The Dead Sea Scrolls And The Hasmonean State

The roots of the Hasmonean Revolt: the reign of Antiochus IV -- Questions of identity: the "teacher of righteousness," the "man of lies," and Jonathan the Hasmonean -- The succession of high priests: John Hyrcanus and his sons in the Pesher to Joshua 6:26 -- Alexander Jannaeus and his war against Ptolemy Lathyrus -- A prayer for the welfare of King Jonathan -- The Pharisees' conflict with Alexander Jannaeus and Demetrius' invasion of Judaea -- The successors of Alexander Jannaeus and the conquest of Judaea by Pompey -- The assassination of Pompey -- The changing notion of the enemy and its impact on the Pesharim.

"In this book Kenneth Atkinson adds to his already impressive body of work on the Hasmoneans, proposing that the history and theological beliefs of Jews during the period of the Hasmonean state cannot be understood without a close investigation of the histories of the Ptolemaic and the Seleucid Empires, as well as the Roman Republic. By bringing together evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls and classical sources, Atkinson offers a new reconstruction of this vital historical period, from the 2nd to the 1st centuries B.C.E., when the Hasmonean family changed the fates of their neighbors, the Roman Republic, the religion of Judaism, and created the foundation for the development of the nascent Christian faith. The book also contains many new reconstructions of events in classical history, including the most detailed examination of Pompey the Great's assassination in light of Jewish sources. This section on his death uncovers new information that explains the discrepancies in the classical accounts of this pivotal event that shaped Middle Eastern and Roman history, and which helped end the Republic."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

The papers published in this volume were presented at the Fourth Orion International Symposium (Jerusalem, 1999), whose focus was Jewish history in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first section, “History of the Jews and Judaism,” is devoted to specific topics in Jewish history, such as historical references in the Scrolls, comparative studies between the Scrolls and Josephus, and issues of Jewish nationalism. The second section, “Community and Covenant,” comprises studies of community, Jewish law, and the concept of covenant. The third section, “Natural Sciences and the Scrolls,” reports on examinations of DNA preserved in leather used for the Scrolls, of dust found in jars from Qumran, of the nature of the stitching of the Scrolls, and of the composition of the pottery found at Qumran.

Kenneth Atkinson tells the exciting story of the nine decades of the Hasmonean rule of Judea (152 - 63 BCE) by going beyond the accounts of the Hasmoneans in Josephus in order to bring together new evidence to reconstruct how the Hasmonean family transformed their kingdom into a state that lasted until the arrival of the Romans. Atkinson reconstructs the relationships between the Hasmonean state and the rulers of the Seleucid and the Ptolemaic Empires, the Itureans, the Nabateans, the Parthians, the Armenians, the Cappadocians, and the Roman Republic. He draws on a variety of previously unused sources, including papyrological documentation, inscriptions, archaeological evidence, numismatics, Dead Sea Scrolls, pseudepigrapha, and textual sources from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine periods. Atkinson also explores how Josephus's political and social situation in Flavian Rome affected his accounts of the Hasmoneans and why any study of the Hasmonean state must go beyond Josephus to gain a full appreciation of this unique historical period that shaped Second Temple Judaism, and created the conditions for the rise of the Herodian dynasty and the emergence of Christianity.

With nearly all Dead Sea Scrolls published, this collection of essays integrates this very important corpus of ancient texts into the study of Hebrew Bible, ancient and rabbinic Judaism as well as early Christian and other ancient literatures, languages, and cultures.

This volume situates the Qumran Dead Sea Scrolls within Hellenistic Judea. By so doing, this volume shows how the Dead Sea Scrolls participate in broad, cross-cultural intellectual discourses that surpass the Jewish group that produced and collected these scrolls.

This book contains an exhaustive survey of past and present Qumran research, outlining its particular development in various circumstances and national contexts. For the first time, perspectives and information not recorded in any other publication are highlighted.

In this volume, Devorah Dimant assembles twenty-seven thoroughly updated and partly rewritten articles discussing various aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls that she published over the past three decades. An introductory essay written especially for this volume surveys the present state of research on the Scrolls. Dealing with major themes developed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, the author reflects the rapid expansion and change of perspective that has taken place in research on the collection in recent years following its full publication. Among the topics treated are the nature and contents of the Scrolls collection as a whole, the specific literature of the community that owned this collection, the Aramaic texts and the apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works found therein. The volume also includes discussions of particular themes such as the history of the community related to the Scrolls, its self-image and particular interpretation of biblical prophecies, and its notion of time.