Dead Sea Psalms Scrolls And The Book Of Psalms

Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, Psalms are found in no less than thirty-nine manuscripts. This groundbreaking volume presents the first comprehensive study of these scrolls, by making available a wealth of primary data and investigating the main issues that arise. The first part provides information which many scholars will find enormously helpful, such as descriptions of the manuscripts, listings of variant readings, a synopsis of superscriptions, and indices of contents of all the Psalms scrolls. The second part investigates the issues, some of which are relevant to the Book of Psalms itself (e.g. stabilization in two distinct stages), while others focus upon 11QPsa, the largest Psalms scroll (e.g. part of an edition of the Book of Psalms), and one involves the relation of these manuscripts to the Septuagint Psalter.

The first comprehensive study of all 39 Psalms scrolls and their relationship to the Book of Psalms. This groundbreaking volume makes available a wealth of primary data and investigates the main issues that arise from the study of these manuscripts.

An indispensable resource for students and scholars, The Oxford Handbook of the Psalms features a diverse array of essays that treat the Psalms from a variety of perspectives. Classical scholarship and approaches as well as contextual interpretations and practices are well represented. The coverage is uniquely wide ranging.

Psalms 146-150, sometimes called “Final Hallel” or “Minor Hallel”, are often argued to have been written as a literary end of the Psalter. However, if sources other than the Hebrew Masoretic Text are taken into account, such an original unit of Psalms 146-150 has to be questioned. “The End of the Psalter” presents new interpretations of Psalms 146-150 based on the oldest extant evidence: the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Greek Septuagint. Each Psalm is analysed separately in all three sources, complete with a translation and detailed comments on form, intertextuality, content, genre, and date. Comparisons of the individual Psalms and their intertextual references in the ancient sources highlight substantial differences between the transmitted texts. The book concludes that Psalms 146-150 were at first separate texts which only in the Masoretic Text form the end of the Psalter. It thus stresses the importance of Psalms Exegesis before Psalter Exegesis, and argues for the inclusion of ancient sources beyond to the Masoretic Text to further our understanding of the Psalms.

Mika S. Pajunen contributes both to the understanding of manuscript 4Q381 from the Dead Sea Scrolls and to broader issues related to the reconstruction of damaged scrolls and to the reading of psalms in late Second Temple Judaism. The author focuses especially on the collection of "apocryphal" psalms in 4Q381 and other similar psalm collections, but it is also of interest to the ongoing search for the functions of psalmody in this period.A material reconstruction of manuscript 4Q381 has been made to determine the original placement of all the substantial fragments within the scroll. The reconstruction shows there to be eight psalms in the preserved scroll. A thorough analysis of all of them is incorporated in this study, including a critical Hebrew text and the first English translation of the psalms, a basic outline of the psalms' content with comments on their details, and a presentation of their overall message.All the psalms in 4Q381 discuss specific periods of time. The first three psalms cover a period from the Creation to the expected future of a group identified as God's chosen ones. These are followed by five pseudepigraphic psalms that are named in this study as Praise of the Man of God (David), Praise of Hezekiah, Penitential Prayer of Manasseh, Lament of Josiah, and Penitential Prayer of Jehoiachin. The psalms in 4Q381 make up a consistent whole that is shown to function as a unified lesson on the justice of God toward his elect.In this investigation 4Q381 is placed into its proper place inside some of the larger developments and ideologies perceivable within late Second Temple Judaism. For instance, 4Q381 is part of the general trends discernible in psalmody of this period, namely, a general increase in reflection upon the past and the use of wisdom motifs. But in addition, 4Q381 also gives evidence of a perception of psalms as sources of history that is in the end found to be a much broader phenomenon.

From the dramatic find in the caves of Qumran, the world's most ancient version of the Bible allows us to read the scriptures as they were in the time of Jesus.

Contains new information about unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls recently brought to light with translations of key passages and recent discovery of the movement behind the Scrolls in their own words.