Wherein Lies the Pesher? Re-questioning the Connection between Medieval Karaite and Qumranic Modes of Biblical Interpretation

Introduction Karaism, a messianic Jewish movement founded in the Middle Ages, sought to redefine Jewish religious practice by re-centering it on the “Written Law” (i.e., the Hebrew Bible) in its entirety, and rejecting the “Oral Law” as codified in the Mishnah and Talmud. The Karaites also reversed the structure of the traditional Jewish canon, placing biblical study and the sub-disciplines related to its literal and contextual analysis (such as grammar, translation and exegesis) at the top of the learning pyramid. The fields of mishnaic and talmudic study, traditionally placed at the pinnacle of Jewish scholarly accomplishment, were thus relegated to the margins, as were the aggadic-type interpolations to the Hebrew Bible, that were typical of rabbinic Midrash. By so doing, the Karaites challenged the intellectual institutions of the geonic period (ninth to eleventh