Reconsidering the Date of the En-Gedi Leviticus Scroll (EGLev): Exploring the Limitations of the Comparative-Typological Paleographic Method

Textus ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-84
Author(s):  
Drew Longacre
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Supporting Evidence ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Dead

AbstractYardeni dated the charred En-Gedi Leviticus scroll (EGLev) to the second half of the first or early second century CE. Paleographic evidence is often ambiguous and can provide only an imprecise basis for dating EGLev. Nevertheless, a series of important typological developments evident in the hand of EGLev suggests a date somewhat later than the Dead Sea Scrolls of the first–second centuries, but clearly earlier than comparanda from the sixth–eighth centuries. The cumulative supporting evidence from the archeological context, bibliographic/voluminological details (wooden roller and metallic ink), format and layout (tall, narrow columns)—each individually indeterminative—also suggests dating EGLev to the period from the third–sixth centuries CE. I argue that EGLev should be dated to the third–fourth centuries CE, with only a small possibility that it could have been written in the second or fifth centuries, which is possibly supported by radiocarbon dating.

Writings in the Dead Sea Scrolls

2018 ◽  
pp. 324-341
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Schiffman
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Masoretic Text ◽  
Hebrew Word ◽  
The Dead

This chapter argues that the Writings was an evolving collection of scripture used in a wide variety of ways by the Dead Sea Scrolls community at Qumran (second century bce to first century ce). Though the Hebrew word Ketuvim (Writings) does not occur in the Scroll material, all but one (Esther) of the books contained therein are found. The plentiful and varied textual evidence at Qumran, and occasionally other Judean desert sites, is presented with special attention to the number of biblical and other manuscripts and place found; textual comparisons with the biblical Masoretic text and others (e.g., Septuagint); citations; and other interpretive uses in sectarian documents. The importance of the books in the Writings for the life of the late postexilic community of Qumran and the nature of the Dead Sea Scrolls biblical collection are, together, a constant focus of the study.

The Mystery of Jesus' Teaching about “The Son of Man”

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-80
Author(s):  
Edward A. Beckstrom
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
High Priest ◽  
The Third ◽  
Son Of Man ◽  
Third Person ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Third Person ◽  
Will Of God

For centuries a mystery has surrounded the meaning of Jesus' term “The Son of Man” in his ministry, and today it is often called “The Son of Man Problem.” Studying “Son of Man” in all of its biblical references, and apocryphal usages, together with insights from the Dead Sea Scrolls, I propose a solution that the idiom means “Priest” or “High Priest,” but most especially “Heavenly High Priest” and is framed in the third person by Jesus because it is expressed as his destiny given by God—it is the Will of God. “The Son of Man” is distinct from Jesus own will, but is the destiny he follows. It is also the use of this term that caused Caiaphas to cry “blasphemy” at Jesus' Sanhedrin trial, who then sent him to Pilate for crucifixion, yet asserting that Jesus proclaimed himself “King of the Jews.” Caiaphas, knew, I believe, that “Son of Man” was synonymous with “High Priest.”

The Damascus Document

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D. Fraade
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Hebrew Text ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Ancient Text ◽  
Cairo Geniza ◽  
Damascus Document ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead

The Damascus Document is an ancient Hebrew text that is one of the longest, oldest, and most important of the ancient scrolls found near Khirbet (ruins of) Qumran, usually referred to collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls for the proximity of the Qumran settlement and eleven nearby caves to the Dead Sea. Its oldest parts originate in the mid- to late second century BCE. While the earliest discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls occurred in 1947, the Qumran Damascus Document fragments were discovered in 1952 (but not published in full until 1996), mainly in what is designated as Qumran Cave Four (some ten manuscripts altogether). However, it is unique in that two manuscripts (MS A and MS B) containing parts and variations of the same text were discovered much earlier, in 1896 (and published in 1910), among the discarded texts of the Cairo Geniza, the latter being written in the tenth-eleventh centuries CE. Together, the manuscripts of the Damascus Document, both ancient and medieval, are an invaluable source for understanding many aspects of ancient Jewish (and before that Israelite) history, theology, sectarian ideology, eschatology, liturgy, law, communal leadership, canon formation, and practice. Central to the structure of the overall text, is the intersection of law, both what we would call “biblical” (or biblically derived) and “communal,” and narrative/historical admonitions, perhaps modeled after a similar division the biblical book of Deuteronomy. A suitable characterization of the Damascus Document, to which we will repeatedly return, could be “bringing the Messiah through law.” Because of the longevity of its discovery, translation, publication, and debated interpretation, there is a long history of modern scholarship devoted to this ancient text.

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.

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 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.

The Law in the Late Second Temple Period

2019 ◽  
pp. 366-382
Author(s):  
John J. Collins
Keyword(s):  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Second Temple ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Roman Law ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Jewish Law ◽  
Second Temple Period ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Law

The Torah of Moses was recognized as the ancestral law of Judah from the time of Ezra. Its status was revoked briefly by Antiochus Epiphanes. In the Hasmonean era there was a turn to intensive halakhic discussion, attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This was a factor in the rise of sectarianism. The papyri from the early second century ce take a flexible attitude to laws, drawing on Jewish or Roman law as seemed advantageous. The literature from the Hellenistic Diaspora treats the law broadly as a summary of Jewish tradition. Despite some claims that the law functioned as a civic law in the Diaspora, there are only a few instances in the papyri where Jews base appeals on Jewish law, and we do not know what the judges decided in those cases.

scholarly journals An Assessment of the Radiocarbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Radiocarbon ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. A. Rodley
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Precise Information ◽  
The Dead

I suggest, on the basis of a statistical analysis, that recently determined “conventional radiocarbon ages” of Dead Sea Scroll documents are offset systematically by about +40 yr, leading to a similar overestimate of the ages of these documents. Much closer agreement with paleographic and specific dates is obtained when a correction of this magnitude is made to the “conventional 14C” values. This indicates that 14C dates may convey more precise information about the ages of these documents than initially recognized.

scholarly journals Use of Radiocarbon Dating in Assessing Christian Connections to the Dead Sea Scrolls

Radiocarbon ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
G A Rodley ◽  
B E Thiering
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Dead Sea Scrolls ◽  
Dead Sea ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Christian Origins ◽  
The Dead

We present an analysis of radiocarbon dates on Dead Sea Scrolls that have a bearing on the question of the Scroll documents’ relation to Christian origins. We assess details of dating reports, discuss paleographical evidence, and consider the content of the documents. When collated, these findings may be seen as compatible with a view that personalities mentioned in the Scrolls were contemporary with the founders of Christianity.

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