Abstract

AbstractThe Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls expanded the scope of authoritative and parascriptural traditions that reimagine the lives and times of ancestral figures. In several cases, these Aramaic writings include birth notices or narratives. The Genesis Apocryphon and Aramaic Levi Document portray the patriarchs receiving divine revelations regarding the genealogy and destiny of their progeny. Parents in both texts respond with awe yet keep the knowledge to themselves, reflecting on it in their “heart.” This article brings the revelatory tradition and terminology of the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls to bear on Mary’s responses to claims of Jesus’ messianic potential (Luke 2:19) and otherworldly paternity (Luke 2:51). The study underscores the importance of the Qumran Aramaic texts for evaluating Lukan special material and points to the relevance of these writings for recovering the Second Temple contexts of the thought, practice, and literature of the early Jesus movement. The focused case study concludes with methodological recommendations for renewed joint research on Qumran and emerging Christianity. The prescribed approach strives to avoid both “parallel-o-mania” and “parallel-o-phobia” by accounting for the complex compositional, conceptual, and cultural dynamics of both collections.

Highlights

  • The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls expanded the scope of authoritative and parascriptural traditions that reimagine the lives and times of ancestral figures

  • Taking the understudied Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls as a departure point – samples from Genesis Apocryphon (GenAp) and Aramaic Levi Document (ALD) – I explore the potential of these materials for a cross-section of New Testament traditions: Luke’s special materials related to Jesus’ early years

  • Greek Gospels and Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls 441 cluster of ancient writings requires a greater awareness of the compositional patterns, conceptual frameworks, and cultural dynamics that informed the development of ancient traditions

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Summary

A brief overview of the Aramaic corpus among the Dead Sea Scrolls

What are these Aramaic texts and what new intersections do they present for comparative or contextual studies of emerging Christianity? The Aramaic writings among the Dead Sea Scrolls include copies of 30 literary compositions from the mid-Second Temple period. 200 BCE–200 CE), they feature a conspicuous number of terms, phrases, and idioms that recur in several texts.[15] For these reasons, while the study of so-called “Qumran Aramaic” begins with language, the convergence of such literary and ideological items indicates they were created by one or more scribal groups who embraced the imperial idiom as their language of choice.[16] When I refer to Aramaic scribal culture in ancient Judaism, it is with this larger social and intellectual construct in mind, of which we still have a great deal to learn In view of this Aramaic cultural space between the Qumran texts and early Christian traditions, the pages that follow chart a course through three waypoints. Daniel and Tobit are cases in point: they are Aramaic writings received in subsequent canons yet are part of the Aramaic heritage of ancient Judaism represented at Qumran in the mid- to late-Second Temple era

Ancient Jewish Aramaic intellectual culture and Luke’s special material
Gobsmacked parents and Wunderkinder in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls
Revisiting Mary’s reactions in Luke in light of Aramaic revelatory responses
Compositional patterns
Conceptual frameworks
Cultural dynamics
Findings
Conclusion and course changes
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