Dead Sea

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Pairing Research Q uestinns and Theories o f Genre

A Case Study o f the H odayot

Carol A. Newsom
Emory University, Atlanta
cnewom@emory.edu

Abstract
No single model of genre is adequate to inform all types of research questions. In
this article six approaches to genre are briefly described. Then each is discussed
in relation to how it has been or might be used in investigating the Qumran
Hodayot.

Keywords
Qumran; Hodayot; genre; genre systems; form criticism; literary theory; family
resemblance; cognitive approaches to literature

article has its origin in a very specific pedagogical moment. A gra-

duate seminar in the book of Daniel was discussing Lawrence Willss
treatment of court stories^ during a session focusing on the genre of
Daniel 16. discussion was not going well. Students were becoming
dismissive of Willss analysis of court stories. Hes just throwing together
everything that has a king and a wise courtier in it! Thats not helpful!
1 stopped the discussion and asked members of the class to say what they
understood by the term genre. It turned out that there were several not
entirely compatible understandings of genre implicitly held by various
m e m b e rs of the class. That was one reason for our stalled discussion.
When 1 asked the students what problem they were attempting to solve
by invoking genre, there was a general pause. It wasnt dear. Indeed, at
this moment 1 realized my own pedagogical failure. / had not made dear

1 Lawrence M. Wifls, The Jew in the Court ofthe Foreign King: Ancient Jewish
Court Legends (^nneapolis: Fortress, 1 0 ) .
Koninklijke Rdd NV, Leiden, 2 0 0 D O I: 10.1163/156851710X 513548
 C. A. Newsom/ Dead Sea Discoveries 271 288270 (2010) ?

why we were raising rhe question of genre and what we hoped to learn
from our inquiry. 1 briefly outlined several different alternative approaches
to genre, ^ e n we looked again at Willss analysis. Even tbougb he bim-
self did not explicitly locate his analysis in terms of a particular tbeory of
genre, we attempted to discern wbat theory was implicitly in play in his
book. class quickly decided tbat Wills was operating witb a Wittgen-
steinian family resemblance model of genre.
family resemblance model is based on a genetic analogy-although
all individuals may have no single trait in common, a network of overlap-
ping similar traits can identify an ostensibly disparate group as having
family resemblances. As a model for genre, this approach can he used in a
variety of different ways, one of which is to show a linear connective rela-
tionsbip among texts. One notices bow exemplar A resembles B, how B
resembles c, how c resembles D, and so forth. O f course, by the end, A
and z may look substantially different, and one would rightly wonder
why they should he grouped together in any sort of classification, if one
looked only at A and z. Indeed this has been one of the criticisms leveled
against the family resemblance approach.^ Some of my students had
assumed, however, that Wills was interested in building a box within
which be could corral all of the putative court stories. That is to say, tbeir
sense was that genre was primarily about classification, knowing if a text
is this kind of a text or is that kind of a text. Otbers had assumed that be
was asking the question, if you wanted to write a court story, bow would
you go about doing it? ^ e s e students assumed that genre was about a
formula or templateand, indeed, some theories of genre formulate the
issue in just that way. Consequently, it made sense that Willss analysis
seemed inadequate to tbem. But Wills, we decided, was implicitly asking
a different question, or at least this was bow we reconstructed the inten-
tion of his inquiry. We understood bim to he starting from a general per-
ception that tbere exists a substantial amount of literature from the
Persian period onward that has as its main actors a king and a wise court-
ier. He was investigating wbetber tbese texts were simply beterogeneous
narratives or if it was possible to discern family resemblances among
them. And Wills demonstrates just that. One can line up the exemplars

2 lohn M. Swales, Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 51 ,(0 . See also David Fishelov,
Metaphors 0 Genre: The Role ofAnalogies in Genre Theory (University Park: Penn-
sylvania State University Press, 68- 53 ,( .
272 C. A. Newsom/ DeadSea Discoveries 288- 270 (2010) ?

SO as to show how A resembles B, wbleb resembles c, which resembles D,

and so forth. One can see how the originary literature tbat featured a king
and a wise courtier could spread culturally, geograpbically, and bistorically
in order to give rise to a quite variegated literature that, nonetbeless, can
he assembled into a family portrait that allows one to trace the genetic
resemblances across time and space. Our discussion of Willss book dem-
onstrated not only that tbere are many ways to tbink about genre but
that it matters that one he clear about what kind of a question one is
asking and thus which approaches to genre may he belpful and wbicb
may not he.
Qumran studies have similarly been more implicitly tban explicitly
concerned witb genre, and tbose of us wbose work has sometimes toucbed
on issues of genre have not always been sufficiently clear as to what our
assumptions about genre are. Even more significantly, we have almost
never made explicit what questions we are actually trying to investigate
wben we talk about genre and thus what particular approacb to genre we
find to he most belpful. In the following essay I want first to summarize
six common ways of thinking about genre, ^ e n I want to take a specific
body of texts (the Hodayot) in order to show how different approaches to
genre are useful for different kinds of inquiry.
first, and unfortunately still common, understanding of genre is
that it is a classificatory box into wbicb one sorts various kinds of speech
acts, usually identified by a list of distinguishing characteristics. limi-
tation of this approach is that, in tbe memorable characterization of
Alistair Eowler, it treats genre as though it were a matter of pigeonboles,
wbereas genres are far more like pigeons.3Altbougb this view of genre has
been criticized for years, it has an amazing persistence, and indeed is not
to he entirely despised.^ genuine insigbt connected with tbis view of
genre is that genre is related to the larger cultural practice of classification.

