The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls
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4Q521 and What It Might Mean for Q 3–7
Chapter 20 4Q521 and What It Might Mean for Q 3–7 Gaye Strathearn am personally grateful for S. Kent Brown. He was a commit- I tee member for my master’s thesis, in which I examined 4Q521. Since that time he has been a wonderful colleague who has always encouraged me in my academic pursuits. The relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian- ity has fueled the imagination of both scholar and layperson since their discovery in 1947. Were the early Christians aware of the com- munity at Qumran and their texts? Did these groups interact in any way? Was the Qumran community the source for nascent Chris- tianity, as some popular and scholarly sources have intimated,¹ or was it simply a parallel community? One Qumran fragment that 1. For an example from the popular press, see Richard N. Ostling, “Is Jesus in the Dead Sea Scrolls?” Time Magazine, 21 September 1992, 56–57. See also the claim that the scrolls are “the earliest Christian records” in the popular novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 245. For examples from the academic arena, see André Dupont-Sommer, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Preliminary Survey (New York: Mac- millan, 1952), 98–100; Robert Eisenman, James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher (Leiden: Brill, 1986), 1–20; Barbara E. Thiering, The Gospels and Qumran: A New Hypothesis (Syd- ney: Theological Explorations, 1981), 3–11; Carsten P. Thiede, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish Origins of Christianity (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 152–81; José O’Callaghan, “Papiros neotestamentarios en la cueva 7 de Qumrān?,” Biblica 53/1 (1972): 91–100. -
The Jews of Hellenistic Egypt Jews in Egypt Judahites to E
15 April 2019 Septuagint, Synagogue, and Symbiosis: Jews in Egypt The Jews of Hellenistic Egypt Those who escaped the Babylonian advance on Jerusalem, 605‐586 B.C.E. Gary A. Rendsburg Rutgers University Jeremiah 44:1 ַה ָדּ ָב ֙ר ֲא ֶ ֣שׁר ָהָי֣ה ֶ ֽא ִל־יְר ְמָ֔יהוּ ֶ֚אל ָכּל־ ַהְיּ ִ֔הוּדים ַהיֹּ ְשׁ ִ ֖בים ְבּ ֶ ֣אֶר ץ ִמ ְצָ ֑ר ִים Mandelbaum House ַהיֹּ ְשׁ ִ ֤בים ְבּ ִמ ְגדֹּ ֙ל ְוּב ַת ְח ַפּ ְנ ֵ ֣חס ְוּב֔נֹף וּ ְב ֶ ֥אֶרץ ַפּ ְת ֖רוֹס ֵל ֽ ֹאמר׃ April 2019 4 The word which was to Jeremiah, concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and the land of Pathros, saying. Judahites to Egypt 600 – 585 B.C.E. Pathros Map of the Persian (Achaemenid) Empire 538 – 333 B.C.E. Bust of the young Alexander the Great (c. 100 B.C.E.) (British Museum) Empire of Alexander the Great (356‐323 B.C.E.) / (r. 336‐323 B.C.E.) 1 15 April 2019 Cartouche of Alexander the Great N L c. 330 B.C.E. D I K A (Louvre, Paris) R S S The Four Successor Kingdoms to Alexander the Great Ptolemies – Alexandria, Egypt (blue) Selecudis – Seleukia / Antioch (golden) Ptolemy Dynasty Jews under Alexander and Ptolemy I 305 B.C.E. – 30 B.C.E. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book 12, Chapter 1 • Ptolemy brought Jews from Judea and Jerusalem to Egypt. Founded by Ptolemy I, • He had heard that the Jews had been loyal to Alexander. -
Wisdom, Israel and Other Nations Perspectives from the Hebrew Bible, Deuterocanonical Literature, and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Wisdom, Israel and Other Nations Perspectives from the Hebrew Bible, Deuterocanonical Literature, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Marko Marttila (University of Helsinki) and Mika S. Pajunen (University of Helsinki)1 “Wisdom” is a central concept in the Hebrew Bible and Early Jewish literature. An analysis of a selection of texts from the Second Temple period reveals that the way wisdom and its possession were understood changed gradually in a more exclusive direction. Deuteronomy 4 speaks of Israel as a wise people, whose wisdom is based on the diligent observance of the Torah. Prov- erbs 8 introduces personified Lady Wisdom that is at first a rather universal figure, but in later sources becomes more firmly a property of Israel.Ben Sira (Sir. 24) stressed the primacy of Israel by combining wisdom with the Torah, but he still attempted to do justice to other nations’ con- tacts with wisdom as well. One step further was taken by Baruch, as only Israel is depicted as the recipient of wisdom (Bar. 3–4). This more particularistic understanding of wisdom was also employed by the sages who wrote the compositions 4Q185 and 4Q525. Both of them emphasize the hereditary nature of wisdom, and 4Q525 even explicitly denies foreigners’ share of wisdom. The author of Psalm 154 goes furthest along this line of development by claiming wisdom to be a sole possession of the righteous among the Israelites. The question about possessing wisdom has moved from the level of nations to a matter of debate between different groups within Judaism. 1. Introduction Israel as the Chosen People is one of the central theological themes in the Hebrew Bible.2 Israel’s specific relationship with God gains its impressive for- mulation in the so-called Bundesformel: “I will be your God, and you shall be my people” (e. -
