The Serekh Texts
Title | The Serekh Texts PDF eBook |
Author | Sarianna Metso |
Publisher | A&C Black |
Pages | 101 |
Release | 2007-07-03 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0567040925 |
The Serekh Texts opens up a fascinating window to the life of a highly ascetic group that had rejected mainstream Jewish culture and had withdrawn into the desert to live a life of perfect obedience to the Torah. This book discusses the central rule documents produced by a pious Jewish community.
The Qumran Rule Texts in Context
Title | The Qumran Rule Texts in Context PDF eBook |
Author | Charlotte Hempel |
Publisher | Mohr Siebeck |
Pages | 428 |
Release | 2013 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 9783161527098 |
Ever since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Community Rule has been at the forefront of the scholarly imagination and is often considered a direct channel to life at Khirbet Qumran - an ancient version of 'reality TV'. Over the course of the last fifteen years - the Cave 4 era - scholars have increasingly come to recognize the significance of the Scrolls as a rich text world from a period when texts, traditions, and interpretation laid the foundations of Western civilisation. The studies by Charlotte Hempel gathered in this volume deal with several core Rule texts from Qumran, especially with the Community Rule (S), the Rule of the Congregation (1QSa), the Damascus Document (D), and 4Q265 (Miscellaneous Rules). The author uncovers a complex network of literary and more murkily preserved social relationships. She further investigates the Rule literature within the context of wisdom, law, and the scribal milieu behind the emerging scriptures.
Review of Biblical Literature, 2022
Title | Review of Biblical Literature, 2022 PDF eBook |
Author | Alicia J. Batton |
Publisher | SBL Press |
Pages | 565 |
Release | 2024-01-30 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 1628374586 |
The annual Review of Biblical Literature presents a selection of reviews of the most recent books in biblical studies and related fields, including topical monographs, multi-author volumes, reference works, commentaries, and dictionaries. RBL reviews German, French, Italian, and English books and offers reviews in those languages.
The Rule of the Association and Related Texts
Title | The Rule of the Association and Related Texts PDF eBook |
Author | John J. Collins |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 454 |
Release | 2024-06-24 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0192584545 |
The Rule of the Association (1QS; Serek ha-Yahad) is the primary description of the sectarian community described in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was one of the first Scrolls published, in 1951. Several related fragmentary scrolls subsequently came to light. This book provides text, translation, and commentary on all these manuscripts, with a substantial introduction that locates the Rule in the context of the sectarian movement. Distinctive features of this commentary include: presentation of the Hebrew text; treatment of the related manuscripts as texts in their own right, not just as stages in the development of 1QS; recognition that this was a rule for a movement with many settlements and not just for the community that lived at Qumran; recognition of graded levels of holiness within 1QS; recognition of conceptual differences between 1QS and some of the related fragments with regard to the nature and goals of the association; discussion of the broader cultural context of voluntary associations in the Hellenistic world, and the influence of Persian dualism on the Instruction on the Two Spirits in 1QS 3-4. The commentary also engages the full range of scholarship on the texts known as 1QSa (The Rule of the Community) and 1QSb (The Scroll of Blessings) which were copied on the same scroll as 1QS but appear to have originated separately.
Law, Literature, and Society in Legal Texts from Qumran
Title | Law, Literature, and Society in Legal Texts from Qumran PDF eBook |
Author | Jutta Jokiranta |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 306 |
Release | 2019-02-11 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 9004393382 |
Reflecting the increasing recognition of the importance of legal texts and issues in early Judaism, the essays in this collection examine halakhic and rule texts found at Qumran in light of the latest scholarship on text production, social organization, and material culture in early Judaism. The contributors present new interpretations of long-lived topics, such as the sobriquet “seekers of the smooth things,” the Treatise of the Two Spirits, and 4QMMT, and take up new approaches to purity issues, the role of the maśkil, and the Temple Scroll. The volume exemplifies the range of ways in which the Qumran legal texts help illuminate early Jewish culture as a whole.
Qumran Studies
Title | Qumran Studies PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Thomas Davis |
Publisher | Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |
Pages | 325 |
Release | 2007-08-28 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 080286080X |
In Qumran Studies the texts considered are old -- but the questions are new, standard positions are revisited, and issues are reopened with fresh results. The Dead Sea Scrolls have undeniably revolutionized scholarly understanding on a number of fronts. This revolution has been ongoing for over fifty years and shows no signs of letting up -- especially as full publication of the Scrolls is now complete. With that publication, the important work of interpretation and analysis can continue with a rethinking of earlier analyses in light of the full evidence. This volume makes a signal scholarly contribution toward that end. Contributors: Shane A. Berg Carsten Claussen Michael A. Daise Michael Thomas Davis C. D. Elledge Loren L. Johns John B. Faulkenberry Miller Lidija Novakovic Henry W. Morisada Rietz Brent A. Strawn Loren T. Stuckenbruck
Gospels before the Book
Title | Gospels before the Book PDF eBook |
Author | Matthew Larsen |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 249 |
Release | 2018-07-02 |
Genre | Religion |
ISBN | 0190848596 |
What does it look like to read the texts we now call the gospels like first- and second-century readers? There is no evidence of anyone regarding the gospel as a book published by an author until the end of the second century. So, put differently, what does it mean to read the gospels "before the book"? For centuries, the ways people discuss the gospels have been shaped by later ideas that have more to do with the printing press and modern notions of the author than ancient writing and reading practices. In Gospels before the Book, Matthew D. C. Larsen challenges several subtle yet problematic assumptions about authors, books, and publication at work in early Christian studies. He then explores a host of under-appreciated elements of ancient textual culture such as unfinished texts, accidental publication, post-publication revision, and the existence of multiple authorized versions of the same work. Turning to the gospels, he argues that the earliest readers and users of the text we now call the Gospel according to Mark treated it not as a book published by an author, but as an unfinished, open, and fluid collection of notes (hypomnmata). In such a scenario, the Gospel according to Matthew would not be regarded as a separate book published by a different author, but as a continuation of the same unfinished gospel tradition. Similarly it is not the case that, of the five different endings in the textual tradition we now call the Gospel according to Mark, one is "right" and the others are "wrong." Rather each represents its own effort to fill a perceived deficiency in the gospel. Larsen offers a new methodological framework for future scholarship on early Christian gospels.