3 Alastair Fowler, Kinds of Literature: An Introduction to the Theory of Genres

and Modes (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Fress, 36 , 82.
4 Good and helpful work can be done in this manner. It was the basis for the
rightly influential analysis of the genre o^pocalypse in John Collins, ed.. Apoca-
lypse: The Morphology of a Genre, Semeia 14 (1979). I analyze the contributions
and limitations of this approach in relation to more recent theories of genre in
Spying out the Land: A Report from Genology, in Seeking out the Wisdom ofthe
Ancients (ed. R. Troxel, K. Friebel and D. Magary; Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisen-
brauns, 2005), 437-50.
 C. A. Newsom/ Dead Sea Discoveries 273 288270 (2010) ?

A partial rehabilitation of this approach has been made by neo-pragmatist

genre theorists who argue that the test of a valid genre classification is if it
yields useful results for the purposes of the critic, ^ i s kind of assertion
does not make ontological or even necessarily historical claims so much as
it argues that useful knowledge is generated by treating these texts as i f
they were the same kind of thing.^ In this perspective genre is a tool of
the critic, not an inherent property of the text.
A second way of thinking about genre is that of family resemblance,
described briefly above. concept of family resemblance is based on
Ludwig Wittgensteins discussion of what is common to the variety of
things we call games, including ball games, word games, card games,
Olympic games, and so forth, ^ e s e phenomena [i.e., different types of
games] have no one thing in common in virtue of which we use the same
word for allbut there are many different kinds of affinity between
them. ^ e s e criss-crossing and overlapping networks of similarity struck
Wittgenstein as analogous to the variety of physical, kinetic, and tempera-
mental resemblances among members of a family, Wittgenstein thus
declared, games form a family.6 analogy between genetic family
resemblances and the resemblances of members of a conceptual set was
taken up by genre theorists during the 1960s as an alternative to the
pigeonhole approach to genre.7
A third way of thinking about genre is to consider it as a mode of
comprehension. Persons intuitively compare this and that as a way of
making sense, ^ i s text is like a set of other texts I have readbut not
quite. It is like this subset in certain ways. It is unlike them in other
ways. Consciously or unconsciously, we are actively engaged in an act of
intertextuality that helps us locate this text in relation to others with
which we are already familiar. As Jonathan Culler frames it, A work can
only be read in connection with or against other texts, which provide a
grid through which it is read and structured by establishing expectations
which enable one to pick out salient features and give them a structure.^

5 See, in particular, Adena Rosmarin, The Power ofGenre (Minneapolis: Uni-

versity of Minneapolis Press, 1985).
6 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophische Untersuchungen/Philosophical Investiga-
tions (rev. 4th ed.; trans. G. E. M. Anscombe, p. M. s. Hacket and j. Schulte;
Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 35, 36.
7 Fowler, Kinds ofLiterature, 4044.
8 Jonathan Culler, Structuralist Poetics: Structuralism,, Linguisticsy and the Study
ofLiterature (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975), 147.
274 C. A. Newsom / Dead Sea Discoveries 17 (2010) 270-288

That perception of relationship is the sense of genre that facilitates the

comprehension of texts one has never read before. How one identifies the
genre of a text thus shapes the sense of its meaning.
A fourth, related way of thinking about genre focuses on genres role in
communication and the acquisition of cultural know-how. Here, more
attention is paid to the social functions of genre. Genre is understood as a
kind o^ltural-linguistic template, a social contract between speakers or
writers and their recipients. By understanding genres, one comes to have
cultural competency in producing and understanding certain kinds of
speech. While one could also understand this approach as a form of inter-
textual attention, more attention is paid here to foe internal structure and
distinctive elements of repeated speech acts, their social contexts, and the
purposes for which they are useful. But how does one acquire genre com-
petency? When considering this question in 1982, Bowler threw up his
hands, declaring that the problem admits of no immediate solution.^
Since then, however, significant progress has been made, as the cognitive
study of how concept formation takes place has been applied to genre
acquisition, ^ i s approach is sometimes referred to as prototype theory,
since foe central insight is that concepts and genres are formed through
recognition of a prototype to which other instances are intuitively com-
pared.11 A classic example in foe field of concepts concerns the way in
which people think about the category of birds. Empirical studies indicate
that, when people were asked to identify a prototype for bird, even
though people in different continents identified different species, they
tended to identify a small bird (e.g., robin, sparrow). People were able to
extend the category of bird to encompass other species that had different
characteristics (e.g., eagle, ostrich), but they formed their understanding
of bird from the prototype and then were willing to consider outlying
examples as extensions of the prototype image.^ Similarly, people refer to

