Site Of Qumran Research Articles

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use: Qumran

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT UseQumran Christopher T. Begg, Brian J. Meldrum, and Thomas Hieke 2382. [The DSS and Qumran Connection] Kenneth Atkinson, "Are the Dead Sea Scrolls from Khirbet Qumran?" QC 28-29 (2020-2021) 35-59 [see #2498]. A. discusses his title question—to which he gives a largely negative answer—under four headings: (1) The Nature of the Collection; (2) The Qumran Caves and Their Connection with Khirbet Qumran's Occupational Phases; (3) The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Library of Various Sectarian Communities; and (4) Are the Dead Sea Scrolls from Khirbet Qumran? In the course of his discussion, A. highlights what he sees as problematic scholarly uses of the Qumran materials, e.g., the distinction between "sectarian" and "non-sectarian" scrolls, and the attempt to reconstruct a "master text" of a given document, e.g., the Community Rule, by conflating elements from different copies of the document deriving from different caves and dating to different times. He concludes (pp. 58-59, adapted): The size of the DSS collection is unprecedented for an ancient library. Although there is a scribal focus to the collection, the presence of multiple copies of texts of different dates suggests that the Scrolls emanated from several communities. Khirbet Qumran appears to have been the location where a small number of residents practiced a form of animal sacrifice in relative isolation. Those who lived there had some relationship with earlier like-minded groups and shared many of the same writings. Each group, as evident in the multiple recensions of texts such as the Community Rule, shared certain documents, but interpreted them differently. Each was undoubtedly influenced by different historical experiences or understood the impact of their experiences differently. Because the scrolls are not from Khirbet Qumran, the site was likely not the center for a group of related sectarian communities. Nor was it the site of original thinking: most theological developments can be traced to the pre-Maccabean era. Because relatively few scrolls were produced in the period between 63 b.c.e. (the Roman conquest of Judea) and 68 c.e. (the Roman destruction of the Qumran site), the Scrolls communities seem to have largely died out during this period. Khirbet Qumran appears to have merely been the place where those who lived elsewhere but shared a similar ideology with its residents hid the contents of their libraries in the hope of retrieving them after the expected defeat [End Page 883] of the invading Roman army. Were it not for the tragic events of the First Jewish Revolt, relatively few scrolls would have been found at or near Khirbet Qumran.—C.T.B. 2383. [1QS] Melissa Sayyad Bach, "How Hard Is It to Get into the Community Rule? Exploring Transmission in 1QS from the Perspective of the Modes of Religiosity," SJOT 35 (2, 2021) 159-86. The Community Rule from Qumran (1QS) communicates its message to its recipients by employing a variety of genres (e.g., instructions, rules, rituals, myth, hymns). B.'s article attempts to explore some of the underlying cognitive mechanisms involved in the process of transmission by drawing on insights from cognitive science, Harvey White-house's Modes of Religiosity theory in particular. According to this approach, certain religious ideas and concepts are "cognitively optimal" (i.e., relatively simple and straightforward, often minimally counterintuitive) and therefore easy to remember, while others are "cognitively costly" (i.e., requiring greater conscious effort to be preserved and transmitted). Two different "modes" are the typical ways to preserve and transmit such contents: The "imagistic" mode relies on low-frequency and high-arousal rituals, whereas the "doctrinal" mode is associated with high-frequency and low-arousal rituals. Its use of different genres, each of which sheds light on 1QS's agenda, serves to highlight the costly and demanding nature of the 1QS content. Analyses of selected passages from 1QS show how elements of the doctrinal and the imagistic modes are employed in facilitating the transmission of the content. [Adapted from published abstract—B.J.M.] 2384. [DSS Research in Oxford] Markus Bockmuehl, "Introduction: Dead Sea Scrolls Research in Oxford," RevQ 32 (2, 2020) 165-69. In his capacity...

Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later; Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24–26 October 2017 ed. by Henryk Drawnel

Reviewed by: Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later; Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24–26 October 2017 ed. by Henryk Drawnel Michael DeVries henryk drawnel (ed.), Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later; Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24–26 October 2017 (STDJ 133; Leiden: Brill, 2020). Pp. xiii + 478. €132/$159. This volume consists of a collection of conference papers delivered at the John Paul II Catholic University in Lublin, Poland, in honor of the seventieth anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Broad in scope, these contributions explore an array of themes within Qumran scholarship and are divided into five main thematic groupings: the text critical intersection between the Hebrew Bible and Qumran manuscripts (part 1), Qumran literature against the historical backdrop of the Second Temple period (part 2), issues of philology and paleography (part 3), wisdom and religious poetry (part 4), and studies addressing a singular issue within particular texts (part 5). Part 1 begins with two contributions from Adrian Schenker. The first, "Are There Mastercopies for Genealogically Related Biblical Texts in Qumran? The Question of Archetypes and Lineages of Biblical Text Witnesses," argues for the presence of unifying efforts within circles charged with the transmission of those texts that would later constitute the Hebrew Bible in the direction of a textual forerunner of the MT. The second, "Room for Further Investigation Opened by BHQ: Three Examples (Genesis 33:18, 20 and 35:7)," suggests understanding the differing OG readings as representing an earlier reading of the text in relation to the MT, which shows evidence of theologically driven corrections. Finally, Emanuel Tov, in "The Background and Origin of the Qumran Corpus of Scripture Texts," proposes that only one-third of the "biblical" texts at Qumran were copied locally while the remainder originated from outside Khirbet Qumran, further suggesting that texts with an affinity to either the MT, LXX, or SP derive from outside Khirbet Qumran. Opening part 2, Bartosz Adamczewski ("Are the Dead Sea Scrolls Pharisaic?") examines evidence for a possible connection between the Qumran and Pharisaic movements, if not a potential Pharisaic origin of at least some of the manuscripts at Qumran. Kenneth Atkinson ("The Changing Views of the Hasmoneans in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Examining Seventy Years of Research") surveys the scholarly debate regarding the relationship between the scrolls and the Hasmoneans, particularly with reference to paleography, archaeology, and history. In "The Wicked Priest, the Righteous Teacher, and the Yahad," Vasile Babota revisits the relationship of the "Teacher of Righteousness," the "Wicked Priest," and the emergence of the yahad. Claude Cohen-Matlofsky ("Women at Qumran? Reconsidering the Textual and Archaeological Data") reassesses the available evidence regarding the [End Page 155] presence of women at Qumran, concluding that the paucity of gendered material at Qumran, in line with other sites in the region, should not discount the potential presence of women at the Qumran site. Lastly, John J. Collins, ("The Historical Context of the Teacher and His Movement") suggests a date post-Alexander Jannaeus for the conflict between the Teacher and the Wicked Priest and thus a late second century b.c.e. date for the origin of the Qumran movement, which, according to Collins, lies within the growing sectarian disputes regarding Torah interpretation in the Hasmonean period, starting with the reign of John Hyrcanus. In part 3, Jeff S. Anderson ("Assembled Israel: Performativity in Rewritten Bible at Qumran") proposes that the performativity of the rewritten speeches of Moses constructs a shared communal identity as the fulfillment of the Mosaic covenant in the present age. Donald W. Parry ("Late Hebrew Forms in 1QIsaa") identifies thirty categories of linguistic elements in which Late Biblical Hebrew, Qumran Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew is reflected in 1QIsaa, which, according to Parry, reveal the milieu and linguistic environment of the scribe at or near the time of the copying of the text (ca. 125-100 b.c.e.). Surveying past studies and suggesting areas of future engagement, Femke Siebesma-Mannens ("Qumran Hebrew from the Perspective of Verbal Valence Patterns...

