Cult as the Catalyst for Division
Cult as the Catalyst for Division

Author: Paul Heger

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2007-03-31

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 9047419057

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The study asserts that conflicting sacrificial rules were the motive of the schism in Judean society, in the last period of the Second Temple. The study substantiates the thesis by a meticulous examination and comparison of the rabbinic and Qumran exegetical methods, and an exhaustive scrutiny of biblical sacrificial rules, demonstrating their deficiencies, the cause of the exegetical dissensions among the different groups. A short record of historical struggles, due to cult issues, and a scrutiny of Qumran literature, corroborating the utmost significance of the Temple cult in that group, complement the study. The study is useful for a comprehension of Qumran literature and particularly of the system of thought of its authors and their approach to the biblical writings.

The Qumran Rule Texts in Context
The Qumran Rule Texts in Context

Author: Charlotte Hempel

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13: 9783161527098

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Ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Community Rule has been at the forefront of the scholarly imagination and is often considered a direct channel to life at Khirbet Qumran - an ancient version of 'reality TV'. Over the course of the last fifteen years - the Cave 4 era - scholars have increasingly come to recognize the significance of the Scrolls as a rich text world from a period when texts, traditions, and interpretation laid the foundations of Western civilisation. The studies by Charlotte Hempel gathered in this volume deal with several core Rule texts from Qumran, especially with the Community Rule (S), the Rule of the Congregation (1QSa), the Damascus Document (D), and 4Q265 (Miscellaneous Rules). The author uncovers a complex network of literary and more murkily preserved social relationships. She further investigates the Rule literature within the context of wisdom, law, and the scribal milieu behind the emerging scriptures.

Devils and Deviants
Devils and Deviants

Author: Jason L. Merritt

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2017-01-30

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 1532605625

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Devils and Deviants takes up the question of the impact of religious schism on the composition of 1 and 2 John. After decades attempting to reconstruct the beliefs of the schismatics referenced briefly in 1 John, Johannine scholars have largely rejected the notion that such a reconstruction can in fact be accomplished. In addition, there has been a notable move by some to interpret 1 and 2 John non-polemically, arguing that the schism has little or no bearing on the composition of these epistles and our ability to interpret them. In this volume, Merritt turns to the anthropology and sociology of religious schism to reconstruct the processes by which groups separate themselves from one another. He then applies that model as a heuristic device in reading 1 and 2 John, arguing in the process that, while the beliefs of the schismatics cannot be reconstructed with any accuracy, the schism has indeed had a profound impact on the Johannine community and 1 and 2 John.

Law, Power, and Justice in Ancient Israel
Law, Power, and Justice in Ancient Israel

Author: Douglas A. Knight

Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press

Published: 2011-01-01

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0664221440

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Using socio-anthropological theory and archaeological evidence, Knight argues that while the laws in the Hebrew Bible tend to reflect the interests of those in power, the majority of ancient Israelites--located in villages--developed their own unwritten customary laws to regulate behavior and resolve legal conflicts in their own communities. This book includes numerous examples from village, city, and cult. --from publisher description

Beyond the Qumran Community
Beyond the Qumran Community

Author: John J. Collins

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0802828876

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With the full publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, fresh analysis of the evidence presented can be and indeed, should be made. Beyond the Qumran Community does just that, reaching a surprising conclusion: the sect described in the Dead Sea Scrolls developed later than has usually been supposed and was never confi ned to the site of Qumran. / John J. Collins here deconstructs the Qumran community and shows that the sectarian documents actually come from a text spread throughout the land. He examines the Community Rule, or Yahad, and considers the Teacher of Righteousness, a pivotal fi gure in the Essene movement. After examining the available evidence, Collins concludes that it is, in fact, overwhelmingly likely that the site of Qumran housed merely a single settlement of a very widespread movement.

Authoritative Scriptures in Ancient Judaism
Authoritative Scriptures in Ancient Judaism

Author: Mladen Popović

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2010-06-14

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 9004190740

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Many scholars of the Second Temple period have replaced the concept of canonization by that of canonical process. Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been crucial for this new direction. Based on this new evidence taxonomic terms like biblical, nonbiblical or parabiblical seem anachronistic for the period before 70 C.E. The notion of authoritative Scriptures plays an important part in the new paradigm of canonical process, but it has not yet been sufficiently reflected upon and is in need of clarification. Why were some texts more authoritative than others? For whom and in what contexts were texts authoritative? And what are our criteria to determine to what extent a text was authoritative? In short, what do we mean by “authoritative”? This volume focuses on specific texts or corpora of texts, and approaches the notion of authoritative Scriptures from sociological, cultural and literary perspectives.

Law, Literature, and Society in Legal Texts from Qumran
Law, Literature, and Society in Legal Texts from Qumran

Author: Jutta Jokiranta

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2019-02-11

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 9004393382

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Reflecting the increasing recognition of the importance of legal texts and issues in early Judaism, the essays in this collection examine halakhic and rule texts found at Qumran in light of the latest scholarship on text production, social organization, and material culture in early Judaism. The contributors present new interpretations of long-lived topics, such as the sobriquet “seekers of the smooth things,” the Treatise of the Two Spirits, and 4QMMT, and take up new approaches to purity issues, the role of the maśkil, and the Temple Scroll. The volume exemplifies the range of ways in which the Qumran legal texts help illuminate early Jewish culture as a whole.

From the Magdala Stone to the Syriac Bema
From the Magdala Stone to the Syriac Bema

Author: Rina Talgam

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-11-28

Total Pages: 535

ISBN-13: 9004707735

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This book sheds light on the reciprocal relations between liturgical performance and the physical spaces in which they took place in synagogues and churches in antiquity. The kernel of the manuscript revolves around a decorated stone that was found during the excavations of a synagogue dated to the first century CE at Magdala on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The book displays how this important archaeological discovery radically transforms our understanding of the changes in the shape of the liturgical space and the liturgical furniture in the places of assembly of the two sister faiths, Judaism and Christianity.

Conquering the World
Conquering the World

Author: Brian Schultz

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 9004168206

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Unique in its genre and content, the War Scroll (1QM) presents a vision of an impending eschatological war. Although originally interpreted as being the product of a single author from the Qumran Sect, the composition's inconsistencies quickly led to the view that it is in fact an eclectic document with an elaborate compositional history. Yet all such theories were formulated prior to the publication of War Scroll-like texts from Caves 4 and 11. A careful re-examination of the War Scroll suggests instead that what began as a primitive and cohesive composition from the Hellenistic period about a two-stage conquest of the world was eventually updated in order to fit the new historical realities faced by the sectarians under Roman rule.