9 Fowler, Kinds o f Literature, 21-24. See also Culler, Structuralist Poetics, .

10 Fowler, Kinds of Literature, 45.
11 For a discussion of the cognitive approach to genre and its relation to frame
semantics and schema theory see Brian Paltridge, Genre, Frames and Writing in
Research Settings (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1997), 47-62; see also Michael
Sinding, After Definition: Genre, Categories, and Cognitive Science, Genre 35
2002)(: 8 220-.
12 See, e.g., Eleanor Rosch and Barhara B. Floyd, Cognition and Categorisation
(Hillsdale, N. j.: Fawrence Erlhaum, 1978).
 C. A. Newsom/ Dead Sea Discoveries 275 288270 (2010) ?

a mental prototype of a genre and are foen able to recognize otber exam-
pies or to create examples by reference to tbe prototype.
A fifth way of understanding genre is to see genres as distinct modes of
perception or even of ways of constructing meaningful worlds. classic
formulation of this understanding of genre is that of Pavel Medvedev:
Every genre has its methods and means of seeing and conceptualizing
reality, which are accessible to it alone. . . . process of seeing and con-
ceptualizing reality must not be severed from the process of embodying it
in the form of a particular genre.. . . artist must learn to see reality
with the eyes of the genre.^ ^ i s approach to genre also stresses its cog-
nitive function but is less concerned with genre acquisition than it is with
the constructive power of genre. Independently of Medvedev, Rosalie
Colie similarly described genres as a set of interpretations, or frames or
fixes on the world, as tiny subcultures, with their own habits, habitats,
and structures of ideas as well as their own forms.^ ^ u s genre is a form
of knowing and conceptualizing the world.
A sixth way of understanding genre would object that, although the
other modes o^pproaching genre may touch on social functions, they do
not genuinely engage the dialogic nature of genres in a fashion that is
both synchronic and diachronic, ^ i s approach, initially explored by the
Russian formalist Yuri Tynyanov,15 is not concerned so much with indi-
vidual genres as with the ecology of genres or genre systems at a given
point in time and across periods of time. What is particularly important
about this way of approaching genre is that part of what constitutes the
meaning and significance of a genre is how it relates to other genres.
Much work in cultural systems of genre has focused on the relationship of
high and low genres, a topic not likely to be productive in Qumran
studies. But the notion that genres should not be studied in isolation
from one another is important. Another of foe insights of Tynyanov is
that genres and genre systems are fostorically dynamic, and that different

13 Pavel N. Medvedev, The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship A Critical

Introduction to Sociological Poetics (trans. A. Wehrle; Baltimore: ]ohns Hopkins
University Press, 1978), .
14 Rosalie Colie, The Resources ofKind: Genre-Theory in the Renaissance (Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1973), 8, 115.
15 Yuri Tynyanov, The Literary Fact, in Modern Genre Theory (ed. D. Duff;
Harlow: Longman, 2000), 29-49. See also Victor Shklovsky, Theories of Prose
(trans. Benjamin Shar; Elmwood Park, 111.: D ^key^chive, 1990).
276 C. A. Newsom I Dead Sea Discoveries 17 (2010) 270-

cultural epochs may see the flourishing and demise not just of individual
genres but of entire groups of genres. Altbougb the notion of tbe inter-re-
lation of genres in a society and tbeir cbange over time is clearly impor-
tant, wbat one means by a genre system and how one analyzes it have
proven to he elusive issues.
It is important to remember tbat the approacbes to genre listed here
are neitber exhaustive nor are tbey strictly separate from one anotber.^ In
any particular instance of genre study, several of the approaches may he in
play in a complementary fasbion. Although it is not possible to do more
than give a quick sketcb, in what follows I want to sbow bow various
approaches to genre have been and might he useful in researcb on the
Hodayot.

Comprehension through In^rtextual Comparison

Cbronologically, the first implicit use made of genre theory in Hodayot

studies was that of comprebension tbrougb intertextual comparison
(approacb #3 above). Wben the Hodayot were first discovered and pub-
lisbed, modern scholars literally did not know bow to read them. Lacking
a reception bistory, how does one learn to read a newly recovered text?
only possible avenue is through comparison and contrast. One can see
this process in Eliezer Sukeniks explanation of his cboice of the designa-
tion Hodayot. Since the great majority begin witb the pbrase, tbank
^ e e . Cod, wdk dwny, I have called the entire group the Thanksgiving
Scroll {mgylt hhwdywt) .... Imitating the style of the Psalms, the songs
express thanks for the acts of kindness Cod has performed for their
autbor.^ ^ i s initial perception of similarity (first person singular address
to Cod in poetic form; expressions of thankfulness; frequent recollections
of danger or distress and rescue from sucb danger) simultaneously facili-
tated awareness of what was different about tbese compositions. Jacob
Licbt observed that the Hodayot tbanked Cod primarily for spiritual gifts
and that the danger from wbicb the speaker was delivered was not a con-

16 Fowler, Kinds ofLiterature, 40-44.

17 For a bibliographically rich overview of recent approaches to genre, see Pal-
tridge, Genre, Frames and Writing, 5-46.
18 Fliezer Sukenik, The Dead Sea Scrolls ofthe Hebrew University (Jerusalem:
Magnes, 139 ,(55 .
 C. A. Newsom/ Dead Sea Discoveries 277 288270 (2010) ?

