The so-called“Interpretations”, in Hebrew Pesharim, represent a special group of Qumran manuscripts. The Qumranites believed that the prophetic texts of the Holy Scripture foreshadowed in an allegorical form the historical events of the period of life of their community, and, above all, facts directly related to the fate of their congregation and that, therefore, the “adequate” interpretation of the relevant Biblical texts enables them to foresee the future. Among Qumran manuscripts one can find both “Interpretations”-Pesharim on individual prophetic books and Psalms, as well as collections of commented quotations of messianic-eschatological content from various Biblical works – the so-called florilegia (anthologies), testimonia and catena. The first group of texts includes, for example, Commentaries on Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah, and Psalms 37, 68 and 127. The second group consists of, among others, the Blessings of the Patriarchs (part of the so-called Genesis Florilegium (4Q252)), the Midrash of Melchizedek (11Q13), Florilegium (4Q174), Consolation (4Q176), 4Q177 Catena A, 4Q182 Catena B, and also the 4QTestimonia, consisting of Biblical quotations of a messianic nature but without comments on them.
The author identifies the peculiarities of the Qumranites’ “actualization” of ancient prophecies in relation to the history and politics of Judaea in the 2nd-1st centuries B.C.E. In particular, he dates the creation of the Commentary on Habakkuk to between 96 and 86 B.C.E. and the Commentary on Naum to 88 B.C.E.