Damascus Texts

The Damascus document is one of the most important texts from the Qumran caves. Part One of this Companion offers a lucid and up-to-date introduction to all the manuscripts, including the eight recently published from Qumran Cave 4. It also provides a review of the key areas of scholarly research on this important Qumran text. Part Two is devoted to the recently published text 4QMiscellaneous Rules (4Q265; olim Serekh Damascus). This text has already become the subject of intense interest among students of the Dead Sea Scrolls because of its unique relationship to both the Community Rule and the Damascus Document.

Scholars tend to view the Damascus Document as a historical source, but a reading of the text in light of contemporary (audience-oriented) literary criticism finds its emphasis in the ideological construction of history and communal identity, rather than in the preservation of a historical record. An introduction to contemporary literary criticism is followed by a series of thematic readings, focusing on historical narrative, priestly imagery, and gender in the covenant community. Each theme is examined in terms of its potential for multiple (sometimes contradictory) interpretations and for its place in the larger sectarian discourse. This study offers an alternative approach to the historiography of ancient Jewish sectarianism, acknowledging the presence of competing claims to shared traditions and the potential for changes in textual interpretation over time or among diverse communities.

There are countless under-studied or ignored authors from the Byzantine Empire awaiting scholarly attention. In the area of Byzantine spirituality the twelfth century as a whole has received little consideration, primarily owing to the perceived lack of any significant or noteworthy author. While the tenth-century mystic Symeon the New Theologian and the fourteenth-century hesychast Gregory Palamas have been the focus of much academic industry, little serious attention is paid to figures from the intervening centuries. Recognizing that literature on monasticism and empire in the twelfth century is extensive, this book hopes to fill the void that appears to have marked the study of spirituality of the same period by taking as its subject the twelfth -century monk and spiritual theologian Peter of Damascus. Peter of Damascus: Byzantine Monk and Spiritual Theologian seeks to renew interest in a figure who was an important contributor to the larger field of Byzantine monasticism and spirituality. Using unedited manuscripts, prosopographical evidence, and published sources, this study attempts not only to recover the shape of Peter's life and work but also to elucidate his spirituality through a detailed examination of both The Admonition to His Own Soul and The Spiritual Alphabet, demonstrating the ways in which that spirituality remained accessible both to monastics and non-monastics.

Thematic readings of the Damascus Document, in light of contemporary (audience-oriented) literary criticism, highlight the ideological structures of the text and allow for the development of an alternative approach to the history of ancient Jewish sectarianism.

This volume analyzes the emergence of Jewish and Christian discourses of “religious violence” within their Roman imperial context with an emphasis on the shared textual practices through which authoritative scriptural traditions were redeployed to represent, legitimate, and indeed sacralize violence.

This composite edition of the Damascus Document and scrolls from Khirbet Qumran (with translation and commentary) presents a new understanding of the relationship of these texts, time and purpose; shedding additional light on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Unlike other histories of the early Islamic period, which focus on the political and military aspects of the conquests, this book is about narrative history and the constitution of identity in the changing and dynamic landscape of the early Islamic world.--provided by publisher.