Crete danger so much as a permanent condition of danger that may he

existential or eschatological. Moreover, Licht noticed a different quality in
the self-representation of the speaker in Psalms and in Hodayot.^
compositions of the Hodayot in part took their cue from traditional
modes of psalmic prayer. But they also were re-inventing the genre by sig-
nihcantly departing from tbe basic pattern of tbanksgiving psalms.^
Moreover, doubts were expressed that the Hodayot had the same function
as the biblical tbanksgiving psalms.^ ^ u s a sense of the distinctive genre
of the Hodayot was establisbed by means of comparing and contrasting it
with a set of texts already known.

Classification

One of the characteristics of biblical form-critical approaches to genre has

been its passion for classification (approach #1 above), and so it is not
surprising that a similar attempt to look for different groups of Hodayot
was an early and important aspect of scholarship on tbese texts. In the
one work tbat explicitly attempted to address the issue of the genre of the
Hodayot, Gnter Morawe, drawing on Hermann Gunkels form-criticism
of the Psalms, identified two categories of Hodayot, which be designated
as Danklieder and hymnische Bekenntnislieder.22 The same differentiation
was made independently by Svend Holm-Nielsen.^ ^ i s perception of
two sub-genres of Hodayot has been extremely influential in Qumran
studies, mostly in relation to the question of the autborsbip and purpose
of foe Hodayot, wbere these two categories were suhsequently identified

] acob Licht, The Thanksgiving Scroll: A Scroll from the Wilderness ofjudaea
57( in Hebrew).
(]erusalem: foe Bialik Institute, 119 - ,17
20 See the overview of Gnter Morawe, Vergleich des Aufbaus der Danklie-
der und hymnischen Bekenntnislieder (1QH) von Qumran mit dem Aufbau der
Psalmen im Alten Testament und im spaetjudentum, RevQ 4/15 (1963):

21 Hans Bardtke, Considrations sur les cantiques de Qumran, RB 63

(1956): 220-23.
22 Gnter Morawe, Aufbau und Abgrenzung der Toblieder von Qumran (foeo-
logsche Arbeiten 16; Berlin: Lvanglifoe Verlangsanstalt, 1961).
23 Svend Holm-Nielsen, Hodayot: Psalms from Qumran (ATDan2; Aarhus:
Universitesforlaget 1 Aarhus, I960).
 C. A. Newsom / Dead Sea Discoveries (?
2010)
270

as the Hodayot of the Teacher and the Hodayot of the Community.24

Recent work in the reconstruction of the scroll of lQ H a and the publica-
tion of tbe manuscripts 4Qa_f has made it evident that a two-part classifi-
cation is overly simplistic, and a more detailed study of sub-genres witbin
the Hodayot is a desideratum for future research.25

Genre5 Social Function5 and Cultural Know-H ow

foe use of genre to understand the function of the Hodayot has also
played a significant role in research. In large part tbis question emerged as
part of form critical analysis. Form criticism, unlike mucb traditional
genre criticism in literary studies, has always asked about the social func-
tion of genres. How and in wbat contexts did one use this form of speecb?
Unfortunately, Qumran scholarship is still unable to definitively deter-
mine the precise Sitz im Leben of the Hodayot. early debates con-
cerned wbetber the Hodayot had a liturgical setting or were private
meditations.^ Bilbab Nitzan used generic features to argue that foe
Hodayot were not liturgical compositions in the sense of being fixed
prayers,27 but the situation is more complicated tban ber analysis sug-
gests. As Eileen Scbuller has sbown, different collections of Hodayot may

24 Gert Jeremias, Der Lehrer der Gerechtigkeit (SUNT 2; Getingen: Vanden-

hoeck & Ruprecht, 1963); Heinz-Wolfgang Kuhn, Enderwartung und gegenwr-
tiges Heil: Untersuchungen zu den Gemeindeleidern von Qumran (SUNT 4;
G6ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1966). See most recently the dissertation
of Michael c. Douglas (Fower and Fraise in the Hodayot: A Literary Critical
Study of 1QH 9:1-18:14, University of Chicago, 1998), for a review of the
issues and an argument concerning the authorship of these im positions by the
Teacher of Righteousness.
25 See the discussion by Eileen Schuller, Prayer, Hymnic, and Liturgical Texts
from Qumran, in The Community of the Renewed Covenant: The Notre Dame
Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls (ed. E. Ulrich and j. VanderKam; None Dame:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1994), 153-71 (166-68).
26 See Denise Dombrowski Hopkins, foe Qumran Community and lQHoda-
yot: A Reassessment, RevQ 10/39 (1981): 323-64 (336) for a survey of opinion
with bibliography
27 Bilhah Nitzan, Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry (Leiden: Brill, 1994),
320-55.
 C. A. Newsom/ Dead Sea Discoveries 279 288270 (2010) ?

