Social Identity and Sectarianism in the Qumran Movement
Social Identity and Sectarianism in the Qumran Movement

Author: Jutta Jokiranta

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2012-12-03

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 9004238646

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‘Identity’ and ‘sectarianism’, two crucial and frequently used concepts in Qumran studies, are here problematized, appraised, and redefined. Two social-scientific theories inform the investigation of the serakhim (rule documents) and pesharim (commentaries). The sociology of sectarianism is presented in retrospect in order to identify appropriate methodological tools for speaking about sectarianism in the ancient context, and for comparing sectarian stances in the serakhim. Furthermore, a social-psychological perspective into identity is introduced for the first time for appreciating the dynamic and context-dependent nature of a person’s social identity. The final chapter takes a fresh approach to the study of the pesharim, arguing for the need to read each Pesher as a whole. It analyses the prototypical ‘teacher’ and brings forward new interpretations of this captivating and cloudy figure.

Scripture as Social Discourse
Scripture as Social Discourse

Author: Todd Klutz

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-06-14

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 0567676056

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Throughout the last several decades professional biblical scholars have adapted concepts and theories from the social sciences – particularly social and cultural anthropology – in order to cast new light on ancient biblical writings, early Jewish and Christian texts that circulated with the Scriptures, and the various contexts in which these literatures were produced and first received. The present volume of essays draws much of its inspiration from that same development in the history of biblical research, while also offering insights from other, newer approaches to interpretation. The contributors to this volume explore a wide range of broadly social-scientific disciplines and discourses – cultural anthropology, sociology, archaeology, political science, the New Historicism, forced migration studies, gender studies – and provide multiple examples of the ways in which these diverse methods and theories can shed new and often fascinating light on the ancient texts. The fruit of scholarly work that is both international in flavour and truly collaborative, this volume provides fresh perspectives not only on familiar portions of Jewish and Christian Scripture but also on select passages from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi library and previously untranslated French texts.

Emerging Sectarianism in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Emerging Sectarianism in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2022-07-18

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 900451712X

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These essays reflect the lively debate about the sectarian movement of the Scrolls. They debate the degree to which the movement was separated from the rest of Judaism, and whether there was one or several watershed moments in the separation. Notable contributions include a cluster of essays on the Teacher of Righteousness and a thorough survey of the archaeology of Qumran. The texts are problematic in historical research because they rely on biblical stereotypes. Nonetheless, possible interpretations can be compared and degrees of probability debated. The debate is significant not only for the sect but for the nature of ancient Judaism.

Social Identity and the Book of Amos
Social Identity and the Book of Amos

Author: Andrew M. King

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-01-14

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 0567695301

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What, according to the Book of Amos, does it mean to be the people of God? In this book, Andrew M. King employs a Social Identity Approach (SIA), comprised of Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory, to explore the relationship between identity formation and the biblical text. Specifically, he examines the identity-forming strategies embedded in the Book of Amos. King begins by outlining the Social Identity Approach, especially its use in Hebrew Bible scholarship. Turning to the Book of Amos, he analyzes group dynamics and intergroup conflicts (national and interpersonal), as well as Amos's presentation of Israel's history and Israel's future. King provides extensive insight into the rhetorical strategies in Amos that shape the trans-temporal audience's sense of self. To live as the people of God, according to Amos, readers and hearers must adopt norms defined by a proper relationship to God that results in the proper treatment of others.

Ethics in the Qumran Community
Ethics in the Qumran Community

Author: Marcus K. M. Tso

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9783161506185

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Revised version of the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Manchester, 2008.