Priesthood, Cult, and Temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran
PRIESTHOOD, CULT, AND TEMPLE IN THE ARAMAIC SCROLLS PRIESTHOOD, CULT, AND TEMPLE IN THE ARAMAIC SCROLLS FROM QUMRAN By ROBERT E. JONES III, B.A., M.Div. A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Robert E. Jones III, June 2020 McMaster University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2020) Hamilton, Ontario (Religious Studies) TITLE: Priesthood, Cult, and Temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran AUTHOR: Robert E. Jones III, B.A. (Eastern University), M.Div. (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Daniel A. Machiela NUMBER OF PAGES: xiv + 321 ii ABSTRACT My dissertation analyzes the passages related to the priesthood, cult, and temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran. The Aramaic Scrolls comprise roughly 15% of the manuscripts found in the Qumran caves, and testify to the presence of a flourishing Jewish Aramaic literary tradition dating to the early Hellenistic period (ca. late fourth to early second century BCE). Scholarship since the mid-2000s has increasingly understood these writings as a corpus of related literature on both literary and socio-historical grounds, and has emphasized their shared features, genres, and theological outlook. Roughly half of the Aramaic Scrolls display a strong interest in Israel’s priestly institutions: the priesthood, cult, and temple. That many of these compositions display such an interest has not gone unnoticed. To date, however, few scholars have analyzed the priestly passages in any given composition in light of the broader corpus, and no scholars have undertaken a comprehensive treatment of the priestly passages in the Aramaic Scrolls. -
The Dead Sea Scrolls
Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Maxwell Institute Publications 2000 The eD ad Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints Donald W. Parry Stephen D. Ricks Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi Part of the Religious Education Commons Recommended Citation Parry, Donald W. and Ricks, Stephen D., "The eD ad Sea Scrolls: Questions and Responses for Latter-day Saints" (2000). Maxwell Institute Publications. 25. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/mi/25 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maxwell Institute Publications by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Preface What is the Copper Scroll? Do the Dead Sea Scrolls contain lost books of the Bible? Did John the Baptist study with the people of Qumran? What is the Temple Scroll? What about DNA research and the scrolls? We have responded to scores of such questions on many occasions—while teaching graduate seminars and Hebrew courses at Brigham Young University, presenting papers at professional symposia, and speaking to various lay audiences. These settings are always positive experiences for us, particularly because they reveal that the general membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a deep interest in the scrolls and other writings from the ancient world. The nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls are of great import because they shed much light on the cultural, religious, and political position of some of the Jews who lived shortly before and during the time of Jesus Christ. -
Book Reviews
Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society 2011 Volume 29 Book Reviews Yossi Garfinkel, D. Ben-Shlomo, D. and N. Korn, Sha’ar HaGolan 3: The Symbolic Dimensions of the Yarmukian Culture: Canonization in Neolithic Art. The Institute of Archaeology and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Co- operation with the Israel Exploration Society, 2010. Jerusalem. Pp. xv + 353. $68. ISBN: 9789652210814. This book is the third in a series of seven intended monographs describing the site and material culture of Sha’ar HaGolan, the type-site for the Yarmukian culture. Its subject is the figurines from the site, made famous by a travelling exhibition and a popular illustrated book. The first volume, Neolithic Art in Context was published in 2002 and the second, The Rise of Urban Concepts in the Ancient Near East, in 2009. Four further volumes are planned, covering pottery and lithics, among other subjects. The subject of figurines has been given some previous attention in the first monograph, and in Garfinkel’s more populist tome, The Yarmukians, but most of what is contained in this publication, which focuses purely on figurines, is novel material. The structure of the book is very straightforward. The introduction starts by setting out the authors’ theoretical basis for their ideas about canonisation in Levantine Neolithic art in general. This revolves around population pressures and the need for planning in society, which led to standardisation of belief and artistic endeavour, as well as organised settlements. This is followed with a brief, but comprehensive description of trends in finds from Sha’ar HaGolan, from the excavations, and also from the informal finds curated by the local kibbutz. -
