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ALEX P. JASSEN, Mediating the Divine: Prophecy and Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism (STDJ 68; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2007). Pp. xix + 443. $195.
In this revised dissertation (New York University, 2006), Jassen provides a comprehensive account of prophecy and revelation not only in the Dead Sea Scrolls but also in related literature from Second Temple Judaism. (The study does not extend to Greekspeaking Judaism.) There are nineteen chapters in all, divided into three parts. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction. Prophecy is defined as the "transmission of allegedly divine messages by a human intermediary to a third party" (p. 4; following Martti Nissinen, Prophecy in Its Ancient Near Eastern Context: Mesopotamian, Biblical, and Arabian Perspectives [SBLSymS 13; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2000]). Although he recognizes that classical prophecy such as we find in the preexilic period is not found at Qumran, J. argues for the continued viability of prophecy and revelation. This manifests itself in three ways: the rewriting of ancient prophecy, the sense of a new period of eschatological prophecy in the end of days, and the reconceptualization of prophets and prophecy at Qumran. J. distinguishes throughout between the properly sectarian texts and the broader corpus of nonsectarian texts preserved in the scrolls.
Part 1, "Prophetic Traditions in the Dead Sea Scrolls," contains chaps. 2-9. In chap. 2, J. deals briefly with the understanding of prophecy as predictive, attested in the pesharim. In chap. 3, he argues that several texts, both sectarian and nonsectarian, conceive of the prophets as lawgivers who continue the work of Moses in a progressive revelation. New prophetic revelations do not...