scholarly journals Radiocarbon Dating of Fourteen Dead Sea Scrolls

Radiocarbon ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 843-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georges Bonani ◽  
Susan Ivy ◽  
Willy Wölfli ◽  
Magen Broshi ◽  
Israel Carmi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Direct Information ◽  
Western Shore ◽  
The Dead

The name Dead Sea Scrolls refers to some 1200 manuscripts found in caves in the hills on the western shore of the Dead Sea during the last 45 years. They range in size from small fragments to complete books from the holy scriptures (the Old Testament). The manuscripts also include uncanonized sectarian books, letters and commercial documents, written on papyrus and parchment. In only a few cases, direct information on the date of writing was found in the scrolls. In all other cases, the dating is based on indirect archaeological and paleographical evidence. To check this evidence, radiocarbon ages of 14 selected scrolls were determined using accelerator mass spectrometry. The calibrated radiocarbon ages agree well, except in one case, with the paleographic estimates or the specific dates noted on the scrolls.

3. On scrolls and fragments

2017 ◽  
pp. 33-39
Author(s):  
Timothy H. Lim
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Entire Collection ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Language Content

‘On scrolls and fragments’ explores the physical difficulties in working with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Firstly: how does one define a scroll? There is not a single, complete scroll in the entire collection, and questions exist about how many scrolls there were originally. Counting the scrolls is also difficult—are two fragments of the same scroll distinct? The scroll fragments are grouped together according to language, content, and handwriting, with obvious joins between fragments providing definitive proof that they are related. Handwriting was taught through scribal traditions, and as such palaeography is difficult but not impossible. Radiocarbon dating using accelerometer mass spectrometry has accurately dated the scrolls.

Second Isaiah

1968 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Mckenzie
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
New Age ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Hebrew Poetry ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
Bible Translation ◽  
New Material ◽  
Extensive Introduction ◽  
The Dead

This is Volume 20 of The Anchor Bible, a new translation in fifty-six volumes, each with an introduction and notes. John L. McKenzie, S.J., Professor of Old Testament Theology at DePaul University, Chicago, has prepared The Anchor Bible translation of Second Isiah, including Chapters 34-35, and 40-66 of the Book of Isaiah. With its focus on the events surrounding the fall of Babylon to the forces of Cyrus of Persia, Second Isiah is a prophetic book of immense and exultant belief in the renascence of Israel, as the prophet foresees a new age after the long exile. Father McKenzie does justice to the literary sophistication of this book in his translation and he discusses the questions of authorship, dating, purpose, and the audience of Second Isiah in an extensive introduction. In accordance with the aims of The Anchor Bible, Father McKenzie's translation applies new material from the Dead Sea Scrolls, and reflects as closely as possible the mood, sense and style of the Hebrew poetry.

scholarly journals The Effects of Possible Contamination on the Radiocarbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls II: Empirical Methods to Remove Castor Oil and Suggestions for Redating

Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 1005-1022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaare Lund Rasmussen ◽  
Johannes van der Plicht ◽  
Gregory Doudna ◽  
Frederik Nielsen ◽  
Peter Højrup ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Castor Oil ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Soxhlet Extraction ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
The Dead ◽  
East Jerusalem

While kept at the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem, many Dead Sea Scroll fragments were exposed to castor oil by the original team of editors in the course of cleaning the parchments. Castor oil must be regarded as a serious contaminant in relation to radiocarbon dating. If modern castor oil is present and is not removed prior to dating, the 14C dates will be skewed artificially towards modern values. In Rasmussen et al. (2001), it was shown that the standard AAA pretreatment procedure used in the 2 previous studies dating Dead Sea Scroll samples (Bonani et al. 1992; Jull et al. 1995) is not capable of removing castor oil from parchment samples. In the present work, we show that it is unlikely that castor oil reacts with the amino acids of the parchment proteins, a finding which leaves open the possibility of devising a cleaning method that can effectively remove castor oil. We then present 3 different pretreatment protocols designed to effectively remove castor oil from parchment samples. These involve 3 different cleaning techniques: extraction with supercritical CO2, ultrasound cleaning, and Soxhlet extraction—each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Our data show that the protocol involving Soxhlet extraction is the best suited for the purpose of decontaminating the Dead Sea Scrolls, and we recommend that this protocol be used in further attempts to 14C date the Dead Sea Scrolls. If such an attempt is decided on by the proper authorities, we propose a list of Scroll texts, which we suggest be redated in order to validate the 14C dates done earlier by Bonani et al. (1992) and Jull et al. (1995).

scholarly journals The importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for the study of the explicit quotations in Ad Hebraeos

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gert J. Steyn
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Critical Value ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Religious Background ◽  
New Testament Studies ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Book Of Hebrews

The important contribution that the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) hold for New Testament studies is probably most evident in Ad Hebraeos. This contribution seeks to present an overview of relevant extant DSS fragments available for an investigation of the Old Testament explicit quotations and motifs in the book of Hebrews. A large number of the explicit quotations in Hebrews were already alluded to, or even quoted, in some of the DSS. The DSS are of great importance for the study of the explicit quotations in Ad Hebraeos in at least four areas, namely in terms of its text-critical value, the hermeneutical methods employed in both the DSS and Hebrews, theological themes and motifs that surface in both works, and the socio-religious background in which these quotations are embedded. After these four areas are briefly explored, this contribution concludes, among others, that one can cautiously imagine a similar Jewish sectarian matrix from which certain Christian converts might have come – such as the author of Hebrews himself.

5. The canon, authoritative scriptures, and the scrolls

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy H. Lim
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Biblical Texts ◽  
Shed Light

The Dead Sea Scrolls have shed light on the canonization of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible in the Second Temple period. They provide us with exemplars of their biblical texts and how they used them in an authoritative manner. ‘The canon, authoritative scriptures, and the scrolls’ explains that the sectarian concept of authoritative scriptures seemed to reflect a dual pattern of authority by which the traditional biblical texts served as the source of the sectarian interpretation that in turn was defined by it. The authority was graded, beginning with the biblical books and extending to other books that were not eventually included in the canon.

Traces of Gnosticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls?

1954 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-141
Author(s):  
Bo Reicke
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The North ◽  
Hebrew Word ◽  
Western Shore ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Christian Century ◽  
North Western

The Hebrew scrolls newly discovered near Qumran at the north-western shore of the Dead Sea, which are attracting more and more the attention of New Testament students, are also very important for the evolution of Jewish Gnosticism. One may think especially of the fact that in some of these manuscripts the Hebrew word for ‘knowledge’ and related terms occur with a striking frequency, and that the dualistic cosmology of the new texts seems to be rather like certain fundamental ideas of Gnosticism. Since the archaeological evidence now proves that the Qumran manuscripts are pre-Christian, or were at least written in the first Christian century, one may very well state that new light can now be thrown upon the much debated question of a pre-Christian, Jewish Gnosticism.

‘Knowledge’ in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Matthew 11:25–30

1953 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. D. Davies
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Pattern ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The One

Interpreters of Matthew 11:25–30 have fallen roughly into two classes. On the one hand, there are those who have been content to explain the passage solely in the light of the Old Testament, and, on the other, those who have traced in it a common pattern, ultimately deriving from Eastern theosophy, which emerges in Ecclesiasticus 51, and elsewhere, and reappears in Matthew 11:25–30, through the agency of certain primitive Christian thiasoi of a ‘mystical’ type. Not far removed from this is the view that, both on account of style and content, the passage is to be understood in the light of Hellenistic Gnosticism.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document