This is the first in a series of college texts dealing with biblical archaeology. Written in outline form, the book gives a clear account of the discovery and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls. A careful analysis is offered for the content of each set of scrolls. Chapter XIX is a comparison of the Qumran sect and early Christianity. Numerous parallels in faith and rite can be drawn between the two groups: e.g., Messianic and eschatological beliefs as (...) well as similar practices of baptism, communal meals, celibacy, etc. The author claims that all of these elements are transformed when integrated into the primitive Christian faith. This book is a very useful and judicious introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls.—D. J. B. (shrink)

Within the Community Rule, 1QS 8:1-4 has at times been used as an intertext to support claims pertaining to the future expectations of both early Jesus movements and the historical Jesus himself. In particular, the passage has functioned as an intertext to support the notion that Jesus and some of his earliest movements foresaw the future restoration and liberation of greater Israel in toto, including outsiders. Without getting involved in this larger New Testament debate, the current article wishes to address (...) the appropriateness of using 1QS 8:1-4 as an intertext without taking its literary and sectarian contexts into consideration. Focusing throughout on the interrelationship between judgement and boundary demarcation, this article will unfold in a centripetal manner. Firstly, it will treat the commonalities among all the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. Secondly, the discussion will direct its focus specifically to the Community Rule. Finally, we will look at 1QS 8:1-4 in particular. (shrink)

'The overall positive impression given by the 'Encyclopedia' is that of competence and general usefulness.' -Journal of Jewish Studies, vol.211, no.2 'the Encyclopedia is an excellent reference work, which can be recommended to anyone interested in the scrolls' -Journal for the Study of Judaism 'The editors and contributors have done a great service in producing this reference work devoted to the Scrolls and related topics.' -Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 2001 'the two editors-in-chief... as well (...) as all the individual contributors, have done us a great service in producing this reference work devoted to the Scrolls and related topics. It will be an invaluable resource for both students and researchers in the overlapping fields of Biblical Studies, Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism.' -Jonathan Campbell, Reviews in Religion and Theology, Vol.8, Issue 3, June 2001 'Sumptuous and comprehensive... The range of this Encyclopedia has to be enormous... highly useful, annotated bibliographies are attached to each article... an indispensable work.' -Hyam Maccoby, TLS 29/09/00. (shrink)

This study investigates the literary references to orphans in writings amongst the Qumran texts that were written in Hebrew and can be associated with the sectarian Qumran movement. The study focuses on passages where forms of the word -•-• are used. These include the Damascus Document, Hodayot and Barkhi Nafshiª. The investigation concludes that the references to orphans in these passages do not have the same rhetorical functions. In CD 6, the wordings of authoritative scriptures are adapted to portray orphans (...) and widows as the victims of wrongdoing. In 1QHª and 4Q434, however, orphans are mentioned in hymns that praise the Lord's positive treatment of needy people. (shrink)

A judicious account of the discovery and significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Bruce presents careful documentation for his view that the discovery of these manuscripts "affects only incidental features of the story" of Christianity.--A. C. P.

John, Qumran, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Sixty Years of Discovery and Debate. Edited by Mary l. Coloe and Tom Thatcher. Early Judaism and Its Literature, vol. 32. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011. Pp. xiii + 228. $28.95.

Despite the existence of biblical laws pertaining to women, Cheryl Anderson, in her work Ancient Laws and Contemporary Controversies, observes that these same laws do not take into account the perspectives of women. Instead, they are formed from a “male perspective” with which female readers learn to identify through “immasculation.” Anderson proposes an alternative, liberationist, and inclusive approach, in which the realities of the marginalized serve as the point of departure, and suggests that one way to perform this task entails (...) observing innerbiblical development between texts, drawing on the work of Terence Fretheim. Similar innertextual changes are also observable between interpretations of scriptural law, in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This essay therefore expands on the work of Anderson to compare certain biblical laws concerning women with examples of rewriting within the Scrolls. In this way, contemporary readers can observe a range of responses that may spark readings in which the marginalized voices of women are included. (shrink)

The temple schematics in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS), that is, New Jerusalem and Temple Scroll, has often been comparatively examined with the sanctuary structures in the Hebrew Bible (HB) (Ezk 40-48 and Num 2). Typically, in scholarship, the irreconcilable differences between all accounts (regarding the size, shape, name-gate ordering, etc.) is underscored, thus rendering a literary conundrum. This article argues that New Jerusalem and Temple Scroll drew from both Ezekiel 40-48 and Numbers 2 in different ways, purporting (...) the sect(s)'s theologies and ideologies which accords, further, with the life setting of the Qumran communities; the influence of Numbers in the DSS is underscored. These aspects include (1) the eastern orientation of sacred structures and the compound at Khirbet Qumran, (2) the precise locale of the communities at the Dead Sea vis-à-vis Ezekiel 47 and (3) the desert encampment configuration together with its militaristic overtones in Numbers, which corresponds to the DSS sect(s)'s apocalyptic expectations as indicated in the War Scroll. Consequently, the Qumran sect(s) truly saw itself as an alternative priesthood of the forthcoming restored temple of God, even as in the interim they functioned as an alternative sanctuary (4QFlor; 4QMMT; 1QS). The import of Numbers upon the DSS sect(s)'s temple ideologies and priestly theologies is, therefore, equivalent to that of Ezekiel. CONTRIBUTION: This article traces theological themes of temple and priestly ideologies between and among the Qumran literature and Hebrew Scriptures; both the respective library or canon and methodological approach are core to the historical thought's aim and scope of HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies. (shrink)

This article will analyse a number of Dead Sea manuscripts and/or fragments in order to determine their linguistic and exegetical value. The article will, firstly, address textual material that is largely in agreement with the Massoretic Text - 1QIsaª is a case in point. Secondly, fragments that are seemingly less relevant will be discussed. The less helpful fragments from the Biblical books Proverbs and Job are taken as examples. Finally, highly significant textual differences, such as a fragment from Genesis (...) 1 and one from the complicated books of Jeremiah, will be evaluated. (shrink)

What does a sacred text look like? Are religious books materially different from other books? Does materiality matter? This article deals with three different aspects of material variance attested amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ancient Jewish religious text fragments, of which were found in the Judean Desert. I suggest that the substitution of the ancient Hebrew script by the everyday Aramaic script, also for Torah and other religious texts, was intentional and programmatic: it enabled the broader diffusion of (...) scriptures in Hellenistic and Roman Judea. The preponderant use of parchment for religious texts rather than papyrus may be a marker of identity. The many small scrolls which contained only small parts of specific religious books may have been produced as religious artefacts which express identity in the period when Judaism developed into a religion of the book. (shrink)