have functioned differently, and in some cases there are generic markers
that suggest liturgical settings.^
^ i s form-critical approach, however, only explores part of the issues
that can he raised by invoking a model of genre tbat is concerned not
only witb function but also witb tbe development of cultural know-bow
(approach #4 above). In The Self as Symbolic space, although I did not
explicitly invoke the category of genre, I was concerned about the role of
the Hodayot in the formation of sectarian identity, ^ u s I implicitly used
a model of genre as cultural competence. My working bypotbesis about
the Sitz im Leben of the Hodayot was that tbey were recited in a commu-
nity gatbering, tbougb not necessarily in a liturgical context, and that in
sucb settings a member might recite a known bodayab or compose a new
one.29 Learning how to compose such a first person prayer, I argued, was
central to the formation of a new sectarian identity and set of values. But
bow does one learn to compose in a particular genre? ^ i s I did not
explore in any detail, saying only Having beard enough of tbese prayers,
it would not he difficult to compose one that fit the model. ^That ratber
begs the question. In many contexts, especially in religious communities,
genres such as prayers are not explicitly taugbt so mucb as absorbed. But
what makes it possible for this process to happen?
Recent work on cognitive genre theory can belp explicate the process.
Human cognition is keenly attuned to pattern, and genres are patterns or
schemata of possible ways of speaking. John Frow identifies what be calls
the structural dimensions that cluster togetber to constitute foe specific
configuration of a genre as follows:
(1) the formal organization, which is a combination of the material
medium and the immaterial categories of time, space, and the
enunciative position of the speaker. In an oral genre the material
properties would include sound patterns and rbytbms of language
(e.g., prose or poetry), linguistic register, cboices of particular
grammar and syntax (e.g., simple or complex sentences), lengtb of
the composition, and so fortb.

28 Schuller, Prayer, Hymnic, and Liturgical Texts from Qumran, 166-69.

29 Carol Newsom, The Selfas Symbolic space: Constructing Identity and Com-
munity at Qumran (STDJ 52; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004), 196-204.
30 Newsom, The Selfas Symbolic space, 203.
280 C. A. Newsom / Dead Sea Discoveries (?
2010)
270

(2) the rhetorical structure includes not only literary features (e.g.,
stereotypical ways of beginning and ending), but also the way
the composition figures the power and autbority relationships
of speaker and hearer, tbe trutb status of wbat is being consid-
ered, and implications about the kind of world projected in the
speech.
( )the tbematic content is the sbaped buman experience tbat a genre
invests witb significance and interest, presented through recur-
rent topoi, subjects of discourse, cbaracters, and even cbaracteris-
tic forms of argumentation.
Wbat Frow outlines are the patterned forms of data that are internalized
in learning a new form of speecb. But how do people learn what sound
like fairly complicated patterns of significance? Cognitive theories of
genre suggest that people form conceptions of genre with respect to pro-
totypes, often specific examples that serve as a model, ^ e s e are perceived
as baving a fairly lean framework schema that constitutes a Gestalts,true-
ture, wbieb organizes particular elements in relation to one anotber. ^ i s
approacb accounts for the play of similarity and difference that one sees
in a body of compositions of the same genre. Composers will have identi-
fied certain elements as essential, some as default elements, and some as
optional. One sbould not forget, of course, that social context may allow
for more or less variation in instances of genre performance. Etbnograpbic
research on the genre practices of Alcoholics Anonymous has demon-
strated that a new member learning bow to tell his or ber personal story
will he cballenged and corrected by otber members if the account deviates
from the essential elements of the schema.32
The Hodayot of the Community lack the common narrative structure
one finds in an AA personal story, but tbey appear to he cbaracterized not
only by standardized openings but also by a relatively limited number of
topoi and affective stances. normative posture induced by the open-
ing is that of tbankfulness, wbicb is specified as thankfulness for Gods
spiritual gifts to the speaker, wbicb prominently include knowledge and
the ability to refrain from sinning against God and to do what God

31 ]ohn Frow, Genre (London: Routledge, 2005), 74-76.

32 Dorothy Holland et al., Identity andAgency in Cultural Worlds (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Fress, 1 .66 ,(8 discuss the work of Holland and
her associates in Newsom, The Selfas Symbolic space, 203-4.
 C. A. Newsom / Dead Sea Discoveries 281 288- 270 (2010) ?

wishes, all powerful nature of God and the speakers utter depen-
dency on God are frequent topoi, often articulated as an awareness of the
predetermined nature of human conduct, which generates a disposition
of humility on the part of the speaker, but wbicb also facilitates tbe con-
fession of bis natural sinfulness and wretcbedness, as well as his awareness
of the graciousness of God in delivering bim from the coming judgment
against the wicked and giving him an exalted status in company witb the
angels. gift of knowledge enables the speaker the joy of understand-
ing and praising the mysteries of God in creation and judgment, $ is
the basic repertoire of the Hodayot of the Community. One could also
specify recurrent stylistic tecbniques, sucb as the use of rbetorical ques-
tions, especially tbose to he answered in the negative, cbains of biblical
allusions and biblicizing pbraseology, and so forth. Recognizing tbese
topoi, affective dispositions, recurrent vocabulary, and stylistic devices as
building blocks, and seeing how the topics relate to one anotber and may
he used to lead back and forth from one theme to another, an individual
would have a sense of bow to compose a bodayab tbat would pass muster
witbin the Qumran community. Although we do not know bow and why
the particular compositions now extant came to he copied on the various
scrolls of the Hodayot, it is entirely plausible that one of tbeir functions
was to serve as prototype models for an important genre of sectarian life.
Given that memorization was an important part of education in ancient
Mediterranean societies, perbaps some of the compositions were memo-
rized, thus making internally available a prototype for imitation.