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use: Qumran

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use:Qumran Christopher T. Begg and Fred W. Guyette Christopher T. Begg Catholic University of America Fred W. Guyette Erskine College and Seminary 1593. [11QT and CD; Impurity of Stone Vessels] Yonatan Adler, "The Impurity of Stone Vessels in 11QTa and CD in Light of the Chalk Vessel Finds at Kh. Qumran," DSD 27 (1, 2020) 66-96. Scholars have argued that the two texts of A.'s title view stone vessels as susceptible to impurity. Chalk vessel finds at Kh. Qumran have presented a challenge to this idea, and solutions to date have proved unsatisfying. The recent publication of final reports on these finds invites us to reconsider both the archaeological and the textual evidence relevant to the ritual status of stone vessels at the Qumran site. The typological profile of the Kh. Qumran assemblage parallels that found at Jewish sites elsewhere. I argue here that both of the above documents view stone vessels as unsusceptible to most kinds of ritual impurity—apart from corpse impurity. In so doing, I elucidate the pentateuchal basis for the documents' view on the matter and seek to make the case that this view was common among contemporary Jews. Against this background, I also explore the origins of the chalk vessel industry in the 1st cent. b.c.e. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1594. [Sons of Zadok in the DSS; Hasmonean Royal High Priesthood; Ezekiel] Vasile Babola, "The Sons of Zadok, the Hasmonean Royal High Priesthood, and the Book of Ezekiel," RevQ 32 (1, 2020) 79-116. The re-emergence of the Sons of Zadok in CD-A, and later in Da, 1QS-1QSa, 1QSb, 4QFlor, and 4Qpap pIsaa has generated a variety of scholarly interpretations. Many scholars have considered the references to the Sons of Zadok in these texts mainly in relation to the Sons of Aaron and most often within the setting of the yaḥad as well. While some have argued for an exile of the Zadokites from Jerusalem, many others have sought to connect [End Page 576] the above texts' mentions of the Sons of Zadok to internal fractures within the yaḥad itself; still others propose that the designation should not be understood in a genealogical sense or even suggest that it be regarded as a literary invention. Against this background, my study begins by considering the Sons of Zadok designation against the backdrop of Hasmonean rule. It does this by interpreting the designation in light of Ezekiel 40–48 and in relation to other ideologies that have found their way into the DSS. As in Ezekiel 40–48, the Sons of Zadok in the DSS have an ideological function. In particular, the adoption of this appellation was an ideological tactic on the part of the Zadokite scribes to lend additional support to their dual Messiah eschatology which involved a separation of the high priesthood from the royal office. Adoption of the designation further seems to imply a refusal on the part of the yaḥad's leadership of the authority of the Hasmonean ruler, Alexander Janneus, especially in his role as high priest. By the same token, the designation reflects a further radicalization in the self-perception of the yaḥad itself, or at least a significant portion of it. Second, my study suggests that all, or almost all, the above-mentioned Scrolls derive from the same circle of scribes. Even though all, or almost all, of these texts are probably based on earlier exemplars, these scrolls appeared to have been copied in order to be read together. The re-emergence of the Sons of Zadok in the DSS, as also probably in Sir 51:12a-o, can tentatively be dated to the time of Janneus. Political and other changes following his death may explain why the Sons of Zadok are not mentioned in later DSS texts. [Adapted from published abstract—C.T.B.] Google Scholar 1595. [Professional Ethics, Provenance and Policies in DSS Scholarship] Rick Bonnie, Matthew Goff, Jutta Jokiranta, Suzie Thomas, and Shani Tzoref, "Professional Ethics, Provenance, and Policies: A...