Theme and Genre in 4Q177 and Its Scriptural Selections
THEME AND GENRE IN 4Q177 AND ITS SCRIPTURAL SELECTIONS Mark Laughlin and Shani Tzoref Jerusalem 4Q1771 has conventionally been classified as a “thematic pesher,”2 or, more recently as “thematic commentary,”3 or “eschatological midrash.”4 It is one of a group of Qumranic compositions in which the author cites and interprets biblical texts, applying them to the contemporary experience of his community, which he understands to be living in the eschatological era. Unlike the continuous pesharim, thematic pesha- rim are not structured as sequential commentaries on a particular 1 John M. Allegro first pieced together the thirty fragments that he identified as comprising 4Q177, which he labeled 4QCatena A. Cf. John M. Allegro and Arnold A. Anderson. Qumran Cave 4.I (4Q158–4Q186) (DJD V; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), 67–74, Pls. XXIV–XXV. John Strugnell subsequently added four additional fragments, and suggested improvements to Allegro’s readings and reconstructions (“Notes en marge,” 236–48). Annette Steudel re-worked the order of the material in 4Q174 and 4Q177, and argued that the two manuscripts should be regarded as parts of a single composition, which she termed 4QMidrEschat. See George J. Brooke, “From Flori- legium or Midrash to Commentary: The Problem of Re/Naming an Adopted Manu- script,” in this volume. Cf. Annette Steudel, Der Midrasch zur Eschatologie aus der Qumrangemeinde (4QMidrEschata,b): Materielle Rekonstruktion, Textbestand, Gattung und traditionsgeschichtliche Einordnung des durch 4Q174 (“Florilegium”) und 4Q177 (“Catenaa”) repräsentierten Werkes aus den Qumranfunden (STDJ 13; Leiden: Brill, 1994). The current discussion will touch upon the relationship between 4Q177 and 4Q174 but is primarily concerned with the composition of 4Q177 itself. -
The Dead Sea Scrolls JUDS 1611/RELS 1150 CRN: 16534
The Dead Sea Scrolls JUDS 1611/RELS 1150 CRN: 16534 The Dead Sea scrolls have been rightly celebrated as changing our fundamental understanding of ancient Jewish and Christian history as well as the Bible. But what is in them, and why do they matter? In this course we will read through the most important scrolls in English translation and cover topics such as: authorship; historical context; religious practice; and scripture and its interpretation. The course will develop skills in analytical writing, close reading, and historical reasoning. This is a WRIT designated course. Instructor Professor Michael Satlow, Religious Studies and Judaic Studies. Office: 163 George St. Email: [email protected]. Phone: (401) 863-3911. My office hours are Monday 10-11:30 and by appointment. I will occasionally announce additional hours. At times these will be online or offsite (usually the Blue Room) office hours. Resources Please purchase the following two books, available at the Brown Bookstore: 1. M. Wise, et al., The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (revised edition) (abbreviated below as Wise) 2. J. VanderKam and P. Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls (abbreviated below as V-F) Other readings available through our course reserve are marked with an asterisk (*). Our OCRA password is scrolls. We will be using Canvas. Requirements 1. Attendance and participation (10% of grade). 2. Online responses. You will have seven opportunities to write these responses in a forum on Canvas. You may miss one without penalty. They are due by 5 PM on the Sunday following the assigned week (e.g., the assignment for Week 3 is actually due on September 29), and will generally be short written responses to one or more prompts that I will suggest (30% of grade). -
Jesus' Teaching and Pharisaical Judaism
JBTM The Bible and Theology 14 JESUS’ TEACHING AND PHARISAICAL JUDAISM Steven L. Cox, Ph.D. Dr. Cox is Research Professor of New Testament and Greek at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary Memphis, Tennessee ew Testament (henceforth NT) scholars often acknowledge Jesus’ identity or closeness in theology Nto Pharisaical Judaism; however, such statements are generalized without any discussion of their mutual theological positions. Yet, Jesus and the Pharisees were constantly at odds with one another. In the first section of this article I will review a variety of sources, both primary and secondary, concerning Jesus, the Pharisees, and first-century Judaism. Sources naturally will include the Old Testament (henceforth OT), the NT, Josephus, and the Mishnah, though these sources are not exhaustive concerning the topic. In the second section I will discuss beliefs and practices that were common to all Jews. Theological issues such as monotheism, nationalism, the law, and other topics will be discussed. In the third section I will discuss Jesus and Pharisaical Judaism’s kinship by comparing their similarities and how they differ from other first-century Jewish sects. Theological issues such as the afterlife, resurrection, place of worship, the OT canon, and other topics also will be discussed. In the fourth section I will compare and contrast Jesus’ teachings with those of Pharisaical Judaism. A Collating of Sources Evidence from Josephus1 Josephus offered a general description of the Pharisees; however, he did not divulge much information -
