The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years Volume 1

Contains new information about unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls recently brought to light with translations of key passages and recent discovery of the movement behind the Scrolls in their own words.

The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years is being published to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the discovery of the first scrolls at Qumran. The two-volume set contains a comprehensive set of cutting-edge articles on a wide range of topics that are archaeological, historical, literary, sociological, or theological in character. Since the discovery of the first scrolls in 1947 an overwhelming number of studies has been published. Now, half a century later, nearly all scrolls found have been published in critical editions, and scholars can begin to assess the true relevance of the scrolls for the study of the Bible, Second Temple Judaism, and Early Christianity. The contributors to these volumes form an international team of leading specialists in the field. They have written critical surveys of particular aspects of Dead Sea Scrolls research, focusing on significant developments, theories and conclusions, while also indicating directions for future study.

Eight European and North American scholars explore the concept of divinity in the Scrolls (monotheism vs. a host of divine beings, and the efficacy of prayer), the Scrolls' relation to important halakic issues (the interpretation of sacrifice and the continuity of halakic tendencies), the question of Hellenistic influence (especially the Greek language), and the Scrolls' apocalypticism and messianism. Included is one index of ancient literature and one of modern authors. Collins is professor of the Old Testament at Yale and Kugler is professor of religious studies at Gonzaga. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

In The Qumran Manuscripts of Lamentations, Gideon Kotzé draws on text-critical analyses to establish how the content of the biblical book differs in the four Lamentations manuscripts from Qumran when compared to the Masoretic text and the ancient translations.

169 papers from the Toledo Congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies, offering a broad, realistic perspective on the advances, achievements and anxieties of Judaic Studies, from the Bible to our days, on the eve of the new millennium.