The publication of these papers marks a milestone in the ongoing research on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Includes such topics as the origins of the history of the Qumran community and the problem of the distinction between what is biblical and non-biblical in the Qumran manuscripts.
The material presented in these two volumes may be divided into two main sections. The first section covers biblical texts and texts which fall between the categories biblical and non-biblical. It also includes articles on topics relating to the history of the Qumran community and to the study of the New Testament in the light of the Qumran discoveries. The second section covers non-biblical texts, such as the Temple Scroll. The two sections are synthesized in the article by Frank M. Cross, in which he reviews the advances made and the challenges for the future in the field of Qumran studies. Several topics recur constantly in many of the articles, such as the origins of the history of the Qumran community, the problem of the distinction between what is biblical and non-biblical in the Qumran manuscripts, and the question of the authority of the texts in the Qumran community.
This book, written jointly by two distinguished Qumran scholars, attempts to provide answers to some important questions that have been discussed recently in media reports on the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as: have certain manuscripts been suppressed?; do the manuscripts question substantial aspects of the Jewish and Christian traditions?; do the roots of Early Christianity derive from the Essene movement?; and more. This volume offers solid and up-to-date information on the literary heritage, the social organization and the religious beliefs of the Qumran community and its links with Early Christianity. It gives the reader an opportunity to look behind the scenes of the research of the Dead Sea texts and the ongoing scholarly debate on the origins of the Essene movement and the Qumran sect.
New Qumran Texts and Studies contains 18 papers from the first meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies (Paris, 1992). Seven studies analyse parts of previously unedited texts: 4Q47 (A. Rofé, E.C. Ulrich), 4Q222 (J.C. VanderKam), 4Q265 (J.M. Baumgarten), 4Q286-290 (B. Nitzan), 4Q385B (D. Dimant), and the Psalm scrolls (P.W. Flint). Some of the other studies discuss various aspects of well known texts: 1QIsaa (J. Cook), The Temple Scroll (L.H. Schiffman, D.D. Swanson), and the Hodayot (L. Vegas Montaner). Yet others cover a range of subjects: the publication process (E. Tov), the wilderness community (G.J. Brooke), the scrolls and the New Testament (J. Kampen, H.-W. Kuhn), computer aided scrolls research (A. Lange), dating (E.-M. Laperrousaz), and wisdom traditions (G.W. Nebe).
This volume contains the published proceedings of the conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls, held at Provo, Utah, July 15-17, 1996. Forty-three articles, all dealing with various aspects of the Scrolls, are placed under the following divisions: Technology, Editions and Analyses of Texts, The Qumran Community, Calendar, Levi and the Priesthood, Messianism and Eschatology, and Wisdom and Liturgy. The volume offers the most recent scholarship on a number of issues and topics pertaining to the Qumran community, newly translated biblical and non-biblical texts, and technological advances that assist scholars and researchers in accessing and studying the scrolls. The section that pertains to technology, for example, focuses on DNA techniques to analyze Scroll fragments and an imaging radar system that has archaeological applications to Qumran and its environs. Another section addresses the question of how and where the Qumranites lived and speaks concerning Qumran names.
This book constitutes an examination of key sobriquets found among the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls. Its primary focus is literary rather than historical and concentrates on the function of the sobriquets as labels utilised positively or negatively within the sectarian compositions. Noting the presence of 'standard' and 'variant' forms of these designations, this study examines the differing form and function of the sobriquets across the range of texts in which they appear. More specifically, it attempts to demonstrate that over time they underwent a developmental process, changing in form and perhaps denotation. Adopting a chronological schema that posits a Formative, Early and Late Sectarian Period, and concentrating on the sobriquets 'the Teacher of Righteousness' and 'the Spouter of the Lie', this investigation observes a development from contextualised scriptural typologies towards titular forms constituting discrete elements of sectarian terminology. A more general evolutionary trend towards a definite ('standard') form is also highlighted, with so-called variants representing earlier stages in this process (further demonstrated by means of a supplementary case study involving the sobriquet, 'the Seekers of Smooth Things').Comparison of these results with sociological insights, drawing upon the sociology of deviance and 'labelling theory', suggests that this phenomenon can be understood against a wider context of labelling practices. Thus it is demonstrated that the sobriquets function as tools for labelling deviance and affirming positive counterparts. Furthermore, it is suggested that the move towards definite titular forms reflects a process of role engulfment, increased prototypically and the ultimate acquisition of 'master status'.
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.
This volume includes papers on different topics of textual criticism of the Bible, history of the Hebrew text and the Septuagint, and Dead Sea Scrolls studies, contributed by friends and colleagues of Julio Trebolle Barrera to honour him on the occasion of his 65th birthday. The book presents a good selection of current research in the history and composition of the Bible, the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls, all with the aim of honouring a scholar who has excelled in those areas throughout his career.