Resurrection in the Daniel Tradition and Other Writings at Qumran

Abstract

This chapter discusses the hope of resurrection, together with the complex of expectations about life after death attested in a subset of the writings of which the Qumran sect kept copies: Enochic literature, Jubilees, the Words of Ezekiel , and Danielic literature. These writings are distinguished by their claims to mediate knowledge not obtainable by ordinary sensory experience; they present themselves as records of revelations of the order inherent in the past, present and future, and/or in the cosmos itself. The literature provides in aggregate a partial map of literary attempts made within Judaism of the Hellenistic age at expressing in terms of received revelation the conviction that God is merciful and just to human beings beyond death. The individual formulations of received revelation come into sharper definition through comparative study. The book of Jubilees , an account of a revelation, was arguably the most important to members of the Qumran sect. Keywords: Danielic literature; Enochic literature; Hellenistic age; Jubilees; Judaism; Qumran; resurrection; Words of Ezekiel