The Ties that Bind
The Ties that Bind

Author: Esther Kobel

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-06-15

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 0567702618

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Friendship and other intimate (but not always amicable) relationships have received some attention in the greater field of research on early Judaism and Christianity, though not as much as deserved. This volume celebrates and builds upon the life-long work of Adele Reinhartz, covering the various permutations of relationships that can be found in the Gospel of John, the wider corpus of early Jewish and Christian literature, and cinematic re-imaginings thereof. While the issue of whether one can 'befriend' the Fourth Gospel in light of the book's legacy of antisemitism is central to many of the essays in this volume, others address other more or less likely friendships: Pilate, Paul, Lazarus, Judas, or Mary Magdalene. Likewise, the bonds between ancient texts and contemporary retellings of their stories feature prominently, with contributors asking what kinds of relationships filmmakers encourage their audiences to have with their subjects. This volume explores some of the rich variety of relationships in the ancient world, and unpacks the intricate and dynamic processes and interactions by which human relationships and societies are generated, maintained, and dissolved.

Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran
Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran

Author: Sidnie White Crawford

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2019-07-02

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13: 1467456586

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The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls altered our understanding of the development of the biblical text, the history and literature of Second Temple Judaism, and the thought of the early Christian community. Questions continue to surround the relationship between the caves in which the scrolls were found and the nearby settlement at Khirbet Qumran. In Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran, Sidnie White Crawford combines the conclusions of the first generation of scrolls scholars that have withstood the test of time, new insights that have emerged since the complete publication of the scrolls corpus, and the much more complete archaeological picture that we now have of Khirbet Qumran. She creates a new synthesis of text and archaeology that yields a convincing history of and purpose for the Qumran settlement and its associated caves.

Matthew within Judaism
Matthew within Judaism

Author: Anders Runesson

Publisher: SBL Press

Published: 2020-07-17

Total Pages: 601

ISBN-13: 0884144445

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In this collection of essays, leading New Testament scholars reassess the reciprocal relationship between Matthew and Second Temple Judaism. Some contributions focus on the relationship of the Matthean Jesus to torah, temple, and synagogue, while others explore theological issues of Jewish and gentile ethnicity and universalism within and behind the text.

Wisdom Poured Out Like Water
Wisdom Poured Out Like Water

Author: J. Harold Ellens

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2018-10-22

Total Pages: 620

ISBN-13: 3110593793

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This collection presents innovative research by scholars from across the globe in celebration of Gabriele Boccaccini’s sixtieth birthday and to honor his contribution to the study of early Judaism and Christianity. In harmony with Boccaccini’s determination to promote the study of Second Temple Judaism in its own right, this volume includes studies on various issues raised in early Jewish apocalyptic literature (e.g., 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra), the Dead Sea Scrolls, and other early Jewish texts, from Tobit to Ben Sira to Philo and beyond. The volume also provides several investigations on early Christianity in intimate conversation with its Jewish sources, consistent with Boccaccini’s efforts to transcend confessional and disciplinary divisions by situating the origins of Christianity firmly within Second Temple Judaism. Finally, the volume includes essays that look at Jewish-Christian relations in the centuries following the Second Temple period, a harvest of Boccaccini’s labor to rethink the relationship between Judaism and Christianity in light of their shared yet contested heritage.

Matthew within Sectarian Judaism
Matthew within Sectarian Judaism

Author: John Kampen

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2019-06-25

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 0300245564

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A renowned scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls argues for reading the Gospel of Matthew as the product of a Jewish sect In this masterful study of what has long been considered the “most Jewish” gospel, John Kampen deftly argues that the gospel of Matthew advocates for a distinctive Jewish sectarianism, rooted in the Jesus movement. He maintains that the writer of Matthew produced the work within an early Jewish sect, and its narrative contains a biography of Jesus which can be used as a model for the development of a sectarian Judaism in Lower Syria, perhaps Galilee, toward the conclusion of the first century CE. Rather than viewing the gospel of Matthew as a Jewish-Christian hybrid, Kampen considers it a Jewish composition that originated among the later followers of Jesus a generation or so after the disciples. This method of viewing the work allows readers to understand what it might have meant for members of a Jesus movement to promote their understanding of Jewish history and law that would sustain Jewish life at the end of the first century.