The Body in Qumran Literature: Flesh and Spirit, Purity and Impurity in the Dead Sea Scrolls

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-182
Author(s):  
Alexandria Frisch ◽  
Lawrence H. Schiffman
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
The Body ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Corporate Entity ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Purity And Impurity

This article examines the concept of the body within a wide range of Qumran literature. In a comparison with the biblical tradition, which does not evince a consistent and systematic idea of the body, this article demonstrates that the sectarians developed their own somatic model. The sectarian model, as revealed through a close reading of such texts as Hodayot, 1QS, 1QSa, CD and 1QM, is one that repeatedly emphasized the body as a corporate entity comprised jointly of flesh and spirit. This article then reexamines the same Qumran texts to show that this concept of the body explains the extreme focus on purity at Qumran, particularly the sectarian conflation of moral and ritual purification. A final comparison with Philo, who espoused a dualistic model of the body, underscores just how truly unique the sectarian view of the body and purity was among early Jews.

scholarly journals Creation, Angels, and Gender in Paul, Philo, and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Open Theology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 248-255
Author(s):  
Janelle Peters
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Of Christ ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
1 Corinthians ◽  
The Dead ◽  
And Gender

Abstract This article reads the veiling instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:1–16 through Paul’s appeal to creation. The letter positions both genders in God, and it follows contemporary Jewish literature in assigning angels to creation and gender interdependence. Ascetic, unmarried, and married persons found inclusion in this vision of the body of Christ.

The Johannine Literature and Contemporary Jewish Literature

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jutta Leonhardt-Balzer
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Jewish Literature ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Dead

This chapter provides an overview of research on the Johannine texts in their relationship with the Jewish literature of Second Temple times. While it cannot be said that the Gospel and Letters draw directly on any specific text, careful analysis demonstrates that they are aware of a wide range of Jewish traditions from very different backgrounds; links with Wisdom and Apocalyptic traditions have long been recognized, while more recently there has been much discussion of their relationship with the Dead Sea Scrolls, and even with later Palestinian Jewish literature, including exegetical traditions. Thus a comparison with a range of Jewish literature helps highlight the specifically Johannine perspective on concerns common in the Jewish traditions of their time.

History (?) in the Damascus Document

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 412-428
Author(s):  
Steven D. Fraade
Keyword(s):  
Social Memory ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Historical Information ◽  
Damascus Document ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Over Time

Abstract While the Damascus Document, like other writings found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, has been mined for historical information, with which to reconstruct the history of the Yaḥad, including the process and conditions of its formation and development over time, the present study is interested in discerning the text’s own understanding of the place in history occupied by its community of auditors and learners. Particular attention will be given to the text’s recurring reference to its beginnings (“first ones”) and ends (“last ones”) and to its sense of living in a truncated time-between. Through the close reading of two hortatory sections of the text, the question of how the Yaḥad’s collective social memory informs its self-understanding and practices as it faces both backward and forward in time.

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