Under the auspices of the Museum of the Bible Scholars Initiative, teams of scholar-mentors and students working collaboratively present the thirteen fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls in this volume. The fragments are part of the Museum of the Bible Collection in Oklahoma City.

Under the auspices of the Museum of the Bible Scholars Initiative, teams of scholar-mentors and students working collaboratively present the thirteen fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls in this volume. The fragments are part of the Museum of the Bible Collection in Oklahoma City.

Examines some of the major issues that the Dead Sea Scrolls have raised for the study of early Christianity.

This special edition large format LSTS volume presents, over half of them for the first time, ten biblical and five non-biblical fragments from the Judean Desert. The text features 42 photographs of the fragments. The publication of seven new fragments from the Judean Desert will supplement the Discoveries in the Judean Desert series and bring new material to scholars regarding the full textual situation. Two of the new biblical fragments suggest the preservation of substantial textual variants. The new Aramaic fragment reveals the use of interesting linguistic forms. The book includes a 10 page essay by Martin Schoyen about how he has tracked down and acquired Judean Desert fragments and artifacts since 1994. The collection of images, photographs of the fragments, and scholarly commentary from some of the leading experts in the field gives the reader a comprehensive picture of the artifacts from Qumran. The fragments included are: 4QLeviticusi, 4QSamueld, 4QDeuteronomy, and 4Q Twelve prophets; New (additional) fragments of 4QPsalmsq and 4QExodusc; improved version of XJudges frg 3, 4QJoshuac, 1QDanielb, and 4QJoshuac; Apochryphal fragments - 4QTobita and 1QapocrGenesis; and, Other fragments - 1QSb (Rule of Blessings, reedition), 11QTemplea, and 4QAramaic frg.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are regarded as perhaps the most important archaeological find of the twentieth century - their importance to the history and development of Judaism and Christianity is unquestionable. This lavishly produced book shows the scrolls in their context, providing translations, pictures, and information on associated finds.

How the billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make America a “Bible nation” The Greens of Oklahoma City—the billionaire owners of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores—are spending hundreds of millions of dollars in an ambitious effort to increase the Bible’s influence on American society. In Bible Nation, Candida Moss and Joel Baden provide the first in-depth investigative account of the Greens’ sweeping Bible projects. Moss and Baden tell the story of the Greens’ efforts to place a Bible curriculum in public schools; their rapid acquisition of an unparalleled collection of biblical antiquities; their creation of a closely controlled group of scholars to study and promote the collection; and their construction of a $500 million Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. Revealing how all these initiatives promote a very particular set of beliefs about the Bible, the book raises serious questions about the trade in biblical antiquities, the integrity of academic research, and the place of private belief in public life.

In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd literally stumbled upon a cave near the Dead Sea, a settlement now called Qumran, to the east of Jerusalem. This cave, along with the others located nearby, contained jars holding hundreds of scrolls and fragments of scrolls of texts both biblical and nonbiblical—in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The biblical scrolls would be the earliest evidence of the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament, by hundreds of years; and the nonbiblical texts would shed dramatic light on one of the least-known periods of Jewish history—the Second Temple period. This find is, quite simply, the most important archaeological event in two thousand years of biblical studies. The scrolls provide information on nearly every aspect of biblical studies, including the Old Testament, text criticism, Second Temple Judaism, the New Testament, and Christian origins. It took more than fifty years for the scrolls to be completely and officially published, and there is no comparable brief, introductory resource. Core Biblical Studies fulfill the need for brief, substantive, yet highly accessible introductions to key subjects and themes in biblical studies. In the shifting tides of biblical interpretation, these books are designed to help students locate relevant meanings in conversation with the text. As a first step toward substantive and subsequent learning, the series draws on the best scholarship in order to provide foundational concepts and contextualized information on a broad scope of issues, methods, perspectives, and trends.