Review of Is there a text in this cave? Studies in the textuality of the Dead Sea Scrolls in honour of George J. Brooke, edited by Ariel Feldman, Maria Cioată, and Charlotte Hempel

Abstract

THIS outstanding volume is a fitting tribute to one of the most generous, influential, and prolific scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The strength of the Festschrift in part lies in the fact that there is a running thread connecting its many contributions. The editors have done a tremendous job in producing a tightly knit collection of papers which approach the same theme—in this case, the question of textuality in the Scrolls—from a plurality of perspectives. The benefits of thematic coherence in a Festschrift, a genre more often known for its eclecticism, hardly need stating, but here I highlight the additional reward of reading some papers as if in conversation with each other, which lends the volume added depth.