Pesher and Hypomnema
Pesher and Hypomnema Pieter B. Hartog - 978-90-04-35420-3 Downloaded from Brill.com12/17/2020 07:36:03PM via free access Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah Edited by George J. Brooke Associate Editors Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar Jonathan Ben-Dov Alison Schofield VOLUME 121 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/stdj Pieter B. Hartog - 978-90-04-35420-3 Downloaded from Brill.com12/17/2020 07:36:03PM via free access Pesher and Hypomnema A Comparison of Two Commentary Traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman Period By Pieter B. Hartog LEIDEN | BOSTON Pieter B. Hartog - 978-90-04-35420-3 Downloaded from Brill.com12/17/2020 07:36:03PM via free access This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided no alterations are made and the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hartog, Pieter B, author. Title: Pesher and hypomnema : a comparison of two commentary traditions from the Hellenistic-Roman period / by Pieter B. Hartog. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2017] | Series: Studies on the texts of the Desert of Judah ; volume 121 | Includes bibliographical references and index. -
Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish and Early Christian Studies Scholarly Communication
Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish and Early Christian Studies Scholarly Communication Series Editors Adriaan van der Weel, Leiden University, Netherlands Ernst Thoutenhoofd, University of Groningen, Netherlands Ray Siemens, University of Victoria, Canada Editorial Board Marco Beretta, University of Bologna, Italy Amy Friedlander, Washington, DC USA Steve Fuller, University of Warwick, UK Chuck Henry, Council on Library and Information Resources, USA Willard McCarty, King’s College London, UK / University of Western Sydney, Australia Mariya Mitova, Leiden, The Netherlands Patrik Svensson, Umeå University, Sweden Melissa Terras, University College London, UΚ John Willinsky, Stanford University, USA Paul Wouters, Leiden University, The Netherlands VOLUME 2 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/sc Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish and Early Christian Studies Edited by Claire Clivaz Andrew Gregory David Hamidović In collaboration with Sara Schulthess LEIDEN • BOSTON 2014 Cover illustration: Matt Katzenberger, http://katzmatt.com This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1879-9027 ISBN 978-90-04-26432-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-26443-4 (e-book) Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers and Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. -
O'callaghan's Fragments: Our Earliest New Testament Texts?
6 The Evangelical Quarterly O'Callaghan's Fragments: Our Earliest New Testament Texts? by Paul Garnet In recent issues we have made some editorial reference to the claim by Professor Jose O'Callaghan that he has identified portions of Mark and other New Testament books in the Greek fragments from Qumran Cave 7. Here an appraising look is taken at this claim by Dr. Paul Garnet, an evangelical scholar who once studied under the editor in the University of Sheffield and is now Assistant Professor in the Depart ment ofTheological Studies in Loyola College, Montreal. 1. Q'Callaghan's "Discovery" N MARCH of this year our newspapers published the exciting report I that papyrologist Fr. Jose O'Callaghan had claimed to have found a fragment of Mark's gospel, dating from about A.D.50, amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls. 1. Potential importance of the "find" If this discovery proves to be genuine, the implications would be of tremendous importance. No longer would our first-written gospel be dated A.D. 65-70, after the death of Peter and Paul, following the almost unanimous consent of New Testament critical scholarship. Instead, we would have to say that Mark was composed within 10-15 years of the events it purports to describe, within the life-time of most of the original eye-witnesses. Theories of a radically developing tradition before the date of writing would be exploded, for there would be not time for such a tradition to grow. Perhaps this is a good time to remind ourselves of the weaknesses in the case for insisting on a late date for Mark.