Shapira’s Deuteronomy, Its Decalogue, and Dead Sea Scrolls Authentic and Forged

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Jonathan Klawans
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Recent Attempt ◽  
The Dead

Abstract This essay engages Idan Dershowitz’s recent attempt to rehabilitate the Deuteronomy fragments Moses Wilhelm Shapira offered for sale in 1883. After summarizing the contents of Dershowitz’s volume, this paper evaluates Shapira’s fragments in relation to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Moabitica and other forgeries connected to Shapira. It considers the implications of Shapira’s transcription of the text, which Dershowitz uses to demonstrate Shapira’s innocence. To counter Dershowitz’s hypothesis regarding the “proto-biblical” origin of the fragments, it is proposed that the composition is better understood as a post-biblical pastiche. Dershowitz has endeavored to sever the text from the possibilities allowed by 19th century European scholarship; the present article contextualizes the find within the religious world of 19th century Jerusalem. While the allure of significance can encourage scholars to overcome doubts and accept the authenticity of suspicious objects, Shapira’s fragments remain very dubious indeed.

Qumran Yahad and Rabbinic Hăbûrâ: A Comparison Reconsidered

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-453
Author(s):  
Steven D. Fraade
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Rabbinic Literature ◽  
Developmental Progression ◽  
Historical Reconstructions ◽  
Historical Relationship ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Communal Organization

AbstractSince soon after the initial discoveries and publications of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars have compared the Yahad of the scrolls with the Hăbûrâ of early rabbinic literature and sought to establish a historical relationship and developmental progression between the two types of communal organization. The present article reviews select but representative examples from such scholarship, seeking to reveal their underlying presumptions and broader implications, while questioning whether the available evidence allows for the sorts of sociological comparisons and historical reconstructions that they adduce.

On Pliny, the Essene Location and Kh. Qumran

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Taylor
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
The South ◽  
Wide Region ◽  
The Dead ◽  
A Current

AbstractPliny wrote that the Essenes lived west of Lake Asphaltites, and that infra hos was En Gedi. Some scholars associate Pliny's reference with Qumran, others with a location above En Gedi. Given that Pliny writes about Judaea by following the course of the land's remarkable water, it would be most natural to read infra hos as "downstream from them." The Dead Sea itself has a current, and there was a belief that the lake had a subterranean exit in the south. From a survey of scholarship produced prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it appears that Pliny's reference was usually believed to indicate a wide region of the Judaean wilderness, understood to stretch from En Gedi northwards and/or inland. When En Gedi was identified in the mid-19th century, the suggestion that Essenes occupied caves just north of and above the ancient settlement was made, but this was not seen as exclusive. If we again read Pliny appropriately, as referring to a region which the gens of the Essenes held, we can move away from either-or dichotomies of possible Essene sites.

scholarly journals An Introductory Bibliography for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-654
Author(s):  
Henryk Józef Drawnel
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Interested Reader ◽  
The Dead

The present article contains an introductory bibliography for the use of students of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It focuses on the editions of the manuscripts and additional exegetical tools as well as resources necessary in initial and further research. Short notes added to some entries are intended to help the interested reader to get acquainted with the content and relevance of a particular publication. The second part of the article includes an updated list of archeological, philological and bibliographical sources needed for a proper exegetical approach to the scrolls.

scholarly journals Striden om dødehavsrullerne

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Holm Riis
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Cultural Research ◽  
Distinct Concept ◽  
The Dead

Traditionally, the concept of objectivity has been connected with the natural sciences rather than the cultural sciences. In recent years there has even been talk of an outright subjectivist tendency in cultural research. The present article takes issue with this prejudice. Here a concrete example from the field of cultural studies is analysed (the dispute concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls) with the intention of laying bare the underlying concept of objectivity. The example shows that research in this field presupposes a distinct concept of objectivity.

An Altar in the Desert?

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-135
Author(s):  
Alison Schofield
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Spatial Theory ◽  
Conceptual Spaces ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Damascus Document ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Community Rule ◽  
Rule Out

Jodi Magness’ proposal that an altar existed at Qumran leaves some unanswered questions; nevertheless, her conclusions are worthy of consideration. This study examines her claim that the residents at Qumran had an altar, modeled off of the Wilderness Tabernacle, through the lens of critical spatial theory. The conceptual spaces of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as The Damascus Document and The Community Rule, as well as the spatial practices of the site of Qumran do not rule out – and even support – the idea that Qumran itself was highly delimited and therefore its spaces hierarchized in such a way that it could have supported a central cultic site.

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