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT Use: Qumran

Intertestamental, Apocrypha, NT UseQumran Christopher T. Begg and Joseph E. Jensen 1499. [Psalm 151 (11Q5)] Marcin Biegas, "Postac Dawida w hebrajskiej wersji Psalmu 151 (11Q5) [The Figure of David in the Hebrew Version of Psalm 151]," BibAn 8 (2018) 5-28. Until the discovery of the DSS, Psalm 151 was known only through its Greek and Latin versions as these appear in the LXX and Vulgate Book of Psalms. In addition, a Syriac translation of the psalm that was included in a tenth cent. a.d. collection of Apocryphal Psalms was known as well. In 1965, James Sanders published the Psalms Scroll (11Q5), a collection of mostly Hebrew psalms with counterparts in the MT Psalter, discovered in Qumran Cave 11, that also included a Hebrew text of Psalm 151. This article focuses on the figure of David as depicted in Psalm 151, which retells, in poetic form, the story of the son of Jesse as related in 1 Samuel 16–17. B. divides his article into two parts: In the first, he discusses the Psalms Scroll in general and reviews the scholarly discussion concerning Psalm 151 in particular. The second part provides the Hebrew text of the psalm along with [End Page 512] a Polish translation of this and linguistic, syntactical, and theological remarks concerning it. [Adapted from published abstract] 1500. [DSS] Lutz Doering, "Law and Lawlessness in Texts from Qumran," Law and Lawlessness, 9-28 [see #1560]. In his essay, D. examines the centrality of law-abidance in the documents from Qumran, arguing that on the whole the texts display a general ethos of law-abidance and a similar conceptualization of sin and transgression. The Qumran documents do not understand the term "lawlessness" in the sense of an exemption from the law for the sectarians; rather, lawlessness is taken as a matter of disregard for, or disobedience to the law on the part of (other) Israelites. As such, the term occurs mostly in three connections in the Scrolls: first as the historic lawlessness of Israel, from which those seeking initiation into the Qumran group had to return to the Torah of Moses; second, as a (re)lapse of group members or initiates into various kinds of lawlessness; and third, as the present lawlessness of others, such as those whose practices are guided by a "wrong" calendar, a corrupt legal tradition, or a faulty understanding of the Torah. [Adapted from published abstract] 1501. [Zion Psalm from Wadi Murabba>at] Ariel Feldman, "An Overlooked Psalm Addressing Zion from Wadi Murabba>at," JBL 138 (2019) 365-76. This note revisits a psalm addressing Zion Mur 6, a scroll found in the caves of Wadi Murabba>at. It offers a revised edition of the psalm based on recent infrared images and attempts to situate it within the wider group of Second Temple texts addressing Jerusalem. [Adapted from published abstract] 1502. [DSS; Prophetic Books] Simone Pagani, "Biblische Prophetie in der Bibliothek am Toten Meer. Einige Beobachtungen zu den Prophetenschriften in den Dead Sea Scrolls," Profeti Maggiori e Minori, 25-36 [see #1625]. P.'s short article begins with summary comments on the Qumran site, its (non-Essene) inhabitants, and the DSS as a whole. It then focuses on the corpus of 44 manuscripts—many of them quite fragmentary—containing portions of the Latter Prophets of the Hebrew Bible. Here P provides information concerning the DSS witnesses to the Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve, and their textual character (proto-MT, proto-LXX, "unaligned") represented by these. He concludes with three theses concerning, respectively, the relationship between the MT and the DSS text of the Prophetic Books, the Twelve Prophets as a collection in the DSS witnesses, and the importance of prophecy in Second Temple Judaism vis-à-vis the relative "unimportance" of the prophetic books themselves as suggested by the above-mentioned fact that among the some 1,000 manuscripts recovered from the Judean Desert area only 44 are of the Latter Prophets of the Hebrew Bible. 1503. [DSS; Genesis 12–50] Marek Parchem, "Księga Rodzaju 12–50 w Qumran: Interpretacja opowiadań o patriachach w wybranych tekstach z Pustyni Judzkiej [Genesis...

Queerly Sectarian: Jewish Difference, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Marital Disciplines

