God as Father in Texts from Qumran

Abstract

The books on God as in the deuterocanonical and other early Jewish texts, the Hebrew Bible, and rabbinic literature, as well as Christiane Zimmermann's wider study of divine epitheta, Die Namen des Vaters , have signalled several methodological problems in Jeremias's approach. Amongst these, one point also relevant for the evidence at Qumran is the problem that Jeremias dismisses any enunciation of the type you are my/our father as manifesting a personal address to God. Some of the non- yaḥadic texts apply the father-son constellation to God's relationship with Israel. This is the case, partly in eschatological form, in the Book of Jubilees, a composition to which a contribution of its own is devoted. Due to the importance of this work for the group responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls deposits in the caves of Qumran, the chapter also refers briefly to it. Keywords: Book of Jubilees; Dead Sea Scrolls; Die Namen des Vaters ; early Jewish texts; Hebrew Bible; Jeremias; Qumran; rabbinic literature