Non Canonical Psalms From Qumran A Pseudepigraphic Collection

4Q380 and 4Q381 : general introduction --Psalms from the Persian/Hellenistic Period --Specific aspects of 4Q380 and 4Q381 --4Q381 text and commentary.Introduction, orthography, paleography ;4Q381 1-110 --4Q380 text and commentary.Introduction, orthography, paleography ;4Q380 1-7.

In Reading and Re-reading Scripture at Qumran, Moshe J. Bernstein gathers more than three decades of his work on diverse aspects of biblical interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The essays range from broad surveys of the genres of biblical interpretation in these texts to more narrowly focused studies and close readings of specific documents. Volume I focuses on the book of Genesis, with a substantial portion being dedicated to studies of the Genesis Apocryphon and Commentary on Genesis A. Volume II contains several historical and programmatic essays, with specific studies focusing on legal material in the DSS and the pesharim. Under the former rubric, the documents known as 4QReworked Pentateuch, 4QOrdinancesa, 4QMMT, and the Temple Scroll are discussed.

A fortieth anniversary is an occasion to be marked under any circumstances, especially when it concerns a discovery as significant as that of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The proper way to mark this occasion was to organize a symposium that would be as comprehensive as possible, both in content and in variety of approaches, and which would be held in the land of the Scrolls. The papers here reflect not only the variety and richness of subjects treated by contemporary research on Qumran, but also its international character. Since the study of texts remains the first task of the Qumran scholar many of the collection's papers belong to its first section — Texts and Text Studies. The other six sections are: The History of the Qumran Community, Halakha at Qumran, Qumran and the Hebrew Bible, Qumran and the New Testament and The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The last major volume of articles devoted to the topic of prayer and poetry in the Dead Sea Scrolls comprised a collection of articles presented at a conference in the year 2000 (Liturgical Perspectives: Prayer and Poetry in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls). This collection reflects the state of research in the field broadly and on specific prayers and poetic texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls; it also offers new insights into topics on which Eileen Schuller has written extensively.

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.

This volume of The Dead Sea Scrolls includes the Rule of the Community and other related documents. The Princeton Dead Sea Scrolls Project provides a major landmark in general access to these documents. It is the first serious attempt to provide accurate transcriptions and translations with critical commentary to all the nonbiblical scrolls found at Qumran. These are important reference books for specialized studies in biblical fields.

Until recently, most non-biblical manuscripts attested in the Qumran library were regarded as copies of texts that were composed after the books of the Hebrew Bible were written. Students of the Hebrew Bible found the Dead Sea Scrolls therefore mostly of interest for the textual and interpretative histories of these books. The present collection confirms the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for both areas, by showing that they have revolutionized our understanding of how the text of the biblical books developed and how they were interpreted. Beyond the textual and interpretative histories, though, many texts attested in the Qumran library illuminate the time in which the later books of the Hebrew Bible were composed and reworked as well as Jewish life and law in the time when the canon of the Hebrew Bible developed. This volume gives important examples as to how the early texts attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls help to better understand individual biblical books and as to how the later texts among them illustrate Jewish life and law when the canon of the Hebrew Bible evolved. In order to find an adequate expertise for the seminar »The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible«, the editors invited both junior and senior specialists in the fields of Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinics to Rome.

When thinking about psalms and prayers in the Second Temple period, the Masoretic Psalter and its reception is often given priority because of modern academic or theological interests. This emphasis tends to skew our understanding of the corpus we call psalms and prayers and often dampens or mutes the lived context within which these texts were composed and used. This volume is comprised of a collection of articles that explore the diverse settings in which psalms and prayers were used and circulated in the late Second Temple period. The book includes essays by experts in the Hebrew bible, the Dead Sea scrolls, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, and the New Testament, in which a wide variety of topics, approaches, and methods both old and new are utilized to explore the many functions of psalms and prayers in the late Second Temple period. Included in this volume are essays examining how psalms were read as prophecy, as history, as liturgy, and as literature. A variety methodologies are employed, and include the use of cognitive sciences and poetics, linguistic theory, psychology, redaction criticism, and literary theory.