Qumran as Scroll Storehouse in Times of Crisis? A Comparative Perspective on Judaean Desert Manuscript Collections

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 551-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mladen Popović
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Textual Community ◽  
Manuscript Collections ◽  
Jewish Intellectuals

Abstract This article takes a material and comparative approach to the Qumran collection. Distinctive features set the Qumran manuscripts apart from other Judaean Desert collections, suggesting a scholarly, school-like collection of predominantly literary texts. The few literary texts from other Judaean Desert sites reflect the valuable copies owned by wealthy individuals or families and are illustrative of the spread of these texts within various strata of ancient Jewish society. The historical context of most manuscript depositions in the Judaean Desert is characterized by violence and conflict, and such a context probably also typified the deposition of the Qumran manuscripts. In contrast to at least some of the other Judaean Desert sites where refugees hid with their manuscripts, the deposition evidence at Qumran may suggest an anticipation of such violence. The movement behind the Dead Sea Scrolls can be characterized as a textual community, reflecting a milieu of Jewish intellectuals who were engaged on various levels with their ancestral traditions. The collection of texts attracted people and shaped their thinking, while at the same time people shaped the collection, producing and gathering more texts. In this sense, the site of Qumran and its surrounding caves functioned like a storehouse for scrolls.

On the Education of Children in the Dead Sea Scrolls

2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Wassen
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Children's Education ◽  
Jewish Society ◽  
Damascus Document ◽  
Unknown Composition ◽  
The Dead ◽  
High Level

This article examines three passages from the Rule of the Congregation and the Damascus Document that pertain to the topic of children’s education. The education of children was considered important within the Qumran movement, which is evident in the curriculum in 1QSa and the fact that such a high-level official as the Examiner had a supervisory role over the teaching. In contrast to the level of education of children in Jewish society in general at the turn of the era, which appears to have been quite rudimentary and consisting mainly of memorization, it appears that children within the movement received a thorough education in both reading and writing. The content of the teaching focused on the laws of the Torah and the Book of Hagu, which is an unknown composition. It is likely that both boys and girls received some education. Cet article examine trois passages de la Règle de la Congrégation et le Document de Damas qui se rapportent au thème de l’éducation des enfants. L’éducation des enfants était considérée comme importante au sein du mouvement de Qumrân, importance qui est évidente dans le programme de 1QSa et le fait qu’un tel fonctionnaire de haut niveau que l’examinateur a eu un rôle de supervision sur l’enseignement. Contrairement au niveau de l’éducation des enfants dans la société juive en général au début de l’époque, qui semble avoir été assez rudimentaire et composé principalement de mémorisation, il semble que les enfants au sein du mouvement ont reçu une éducation complète en lecture et en écrit. Le contenu de l’enseignement a été axé sur les lois de la Torah et le Livre d’Hagu, qui est une composition inconnue. Il est probable que les garçons et les filles ont reçu une certaine éducation.

Bargaining with Jesus: Irony in Mark 5:1-20

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-251
Author(s):  
Andrew Burrow
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
New Host ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Selection Of

This study analyzes Mark 5:1-20 from the perspective of verbal and situational irony. 
I argue that three elements of irony in Mark 5:1-20 align with distinctive features of exorcisms in the ancient world: (1) the demons act as an exorcist against Jesus, who in turn will exorcise them; (2) the demons ask Jesus to consider their well-being when they have shown no concern for their host; (3) the demons believe that their selection of the swine as a new host will allow them to remain in the country of the Gerasenes, but it results in the destruction of the pigs. Additionally, using other ancient accounts of exorcism as comparative examples (those found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, Lucian, Philostratus, the Papyri Graecae Magicae, and the Testament of Solomon), I show that Mark 5:1-20 differs in many ways and that those differences both elucidate and intensify its elements of irony.


The Doctrine of the Two Messiahs in Sectarian Literature in the Time of the Second Commonwealth

1959 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 149-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Liver
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
The Dead

The problem of the two Messiahs in Apocryphal literature, especially in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and in the Damascus Covenant, occupied scholars at the beginning of the present century and has revealed new facets with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Especially pertinent to this problem are some of the texts from Qumran Cave 1, and some fragments from Qumran Cave 4, recently published. We shall here endeavor to make clear the distinctive features of these Messiahs, their status and their tasks at the end of days, and to elucidate the historical setting from which the doctrine of the two Messiahs sprang.

scholarly journals Can we use the New Testament in the way which the New Testament authors use the Old Testament?

2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Moyise
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Way

Ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars have drawn parallels between the way the New Testament authors used the Scriptures and the use of Scripture found in the Qumran writings. This method has raised difficult questions, because some of the exegetical methods, such as allegory, word-splitting and the use of variant texts, are generally regarded as erroneous today. However, other scholars have contended that this comparative approach does not do justice to New Testament exegesis and have argued that the New Testament authors developed a distinctive messianic, ecclesiocentric or trinitarian form of exegesis. This view sheds new light on the old question of whether the Church can use the New Testament in the same way that the New Testament authors use the Old Testament.

Qumran/Dead Sea Scrolls

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Newsom
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Archaeological Site ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Religious Literature ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
Early Judaism ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Jewish Revolt

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947–1948 has rightly been called the most important archaeological discovery of the 20th century. The fragments of nine hundred manuscripts and the excavation of the nearby archaeological site have transformed the understanding of Judaism in the late Second Temple period and have shed new light on the development of early Judaism and Christianity, including the development of the Bible. The biblical texts recovered from Qumran are some thousand years older than the medieval Hebrew manuscripts that form the basis of modern translations. Of the nonbiblical texts, some are clearly composed by members of the sectarian religious movement that collected and preserved the scrolls, a movement that flourished from the middle of the 2d century bce at least to the time of the Jewish revolt against Rome (66–70 ce). Other texts are not sectarian but represent a variety of writings popular in Jewish religious literature of the time. The fragmentary condition of many of the finds, the character of the texts themselves, and the nature of the archaeological remains have made the scholarly task of understanding and interpreting their significance extremely difficult. Consequently, many issues remain undecided and often hotly debated. Nevertheless, remarkable progress has been made in just over sixty years in reconstructing, deciphering, and interpreting these extraordinary documents and placing them within historical context.

scholarly journals Reading, Writing, and Memorizing Together: Reading Culture in Ancient Judaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls in a Mediterranean Context

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mladen Popović
Keyword(s):  
Social Activity ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
First Century ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
Philo Of Alexandria ◽  
Ancient Judaism ◽  
Textual Community ◽  
Reading Culture ◽  
The Dead

Abstract This article focuses on reading culture as an aspect of the Dead Sea Scrolls textual community in its ancient Mediterranean context. On the basis of comparative evidence, the article approaches reading in ancient Judaism as a multi-dimensional and deeply social activity by taking reading aloud, writing, and memorizing as intertwined practices occurring in group reading events. The evidence discussed, such as from Philo of Alexandria, the first-century ce Theodotus inscription from Jerusalem, and 1QS 6:6–8, reflects certain aspects of reading cultures shared between different Jewish communities in the ancient Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and early Roman periods. In addition, it is argued that features such as scribal marks in manuscripts, evidence such as the writing of excerpts, manuscripts such as 4Q159 and 4Q265, or note-taking in 4Q175 and other such manuscripts should be considered within the context of the ancient procedure of reading by intellectual or scholarly readers. Moreover, the article suggests that the Genesis Apocryphon actually preserves a glimpse of the scrolls’ elite reading culture described in a text from Hellenistic-period Judaea.

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