Genre as M ode o f Perception

Wben Pavel Medvedev argued that genre was a means of seeing and con-
ceptualizing reality (approacb #5 above), he cbose examples that made his
point obvious and persuasive, tbougb perhaps too easy: a cbart (as a
genre) provides a different mode of perception on the world tban does an
anecdote (as a genre). ^Mikbail Bakbtins contrast of the novel and the
epic is similarly broad enougb to he easily grasped.^ But what migbt it

33 Medvedev, The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship, .

34 Mikhail Bakhtin, pic and Novel, in The Dialogic Imagination (ed.
M. Holquist; trans. E. merson and M. Holquist; Austin: University of Texas
Press, 40 - 8 ( ,.
 C. A. Newsom / Dead Sea Discoveries (?
2010)
270

mean to talk about a hodayah as a means of perception of tbe world?

^ i s , too, was in large part wbat I was attempting to do in my analysis of
the Hodayot in The Self as Symbolic space, though I did not explicitly
engage the category of genre. My approach there was to look at the pat-
terns of religious experience generated by the recitation of a hodayah and
internalized by the sectarian as normative for his identity, a process that
was secured by the practice of reciting or composing a hodayah in first-
person speech.
What might a more explicit attention to genre theory have added to
that investigation? My analysis was focused primarily on the explicit con-
tent of the hodayot I examined. What I did not explore was the type of
cl^m made by John Frow: Genre, like formal structures generally, works
at a level of semiosisthat is, of meaning m aking-which is deeper and
more forceful than that of the explicit content of a text.35 Frow explains
that the generic framework is the unsaid of texts. Feople understand
utterances by drawing selectively on an immense and diffuse store of cul-
tural knowledge. Much of this knowledge is knowledge that we may not
even know that we know. It is background knowledge. How do we know
what aspects of this large body of tacit cultural knowledge to access in
order to understand a given utterance? Genre operates here as a schema, a
pattern underlying a surface phenomenon which allows us to understand
that phenomenon.^ ^ u s the cues of genre instruct the hearer or reader
as to which patterns of knowledge are relevant to the given situation.
Frow likens genre to context-sensitive drop-down menus in a computer
program, directing me to the layers and sub-layers of information that
respond to my purposes as a speaker or a reader or a viewer.^ ^ u s the
genre cues of the Hodayot could be seen as indexing several meaning
complexes available to the listener: the background knowledge of psalmic
discourse, the background knowledge of eschatological judgment scenar-
ios, the background knowledge of speculative wisdom about the cosmos,
the background knowledge of authoritative scripture, and so forth.
Even this description of the work of genre is not fully adequate, how-
ever, and does not get at what Medvedev and Frow intend, for genre does
not simply index discrete areas of patterned knowledge but blends them

35 Frow, Genre, .
36 Frow, Genre, 83.
37 Frow, Genre, 84.
 C. A. Newsom/ Dead Sea Discoveries 283 288270 (2010) ?

into a new pattern.38 Peter Seitel calls these patterns generic worlds,
which are characterized by time, space, categories of actors and settings,
causality, and motivationand tbe interpretation tbey call for.39 ^ i s
understanding is closely similar to tbat of Rosalie Colie, cited above, con-
cerning genres as subcultures.^ Frow appropriates these insights and
illustrates tbem by reference to the world of the tabloid press, the world
of the picaresque novel, the world of the Petrarcban sonnet, the world of
the curse, and the world of the television sitcom.^ ^ u s if one speaks of
the world of the Hodayot (including for the present botb Community
and Teacber compositions), it is a world perceived tbrougb the experience
of a pious and grateful individual, deeply loyal to and utterly dependent
upon an all-powerful Cod, beset by predatory enemies precisely because
of his loyalty to Cod . temporality of this world finds its intense focus
in the present moment of confession, tbougb it ranges backwards in rec-
ollections of past sinful wretchedness and forwards to escbatological tur-
moil and judgment. emotional range goes from sublime highs of
transcendent communion witb angels to equally sublime lows of utter
self-loathing, as well as from intensely imagined experiences of endanger-
ment to experiences of utter security. It is a world constituted by an expe-
rience of divinely given knowledge that allows the speaker to understand
the meaning of the world and his role in it in a way unavailable to tbose
outside the covenant. Wbile many of tbese elements can he found in
otber genres, the Gestalt of the Hodayot is a unique generic world. More-
over, in part because the genre is framed in first-person singular speech, it
creates wbat Frow calls reality or truth effects.^ ^ e s e are genre cbaracter-
istics that evoke sincerity and transparency and do not call attention to
the constructed nature of tbeir representation of reality. Hodayot
accomplisb this stance by taking the form of testimony. In part, they derive
their trutb effects from the tradition of biblical psalmodys serious-minded

