The Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Historical Context

edited by

Timothy H. Lim

with

Larry W. Hurtado, A. Graeme Auld, Alison Jack

Published by T&T Clark International

A Continuum imprint

The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

15 East 26th Street, Suite 1703, New York, NY 10010

www.continuumbooks.com

Copyright © T&T Clark Ltd 2000

First published 2000

This edition published 2004

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 0567080781 (paperback)

Contents

Notes on Contributors

Abbreviations

Introduction

Timothy H. Lim

Part I The Qumran Community, Essenes and other Sects

1. The Dead Sea Sect and other Jews: Commonalities, Overlaps and Differences

E.P. Sanders

2. The Wicked Priest or the Liar?

Timothy H. Lim

3. What Did You Go Out to See? John the Baptist, the Scrolls and Late Second Temple Judaism

J. Ian H. McDonald

Part II The Qumran Biblical Texts and the Masoretic Text

4. The Qumran Biblical Scrolls—the Scriptures of Late Second Temple Judaism

Eugene C. Ulrich

5. Qumran Evidence for a Biblical Standard Text and for Non-Standard and Parabiblical Texts

Julio Trebolle-Barrera

6. E Pluribus Unum: Textual Variety and Definitive Interpretation in the Qumran Scrolls

George J. Brooke

Part III Sectarian Law and Normative Jewish Law

7. Halakhah and Sectarianism in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Lawrence H. Schiffman

8. The Story of Joseph and the Book of Jubilees

Calum M. Carmichael

9. Sabbatical Chronologies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature

James C. VanderKam

10. Qumran Calendars: Theory and Practice

Sacha Stern

11. The Place of the Book of Jubilees at Qumran and Beyond

Charlotte Hempel

Part IV Theology of the Qumran Community, Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity

12. The Nature of Messianism in the Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

John J.Collins

13. Judaisms in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Case of the Messiah

Philip R. Davies

14. The Branch in the Last Days: Observations on the New Covenant before and after the Messiah

Håkan Ulfgard

15. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Merkavah Mysticism

James R. Davila

Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Subjects

Index of Dead Sea Scrolls

Notes on Contributors

Graeme Auld, Professor of Hebrew Bible, University of Edinburgh, is author of Kings Without Privilege (1994) and Joshua Retold (1998), and co-author of Jerusalem I: From the Bronze Age to the Maccabees (1996). He is preparing commentaries on the Hebrew and Greek texts of Joshua, and on the standard and Qumran texts of Samuel.

George J. Brooke is Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis, University of Manchester, and co-director of the Manchester—Sheffield Centre for Dead Sea Scrolls Research....

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About The Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Historical Context

What is the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and what do we know about the community that possessed them? This important work situates the Dead Sea Scrolls in their historical context of Second Temple Judaism and the rise of Early Christianity. Expert scholars address the issue in four sections: The Qumran Community; The Qumran Biblical Text and the Masoretic Text; Sectarian Law and Normative Jewish Law; and The Theology of the Qumran Community, Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity.

Avoiding both popular sensationalism and specialist technical language, this book aims to integrate all the latest findings about the scrolls into existing knowledge of the period and to advance understanding of many specific issues in Qumran studies in a scholarly and accessible way.

The “state of the art” in international scrolls scholarship, this book includes contributions from E. P. Sanders, J. Ian MacDonald, Eugene C. Ulrich, Julio Trebolle Barrera, George J. Brooke, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Calum Carmichael, James C. VanderKam, Sacha Stern, Charlotte Hempel, John J. Collins, Philip R. Davies, Hakan Ulfgard and James C. Davila.

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