Queerly Sectarian:Jewish Difference, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Marital Disciplines Maxine Grossman (bio) In her essay, "Queer and Now," Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick explores the potential for queer theory to identify and deconstruct uninterrogated categories of cultural power. Modern heterosexuality, she explains, gains social authority in large measure from its apparent naturalness.1 "If we are receptive to Foucault's understanding of modern sexuality as the most intensive site of the demand for, and detection or discursive production of, the Truth of individual identity," she writes: … it seems as though this silent, normative, uninterrogated "regular" heterosexuality may not function as a sexuality at all. Think of how a culturally central concept like public/private is organized so as to preserve for heterosexuality the unproblematicalness, the apparent naturalness, of its discretionary choice between display and concealment. …2 The category of heterosexuality, from this perspective, so defines the norm that it eclipses the constructions and power dynamics that underpin it, while ensuring its own status as "natural" and "unproblematic." Uninterrogated categories have discursive power within academic disciplines as much as they do in larger social contexts. Scholarly treatments of the Dead Sea Scrolls—a collection of Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period—provide evidence for such layerings of academic assumption. Attitudes toward marriage and sexuality in the scrolls appear to fall "between" Judaism and Christianity (the former often understood as sex-positive and the latter as a site for ascetic or sex-negative attitudes), in ways that have led scholars to understand the scrolls as evidence for a sectarian Judaism, at most a marginal cul-de-sac in the narrative of Jewish history. Queer treatments of these categories, however, provide an opportunity to read the scrolls back into the narrative of Jewish history while calling into question the binary foundations that underpin certain aspects of that narrative. This essay begins with a brief introduction to the scrolls and an interrogation of the term "sectarian" as used in reference to them. Tensions around "normative" and sectarian Judaism will then be explored, particularly in light [End Page 87] of treatments of marriage and sexuality within the rule texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In lieu of a framework that distinguishes between (Jewish) marriage and (Christian) celibacy, this treatment will highlight the complexity of attitudes toward sexuality in the Judaism of the Second Temple period. A queer approach to these social norms, in turn, will provide for a reconsideration of the larger cultural framings of religion, sect, and Jewishness in scholarly discourse around the scrolls and their contributions to Jewish history. The Dead Sea Scrolls: Some Opening Observations The term "Dead Sea Scrolls" refers to the more than 900 manuscripts, many highly fragmentary, that were discovered in the mid-twentieth century in eleven caves in the Judean Desert, not far from the northern tip of the Dead Sea.3 The caves are all within walking distance of the ancient ruin of Khirbet Qumran, which many scholars understand as a habitation site, and from which arises the designation "Qumran Scrolls." The scrolls and the site of Qumran both date from the first centuries BCE and CE, and the scrolls themselves reflect an interesting range of Second Temple period Jewish literature, including close to three dozen manuscripts of the book of Deuteronomy, roughly twenty each of Genesis and Isaiah, and more than a dozen each of Exodus, Leviticus, and the books of Enoch and Jubilees (which are elsewhere preserved among the Pseudepigrapha but are not included in the canon of the Hebrew Bible). In all, the scrolls include some 200 copies of biblical manuscripts, reflecting an uneven representation of all the books of the modern Jewish Bible, with the notable exception of the Book of Esther.4 Another large proportion of manuscripts reflects previously unknown texts that expand on biblical themes, including dozens of legal texts (especially the Temple Scroll); narratives and so-called Testaments of biblical figures (the Genesis Apocryphon, the Testament of Kohath); hymns; and prayers. Calendars, horoscopes, and cryptic texts are also found among the scrolls. The texts are almost exclusively written in Hebrew and Aramaic (with a small number in Greek), and they are diverse but not comprehensive in their representation of...

The Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Hellenistic Context

Abstract This introduction aims at situating the contributions of the Thematic Issue into wider debates on Hellenism and Hellenisation and changes taking place in scholarship. Essentialist notions of Hellenism are strongly rejected, but how then to study the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Qumran site during the Hellenistic period? Each contextualisation depends on the (comparative) material selected, and themes here vary from literary genres, textual practices, and forms of producing knowledge, to material culture, networks, and social organizations. All contributors see some embeddedness in ideas and practices attested elsewhere in the Hellenistic empires or taking place because of changes during the Hellenistic period. In this framework, similarities are overemphasized, but some differences are also suggested. Most importantly, the question of Hellenism is a question of relocating Jewish and Judaean evidence in the study of ancient history.

An Altar in the Desert?

