Quotidian Documents From The Judean Desert

Abstract

The scholarly agenda reflects a priority of relevance. In the history of Dead Sea research, interest in the origins of Christianity and its early relationship to Judaism has dominated the field, and that very interest has stimulated a reconsideration of the character of contemporary Judaism itself. This chapter briefly identifies the register and scope of the quotidian papyri from the Judean Desert. The Bar Kokhba letters are preserved in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The two Greek letters, P.Yadin 52 and P.Yadin 59, have now been re-edited by Hannah Cotton, who cites a long list of prior publications dealing with them. The confluence of P.Yadin 52 and 57 points to the religiosity of those affiliated with Bar Kokhba, who resided in his network of villages and encampments. Keywords: Bar Kokhba letters; Christianity; Dead Sea research; Judean Desert; quotidian papyri