Jeffrey Gibson

Charles,

Is it your claim that N. Golb was the first person ever to propose the thesis of the Jerusalem origin of the scrolls and the Qumran fortress theory?

If not, then who did?

Jeffrey

Charles Gadda

My understanding is that Rengstorf was the first to propose the Jerusalem theory, although he argued that all of the scrolls came from the Temple library, a view rejected by Golb (Rengstorf believed Qumran was a seasonal retreat for Temple priests). After Rengstorf, I'm not aware of any other Jerusalem-theory people until Golb's 1980 article. As for the fortress theory, it was first developed in Golb's book, although others (pre-1947) had previously suggested in passing that the site was a fortress -- the logical assumption given its strategic position.