Jodi Magness’ proposal that an altar existed at Qumran leaves some unanswered questions; nevertheless, her conclusions are worthy of consideration. This study examines her claim that the residents at Qumran had an altar, modeled off of the Wilderness Tabernacle, through the lens of critical spatial theory. The conceptual spaces of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as The Damascus Document and The Community Rule, as well as the spatial practices of the site of Qumran do not rule out – and even support – the idea that Qumran itself was highly delimited and therefore its spaces hierarchized in such a way that it could have supported a central cultic site.

An Altar in the Desert?

Jodi Magness’ proposal that an altar existed at Qumran leaves some unanswered questions; nevertheless, her conclusions are worthy of consideration. This study examines her claim that the residents at Qumran had an altar, modeled off of the Wilderness Tabernacle, through the lens of critical spatial theory. The conceptual spaces of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as The Damascus Document and The Community Rule, as well as the spatial practices of the site of Qumran do not rule out – and even support – the idea that Qumran itself was highly delimited and therefore its spaces hierarchized in such a way that it could have supported a central cultic site.

Women at Qumrân? Between texts and objects

Scholarship long assumed that only men inhabited the architectural site of Qumran and thus failed to query the sex of the residents. Similarly specialists of the Dead Sea scrolls focused on these texts without linking them to the material evidence of the archeological site. This article explores the reasons why scholars assumed the absence of women at Qumran. It uses the material evidence from archeological digs to argue the contrary.

Qumran as Scroll Storehouse in Times of Crisis? A Comparative Perspective on Judaean Desert Manuscript Collections

Abstract This article takes a material and comparative approach to the Qumran collection. Distinctive features set the Qumran manuscripts apart from other Judaean Desert collections, suggesting a scholarly, school-like collection of predominantly literary texts. The few literary texts from other Judaean Desert sites reflect the valuable copies owned by wealthy individuals or families and are illustrative of the spread of these texts within various strata of ancient Jewish society. The historical context of most manuscript depositions in the Judaean Desert is characterized by violence and conflict, and such a context probably also typified the deposition of the Qumran manuscripts. In contrast to at least some of the other Judaean Desert sites where refugees hid with their manuscripts, the deposition evidence at Qumran may suggest an anticipation of such violence. The movement behind the Dead Sea Scrolls can be characterized as a textual community, reflecting a milieu of Jewish intellectuals who were engaged on various levels with their ancestral traditions. The collection of texts attracted people and shaped their thinking, while at the same time people shaped the collection, producing and gathering more texts. In this sense, the site of Qumran and its surrounding caves functioned like a storehouse for scrolls.

‘Roots, Remedies and Properties of Stones’: The Essenes, Qumran and Dead Sea Pharmacology

Challenges to the Qumran-Essene hypothesis have used regional contextualisations to argue that Qumran was not occupied by Essenes, but a similar approach may be used to support the hypothesis. Essene proximity to the Dead Sea is noted by both Pliny the Elder and Dio Chrysostom, while Josephus mentions that the Essenes are interested in ‘roots, remedies and properties of stones’ ( War 2: 136). The Dead Sea was well-known for its healing resources in antiquity. There were numerous medicinal plants in the area—including opobalsam, dates, mandrake and madder. The curative properties of bitumen, alum, salt and sulphur were well known, as were the healing spa waters at Callirhoë. An interest in exploiting some of these resources—particularly dates—for pharmacology would explain why the Essenes chose to live close to the Dead Sea. The scrolls themselves contain material on healing that deserves further study. Aspects of the archaeology of the site of Qumran may also be interpreted in the light of pharmacological interests.

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Religion in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Teaching and Learning Guide for: Religion in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Out of the cave: a philosophical inquiry into the Dead Sea Scrolls research

More than 50 years ago the discovery of scrolls in eleven caves beside the Dead Sea ignited the imagination of the world - and launched a vast academic field. Expectations abounded that the scrolls would reveal actual contemporaneous accounts of the birth of Christianity, perhaps even of the life of Jesus. The research that followed - its inner logic, and what its impassioned and often highly controversial theories reveal about the framing of facts and the interpreting of texts - is what interests philosopher Edna Ullmann-Margalit in this thoroughly absorbing book. Since the inception of Dead Sea Scrolls research, a central theory has emerged. Known as the Qumran-Essene Hypothesis, it asserts that the scrolls belonged to the Essenes, a sect whose centre was at the nearby site of Qumran. In Out of the Cave, Ullmann-Margalit focuses on this theory and the vicissitudes of its career. Looking at the Essene connection, the archaeology of Qumran, and the sectarian nature of the scrolls community, she explores the different arenas, and ways, in which contesting theories of the scrolls do battle. In this context, she finds fascinating examples of issues that exercise philosophers of science as well as the general public - issues that only amplify the already intrinsic interest of the Dead Sea scrolls.