38 The notion of conceptual blending is critical to the cognitive theory of lan-

guage. See Mark Turner and Gilles Fauconneir, A Mechanism of Creativity,
Poetics Today 20 (1999): 397-418.
39 Feter Seitel, Theorizing Genres: Imerpreting Works, New Literary History
2)
34 3
27(: 279)
97-
(.
40 Colie, The Resources of Kind, 116.
41 Frow, Genre, 86.
42 Frow, Genre, 87.
284 C. A. Newsom DeadSea Discoveries 17 (2010) 270-288

testimony to the saving acts of God. But the representation of the speaker
as one whose very capacity to speak is formed by the divine gift of spiri-
tual knowledge makes the claim to be telling a deep truth an essential part
of this genre in a way that it is not even in the biblical psalms of thanks-
giving.
In describing the generic world of the Hodayot, I am not describing
the world of the sectarian per se but specifically the world constructed by
this particular genre of sectarian literature. If one looks at other sectarian
literature from Qumran, it is possible to see that foe generic world of the
Hodayot differs from, for example, the generic world of the serakim. Each
has its own way of conceptualizing the sectarian context. cast of char-
acters in the Serek ha-Yahad differs considerably, as does its orientation to
time, its emotional tonality, its use of language, and the actions and activ-
ities with which it is concerned, though it does, in some of its editions at
least, incorporate a hodayot-like composition as a concluding element.
Both genres are, in my opinion, instructional or formational in intent.
But they do their complementary work by constructing different generic
worlds. One can see this difference, for example, by comparing the differ-
ent ways in which disaffection with the community is represented and
framed in the Hodayot and the Serek ha-Yahad (e.g., IQS 7:15-25 and
IQH* 1 20 5 5( The resources of genre available to each type of com-
position results in a different rhetorical strategy.

Genre and Genre Systems

When modern genre theorists talk about the usefulness (or not) of an
analysis of genre systems, (approach #6 above) they often are critical of
attempts to establish grand patterns, especially those that involve hierar-
chical distinctions, which was a concern of older theories of genre sys-
tems.^ Consequently, they may attend to smaller patterns of relationship,
especially between closely related or clearly contrasting genres (e.g., the
aphorism and the dictum,^ comedy and tragedy, the elegy and the

43 Newsom, The Self as Symbolic space, 325-46.

44 fowler. Kinds ofLiterature, 235-51.
45 Gary Saul Morson, foe Aphorism: Fragments from the Breakdown of
Reason, New Literary History 34 (2003): 40 2- .
 C. A. Newsom / Dead Sea Discoveries 288270 (2010) ?

romance).^ Or, critics may adopt a more sociological approach looking

at tke segmentation of fiction or films that appeal to different social
groupings.^ Neither of these approaches seems particularly apt for Qum-
ran studies, and yet I cannot help but think that the notion of genre sys-
tems holds unexploited potential, ^ e r e are several areas of possible
research that might be developed under the rubric of genre systems.
One of the features that has often been noted about the sectarian liter-
ature from Qumran is the number of new genres developed by the com-
munity. ^ e s e include, most notably, serakim, pesharim, hodayot,
mishmarot, and a variety of distinctive liturgical texts, such as the Songs of
the Sabbath Sacrifice, covenant ceremony texts, marriage rituals, rituals of
expulsion, and so forth. While it is possible that the vagaries of preserva-
tion prevent us from knowing of examples of these genres from other
Jewish communities of the Second Temple period, scholars consider most
if not all of these genres to be unique to the Qumran community move-
ment. While each type has been studied in significant detail, to my
knowledge there has been little or no research into the question of how
one might think of these new works as a genre system, ^ e r e are a num-
ber of questions that one might ask. To what needs of the sectarian com-
munity do these new genres represent a response? How do they segment
the life of the community? What different competencies do they develop
within their users? In what ways are the different genres, as distinct
generic worlds, complementary and overlapping? How do they work
together to construct the integrated sectarian world and also to differenti-
ate it into a series of discrete experiences?
Even as scholars have recognized the distinctive profile of the new
genres created by the Qumran community, they have also noted the wide
variety of nonsectarian literature in many different genres that was read
and appropriated by the community. Although it is conceivable that
members of the Qumran community composed literature in these genres
that is indistinguishable from nonsectarian compositions, the consensus
of opinion is that, for example, while Qumran sectarians read apocalypses,
they did not compose them, ^ u s , a second issue for research is to con-
sider the interface between the genre system specific to Qumran sectari-
anism and the larger genre system (or systems) o ^ o n d ^ m p l e Judaism.

