ABSTRACT
The problem of discerning what was a sectarian document at Qumran has been sketched already in the introductory chapter. In the early days of Qumran research there was a tendency to assume that all the nonbiblical texts (even Pseudepigrapha such as 1 Enoch and Jubilees) were “sectarian,” that is, they came from the same Jewish sect that produced the works discovered in Qumran Cave 1. Furthermore, there was a host of studies arguing that even works not found at Qumran (for example, ps.-Philo’s Biblical Antiquities, Psalms of Solomon, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs) were originally Essene compositions.