Ostraca KhQ1 and KhQ2 from the Cemetery of Qumran: A New Edition

The ostraca KhQ1 and KhQ2 found outside the east wall at Qumran in 1996 represent the most extensive writing found at the actual site of Qumran to date, as distinguished from the texts in the nearby caves. KhQ1 has been controversial from the beginning. The editors, Frank Cross and Esther Eshel, identified KhQ1 as a deed of gift of property from a new member to a religious community at Qumran in a manner enjoined by the Community Rule (1QS). It was claimed that KhQ1 provided the first direct evidence that the Community Rule was practiced at Qumran . However a key reading of Cross/Eshel in line 8 claimed in support of this interpretation was in error. An improved edition of KhQ1 was published by Ada Yardeni in 1997, giving the correct solution for line 8. This article undertakes new readings of KhQ1 and KhQ2 (including a slight improvement in Yardeni’s reading of KhQ1 line 8) and takes up anew the question of whether the community-gift interpretation of KhQ1 can be confirmed or excluded on the basis of an accurate reading of the text.

The archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Written with an expert's insight yet an easily readable style, this important book is certain to reinvigorate discussion of this monumental archaeological find. Like the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran site continues to be the object of intense scholarly debate. In a book intended to introduce general readers to this fascinating area of study, Magness provides an overview of the archaeology of Qumran and presents an exciting new interpretation of this ancient community based on information found in the Scrolls and other contemporary documents.

Dating the Teacher of Righteousness and the Floruit of His Movement

JBL 122/1 (2003) 53-87 (ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) Shortly after first fruits of discovery later known as Dead Sea Scrolls left hands of Bedouin, scholars began trying to explain ultimate origin of deposits. Eliezer Sukenik was first to propose their origin with ancient Jewish sect known as Essenes.1 This view immediately attracted other proponents, and by middle of 1950s, theory known as was regnant in new discipline of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. Nor was it long before Essene Hypothesis took its most recognizable modern form.2 Supported today by broad consensus, this form of theory holds that Khirbet Qumran is place where, in reign of either Jonathan or Simon Maccabee (i.e., in period 161-135 B.C.E.), dissident group of Jews took up monastic lifestyle. These Essenes had departed from Jerusalem in protest of current high priest. Leading them was man their own texts later styled ..., conventionally translated the Teacher of Righteousness. The group then lived out their lives in this sere setting overlooking Salt Sea. Six or seven generations followed them and did likewise, until Roman army destroyed Khirbet Qumran in 68 C.E.3 The scrolls represent library of Teacher's followers, hidden in caves to forestall destruction at hands of enemy. Thus consensus locates Teacher of Righteousness and beginnings of his movement in early to mid second century B.C.E. Advocates of this chronology have defined its parameters by appeal to three types of evidence: (1) archaeology of Khirbet Qumran site; (2) paleography of writings produced by Teacher and his followers; and (3) certain statements in manuscripts. In 1950s, these approaches seemed to lend themselves to easy combination. Like three intertwining cords of strong rope, they appeared mutually supportive. But it may now be seen that strength was perhaps more apparent than real. Today we know substantially more about each of these elements than was known when consensus chronology first took shape; new information has tended to render that chronology less secure rather than more. In pages that follow I want to suggest that totality of evidence now available offers at best only ambiguous support for chronological framework of traditional form of Essene Hypothesis. Another synthesis is at least equally viable, one that places Teacher late in second century B.C.E. and early in first, fifty or sixty years later than consensus view.4 As centerpiece of this reformulation, I propose to focus on method of dating that is, in certain respects at least, more precise than any other we have. Scholars have employed it but little because until recent years they lacked much of relevant material. Before I take up that method, however, it is important to consider very briefly why none of three conventional dating techniques necessarily supports consensus chronology-why, therefore, none stands in way of first-century dating. I. Earlier Methods of Dating Recent studies of archaeology of Khirbet Qumran argue that original investigator, Roland de Vaux, was mistaken in some of his dating for site's habitation phases. He concluded that after an Israelite-period settlement, site was reinhabited and expanded during reign of Simon Maccabee or John Hyrcanus I.5 In reaching latter conclusion French archaeologist had placed more weight on numismatics than sparse findings for earliest period could bear. As Magen Broshi has observed, a coin of John Hyrcanus cannot be used as proof that site was settled during his reign-coins can only be used as terminus quo but not as terminus ad quem.6 The detailed, recent reassessment by Jodi Magness, in particular, argues that proper for refurbishing of Khirbet Qumran, foundation date for Stratum I of Second Temple period, is somewhere between 100 B. …

