The discovery at Qumran brought to light a Jewish sectarian community contemporary with Christian origins that held eschatological expectations no less fervent than those of the early church yet invested heavily in the production and use of literature. Thus the claim of form critcs like [Martin] Dibelius that apocalyptic eschatology and literary activity are fundamentally incompatible was finally rendered untenable, for in Judaism the two were hand in glove, and imminent eschatology could not itself have inhibited literary activity in early Christianity.

Harry Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church, 20.