Long lines of visitors at the recent American exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls attest to the place of these artifacts in popular culture. The exhibit reflects a serious attempt to connect the scrolls and the Qumran community with earlier Israelite traditions. References to Josephus and rabbinic sources tie the displayed artifacts to contemporary Jewish phenomena. Despite these efforts, for most people the scrolls completely overshadow the remains of Jewish religious and cultural creativity in the Second Temple period. That the scrolls were a unique discovery is too frequently taken to mean that they provide the sole extra-biblical sources on Judaism and Jews in antiquity. This perspective is substantially challenged and corrected by the editors of Outside the Bible, which assembles the works of Josephus and Philo, the Septuagint, the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, and other sources.
At more than three thousand pages this “anthology” of approximately 150 selections from Second Temple period Jewish writings (some complete texts, but many abridged) is a remarkable accomplishment. The excellent commentaries and, in some cases, entirely new translations of these sources are the work of more than seventy scholars broadly representing the academic community: Jews and Christians, men and women, graduate students as well as senior scholars. While new editions of Philo, Josephus, and the Dead Sea Scrolls have appeared recently, the commentaries on many of the texts published here are the most up-to-date ones available, and many have not received this kind of attention and presentation since James Charlesworth edited The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (2 vols; New York: Doubleday, 1983 & 1985). The commentaries focus on what these texts reveal about Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple period and how they contribute to understanding the transition from biblical Israel to rabbinic Judaism. The importance of this focus is not merely a parochial concern; it has significant scholarly implications. Like the Dead Sea Scrolls, most Second Temple period material was for the past century studied predominantly by Christian scholars who brought particular concerns to the texts, such as an interest in messianism and eschatology, while other topics, such as Jewish law, were largely ignored. The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha are certainly Jewish texts but their primary preservation by Christians likewise shaped their study and interpretation, which often focused on exploring the world that shaped the nascent church. The study of this material has changed significantly in the last few decades, and Outside the Bible is an excellent vehicle for gathering and sharing this research with a much broader scholarly and lay audience.
Outside the Bible is also noteworthy for its organizing principles. The sections are organized thematically rather than by collections (for example, Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls). The editors note, “we have arranged the texts in a way that highlights their closeness to the Hebrew Bible, starting with actual translations, then moving to various types of biblical commentary and rewritten biblical narratives, and proceeding from these to laws, liturgies, and rules for living drawn from the language and themes of the Hebrew Bible” (xvii). For example, the section on liturgies places the Psalms of Solomon from the Pseudepigrapha alongside Dead Sea Scroll texts and six Jewish prayers preserved in the fourth-century Christian text known as the Apostolic Constitutions. Arranging these together allows for an investigation of the common concerns of Jews across languages and communities in a way that is difficult when these sources are read only as part of their own assemblage. Each section's texts are typically organized according to the order of the Hebrew Bible, allowing for the comparison of interpretations of specific biblical passages across a variety of texts.
Using the Hebrew Bible as the pivot point for the volumes betrays somewhat conservative assumptions about the authority and canonization of the Hebrew Bible in antiquity. Although individual contributions provide a more nuanced picture of the processes that led to the formation of the Hebrew Bible, the ordering of the texts creates a false impression that the Hebrew Bible was authoritative before these Second Temple texts came into being (when, in fact, some of these texts were inside the Bible of the Jewish communities that used them). According to the editors, “in commenting on the texts, our contributors (Christians as well as Jews) have intentionally sought to trace heretofore neglected connections to other Jewish writings, from the Hebrew Bible itself to the vast body of Rabbinic writings contained in the Mishnah, Talmud, and midrashic anthologies” (xv–xvi). Parallels to the traditional daily liturgy and the Passover Haggadah are also highlighted. The contributors have done a superb job of foregrounding these connections, but Outside the Bible does not clarify their implications. (Incidentally, since these “rabbinic” sources are frequently referenced but rarely cited, judging the significance of the parallels is difficult without additional reference volumes at hand.) Despite the apparent connections between texts, the suggestion of a clear continuum from Israelite religion to rabbinic Judaism is an overreach. What does it really mean that a particular kind of interpretation appears in both a Second Temple text and rabbinic sources? For example, the Testament of Job asserts that Job married Dinah, the daughter of the patriarch Jacob. Bereshit Rabbah 57 also makes this assertion (see p. 1875). Should readers assume that the authors of the midrash knew the testament, that this tradition circulated independently or that both authors read similar biblical books, saw the same exegetical problem, and relying on similar evidence came to the same interpretation? Precisely which group of Jews knew which sources and when is a not entirely clear. Moreover, the fact that some rabbinic sources interpret biblical texts in the same way that some of these sources do does not attest to influence or continuity. Because Outside the Bible does not delineate the possibilities, readers are left assuming continuity when disjuncture might be more likely.
Organizing the volumes around the Hebrew Bible also tends to gloss over the complex relationships among these works, something that the contributors to Outside the Bible frequently acknowledge. The Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible varies widely from versions preserved from antiquity; the time at which a single authoritative Hebrew Bible was established is open to debate; and the Septuagint sometimes attests to a variant Hebrew Vorlage. Some of the biblical commentaries published in Outside the Bible reveal that the biblical version used by their respective authors differed, sometimes significantly, from the masoretic text. Additionally, although some so-called rewritten Scriptures are closely related to their Hebrew source text, others rely on Greek versions or are so radically different from the Hebrew Bible version that apart from the names of characters the narratives are unrecognizable. These texts may have been composed simultaneously as competing versions relying on a common tradition rather than in direct response to an authoritative Hebrew biblical book.
As an anthology these volumes come with all the benefits and hazards of the genre. Outside the Bible offers a broad sweep of important material, but also entails important exclusions. For example, the section on translation of Scripture includes passages from the Septuagint but no Aramaic Targum from the Dead Sea Scrolls. These Targumim speak to similar types of issues and their inclusion would have been worthwhile. Likewise a stronger editorial hand might have encouraged more useful selections in certain cases. For example, the sources from the Septuagint include Job 34, which shows how the Greek translators abridged and smoothed wordy and repetitive Hebrew material. However, that the Greek version of Job includes a number of significant additions concerning Job's biography and an extensive statement by Job's wife is not noted. The inclusion of these supplements instead of, or in addition to, Job 34 would have helped the reader since the commentary on the Testament of Job frequently refers to them.
Outside the Bible includes substantial cross-referencing of sources, a brief historical survey, introductions to each text describing the history of its preservation, study, and significance along with bibliographies, a helpful timeline, a source list, and a very thorough index. The publisher may think about supplementing these online with an index of biblical verses and allusions so that a reader might be able to trace how a particular biblical text or variant was or was not treated in a variety of Second Temple sources. Similarly, an index to the rabbinic sources cited in the notes would provide a useful way for a reader of rabbinic sources to find the parallels in the Second Temple sources.
The editors and contributors have produced a rich and useful scholarly resource of value to biblical scholars interested in reception history, as well as to students of Jews and Judaism in antiquity, the New Testament, and rabbinics. The Jewish Publication Society's mission to bring this material to the broader Jewish community has likewise been fulfilled, although the size and cost of the volume may be prohibitive for this audience. JPS has wisely provided a study guide and curricular materials online so that clergy and others might use Outside the Bible as a source book for adult education and similar activities: (http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/Supplements/discussion_questions/Feldman_Study%20Guide.pdf).