46 Fowler, Kinds ofLiterature, 251-55.

47 Frow, Genre, 124-30.
286 C. A. Newsom I Dead Sea Discoveries 17 (2010) 270-

The cultivation of new genres and the non-^rticipation in the composi-

tion of established genres may itself be not only a symptom of separation
but also an active means of constructing a boundary over against other
forms of Judaism, even those that were ideologically fairly compatible.
^ i s line of research would necessitate a better inventory of the genres
of Second Temple Judaism than currently exists.^ ^ e r e are reasons to be
skeptical of the validity or usefulness of genre maps,^ but a descriptive
catalogue of genres could prove useful. Such a project would necessarily
be controversial, as the endless discussion of the phenomenon of rewrit-
ten bible or p^abiblicd literature indicates, but a neo-pragmatist
approach to genre akin to that suggested by Adena Rosmarin,^ might
make such a catalogue feasible.
The line of inquiry I have suggested is more or less a synchronic
approach to the problem of genre systems, ^ e r e is, however, also an
important diachronic element to the issue. One of the important insights
of the Russian formalists was that during particular historical epochs cer-
tain sets of genres were dominant, and that succeeding epochs might see
not just the demise of individual genres but of a whole set of genres, ^ i s
suggested to them that the study of genre history should involve not just
the careers of particular genres but of genre systems. Obviously, this is a
question that is easier to study during the well-documented periods of
Greco-Roman classical antiquity, the western Medieval period, and subse-
quent epochs, ^ e r e is, however, a striking revolution in genre systems
between those that obtain during Second Temple Judaism (which include
abundant pseudonomous parabiblical literature, fo^riographical litera-
ture, p o st-p s^ ic prayer poetry, liturgical texts, apocalypses, halakic texts,
etc.) and another that flourishes after the demise of the temple (the Rab-
binic halakic discourses that underlie the Mishnah and ultimately the Tal-
mud, the midrashim, liturgical texts, etc.). While certain continuities can
be traced (e.g., forms of midrashic interpretation, liturgical texts), other
genres, including many of those characteristic of the Qumran commu-
nity, largely vanish.

48 For a useful but rather un-theorized account see Michael E. Stone, ed .,Jew-
ish Writings of the Temple Period (CRINT 21; Assen/Fhiladelphia: Van
Gorcum/Eortress, 1984).
49 Fowler, Kinds ofLiterature, 239-51.
50 Rosmarin, The Power of Genre.
 C. A. Newsom/ Dead Sea Discoveries 287 288270 (2010) ?

Family Resemblance5Again

While the differences in genre systems between Qumran sectarian litera-

ture and otber forms of Judaism and the radical transformation of genre
systems in the wake of the foiled revolts of the first and second centuries
are easy to recognize, this type of analysis may draw too sbarp a line. Even
wben tbere are strong differences witbin a literary culture or sharp histori-
cal sbifts in genre systems, seldom are genres truly unique or utterly new.
Eor purposes of this kind of inquiry family resemblance models of genre
(approacb #2 above) are particularly apt. Early on in the bistory of
researcb on the Hodayot, scbolars noted the patterns of similarity between
the Hodayot and foe Psalms of Solomon,^ the Odes of Solomon,^ and
the poetic passages in the New Testament.^ More recently, Scbuller has
drawn attention to the extensive number of additional bymnic-type com-
positions from Qumran itself.^ One migbt very fruitfully use family
resemblance approacbes to genre in order to study the pbenomenon of
first person singular poetic prayer and hymnody in early Judaism and
Christianity, exploring the relationsbips among the Hodayot, 4QBarkhi
Nafshi, the Psalms ofSolomon, the Odes o f Solomon, Jonab 2, the Prayer of
Manasseh, Psalm 151, foe Magnificat, and similar texts.

C o n c lu sio n

A sense of genre is such an integral element of the understanding of texts

in general tbat it is not surprising tbat scbolarsbip on tbe Hodayot has
implicitly engaged many issues related to genre analysis, wbetber or not

51 Svend Holm-Nielsen, Erwgungen zu dem Verhltnis zwischen den Hoda-

jot und den Psalmen Salomos, in Bibel and Qumran: Beitrge zur Erforschung der
Beziehungen zwischen Bibel' an Qumranwissenschafi (ed. s. Wagner; Berlin:
Evangelische Haupt-Bibelgessellschaft, 1968), 112-31.
52 James H. Charlesworth, Les Odes de Salomon et les manuscrits de la Mer
Morte, RB77 (1970): 540-49.
53 Maurya Horgan and Paul Kobelski, The Hodayot (1QH) and New Testa-
ment Poetry, in To Touch the Text: Biblical and Related Studies in Honor ofjoseph
A. Fitzmyer, SJ (ed. M. Horgan and p. Kobelski; New York: Crossroad, 1989),
179-93.
54 Schuller, Prayer, Hymnic, and Liturgical Texts from Qumran, 155-59.
288 C. A. Newsom/ DeadSea Discoveries 288- 270 (2010) ?

the category was explicitly named. risk one runs when such issues are
only implicit, however, is that one will fail to clarify which of many
approaches to issues of genre is actually being assumed in tbe analysis. By
making explicit the variety of ways in wbicb genre can he studied, Qum-
ran scbolars can better understand botb the bistory of our disciplines
researcb into the Hodayot and to see wbere new types of inquiry can
fruitfully he undertaken.


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