Two Notes on the Archaeology of Qumran

The first part of this article focuses on an installation in a room on the eastern side of the site of Qumran which appears to be correctly identified in R. de Vaux's recently published field notes as a toilet. The presence of a toilet at Qumran is discussed in relation to the community's rules and regulations regarding purity and sanitary practices. The second part of the article focuses on the hoard of 561 silver coins from three pots in Locus 120 at Qumran. The composition and character of the hoard may best be understood in connection with the sect's interpretation of the Temple tax as a one-time payment made when a man reached adulthood and his name was recorded for the first time in the census registers. It is also possible, however, that the hoard represents the collected wealth of the community at the end of Period Ib, with no connection to the Temple tax.

Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects. M. Wise , N. Golb , J. J. Collins , D. Pardee

<i>Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects</i>. M. Wise , N. Golb , J. J. Collins , D. Pardee

Signification et importance des manuscrits de la mer Morte. L'état actuel des études qoumrâniennes

Les manuscrits de la mer Morte, depuis leur découverte il y a une cinquantaine d'années dans onze grottes situées non loin de Jéricho, ont occupé une place unique tant dans la recherche scientifique qu'auprès du grand public. Pour la première fois, on découvrait en Palestine d'anciens manuscrits hébreux et araméens à caractère littéraire. Le fait qu'on ait pu les dater des environs de la naissance du christianisme a largement contribué à susciter la curiosité générale, et on se mit à espérer que cette découverte permettrait d'en éclairer les origines. La chance fut véritablement au rendez-vous des premières découvertes puisque les premiers manuscrits à voir le jour et à être publiés étaient aussi les mieux conservés, offrant d'emblée un vaste terrain de recherches. Il s'agissait des rouleaux de la grotte 1 : les textes baptisés laRègle de la Communauté(1QS), leRèglement de la Guerre(1QM), lesHymnes ou Hodayot(IQH) et leCommentaire d'Habacuc ou Pésher d'Habacuc(lQpHab). A cette liste fut ajouté un autre texte,l'Écrit de Damas(CD), que l'on connaissait déjà depuis le tournant du siècle grâce à deux manuscrits découverts dans la Guéniza de l'ancienne synagogue qaraïte du Caire.

Methods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects. Michael O. Wise, Norman Golb, John J. Collins, and Dennis G. Pardee, eds.

Previous article No AccessBook ReviewsMethods of Investigation of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Khirbet Qumran Site: Present Realities and Future Prospects. Michael O. Wise, Norman Golb, John J. Collins, and Dennis G. Pardee, eds.Sidnie White CrawfordSidnie White Crawford Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Bulletin of the American Society of Overseas Research Volume 303August 1996 A journal of the American Schools of Oriental Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/1357477 Views: 3Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in the Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research (1921-2021), which is continued by the Bulletin of the American Schools of Overseas Research (2022-present). Copyright 1996 The American Schools of Oriental ResearchPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.