Scribes And Scrolls At Qumran

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls altered our understanding of the development of the biblical text, the history and literature of Second Temple Judaism, and the thought of the early Christian community. Questions continue to surround the relationship between the caves in which the scrolls were found and the nearby settlement at Khirbet Qumran. In Scribes and Scrolls at Qumran, Sidnie White Crawford combines the conclusions of the first generation of scrolls scholars that have withstood the test of time, new insights that have emerged since the complete publication of the scrolls corpus, and the much more complete archaeological picture that we now have of Khirbet Qumran. She creates a new synthesis of text and archaeology that yields a convincing history of and purpose for the Qumran settlement and its associated caves.

Dr. Norman Golb's classic study on the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls is now available online. Since their earliest discovery in 1947, the Scrolls have been the object of fascination and extreme controversy. Challenging traditional dogma, Golb has been the leading proponent of the view that the Scrolls cannot be the work of a small, desert-dwelling fringe sect, as various earlier scholars had claimed, but are in all likelihood the remains of libraries of various Jewish groups, smuggled out of Jerusalem and hidden in desert caves during the Roman siege of 70 A. D. Contributing to the enduring debate sparked by the book's original publication in 1995, this digital edition contains additional material reporting on new developments that have led a series of major Israeli and European archaeologists to support Golb's basic conclusions. In its second half, the book offers a detailed analysis of the workings of the scholarly monopoly that controlled the Scrolls for many years, and discusses Golb's role in the struggle to make the texts available to the public. Pleading for an end to academic politics and a commitment to the search for truth in scrolls scholarship, Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? sets a new standard for studies in intertestamental history "This book is 'must reading'.... It demonstrates how a particular interpretation of an ancient site and particular readings of ancient documents became a straitjacket for subsequent discussion of what is arguably the most widely publicized set of discoveries in the history of biblical archaeology...." Dr. Gregory T. Armstrong, 'Church History' Golb "gives us much more than just a fresh and convincing interpretation of the origin and significance of the Qumran Scrolls. His book is also... a fascinating case-study of how an idee fixe, for which there is no real historical justification, has for over 40 years dominated an elite coterie of scholars controlling the Scrolls...." Daniel O'Hara, 'New Humanist'

The Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran and the Concept of a Library explores the important question of whether or not the manuscripts found in the eleven caves near Qumran can be characterized as a “library.”

The essays in this highly readable volume are dedicated to John Strugnell, the eminent theologian. Contents: New Qumran Readings for Genesis One, by James R. Davila; Early Emendations of the Scribes: The Tiqqun Sopherim in Zechariah 2:12, by Russell Fuller; Recensional Differences between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint of Proverbs, by Emanual Tov; Observations on "Wisdom Narratives" in Early Biblical Literature, by Lawrence M. Wills; The Beth Essentiae and the Permissive Meaning of the Hiphil (Aphel), by J.H. Charlesworth; The Meaning of "the End" in the Book of Daniel, by John J. Collins; Jason's Gymnasion, by Robert Doran; Some Observations on Blessings of God in Texts from Qumran, by Eileen Schuller; 4Q185 and Jewish Wisdom Literature, by Thomas H. Tobin, S.J.; Two Notes on the Aramaic Levi Document, by Jonas C. Greenfield and Michael E. Stone; Daniel and the Historical Jesus, by Adela Yarbro Collins; Curse and Competition in the Ancient Circus, b G. Gager; The Original Language of the Acts of Thomas, by Harold W. Attridge; Two Enochic Manuscripts: Unstudied Evidence for Egyptian Christianity, by George W.E. Nickelsburg; Julian's Attempt to Rebuild the Temple: An Inventory of Ancient and Medieval Sources, by David Levenson. Co-published with the College Theology Society.

The Dead Sea Scrolls continue to shed ancient light on both the text and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible during the Second Temple period. Among the scrolls are several copies of Genesis dating from the first century BC to the mid-first century AD that contain portions of text from the creation account. These fragmentary copies have provided an unprecedented glimpse into the condition of the text in antiquity and have also provided a unique window into certain scribal practices in the copying of the text. In addition, several texts from Qumran contain the most ancient surviving interpretations of the Genesis creation account, dating from the mid-second century BC to the first century AD. A literary analysis of these texts reveals how ancient Jews interpreted and employed the creation account. These diverse texts address issues such as the creation of various entities (the universe, angels, Eden, humanity), Adam's dominion and knowledge in Eden, God's election of Israel on the first Sabbath, the prohibition in the garden and Adam's rebellion, and the Garden of Eden as an archetype of the sanctuary.

This handbook describes the scribal features of the Dead Sea Scrolls written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. The findings have major implications for the study of the scrolls and the understanding of their relationship to scribal traditions in Israel and elsewhere.

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.

Textual analysis of the 'Great Isaiah Scroll' from Cave 1 shows that even biblical scrolls can be products of creative reading of the ancient text by scribes. This book explores the nature of scribal changes in the large Isaiah scroll from Qumran (1QIsaa). It offers a detailed examination of the harmonizations, explications and modernizations of the text of Isaiah by the Qumran scribe. The scribal changes in the manuscript betray his conceptual milieu and the various facets of this milieu are elaborated upon. Pulikottil argues that those scribes who were engaged in the production of the biblical scrolls and who quoted from the biblical scrolls were not committed to a standard text. There is no evidence that the biblical scrolls copied at Qumran were made with a view to being followed by the scribe of the non-biblical texts as their standard text, but were made according to the individual notions of the scribes. His work thus takes a new direction in the study of the biblical scrolls from Qumran, different from that of standard text-critical approaches. Biblical scrolls can be now looked at as products of creative reading of the ancient text by scribes and not just as a bundle of sc