provenance for the manuscript, details the labor involved in making the discovery available, and seeks to raise interest in the contents of the scroll. This all functions as a means of elevating the value of the text. This article argues that the narrative of the Temple Scroll’s discovery also performs another important function: it re-creates the scroll as a text ripe for scholarly analysis. In so doing, the narrative erases and/or diminishes the acts of translation and mediation necessary to accomplish this transformation from material to textual object.