The Dead Sea Scrolls Today
by VanderKam, James C.Edition: 2nd
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2010-03-30
Publisher(s): Eerdmans Pub Co
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Summary
The premier Dead Sea Scrolls guidebook for general readers ever since its original publications in 1994, James VanderKam's Dead Sea Scrolls Today won the Biblical Archaeology Society's Publication Award in 1995 for the Best Popular Book on Biblical Archaeology. In this expanded and updated edition the book will continue to illuminate the greatest archaeological find in modern times. Book jacket.
Author Biography
James C. Vanderkam is the John A. O'Brien Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the international team charged with editing and translating the Dead Sea Scroll manuscripts. His other books include An Introduction to Early Judaism.
Table of Contents
| Preface to the Second Edition | p. xii |
| Preface to the First Edition | p. xiv |
| Discoveries | p. 1 |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| The Qumran Discoveries | p. 2 |
| The First Cave | p. 2 |
| The Seven Original Scrolls | p. 2 |
| The Cave Itself | p. 2 |
| The Other Caves | p. 13 |
| The Ruins of Qumran | p. 20 |
| The de Vaux Excavations and Interpretations | p. 21 |
| The Buildings | p. 21 |
| The Cemeteries | p. 25 |
| Subsequent Studies and Interpretations | p. 26 |
| The Buildings | p. 26 |
| The Cemeteries | p. 31 |
| Methods for Dating the Discoveries | p. 33 |
| Methods for Dating the Texts | p. 33 |
| Paleography | p. 33 |
| Accelerator Mass Spectrometry | p. 35 |
| Internal Allusions | p. 39 |
| Methods for Dating the Other Archeological Remains | p. 41 |
| Carbon 14 | p. 41 |
| Pottery | p. 41 |
| Coins | p. 41 |
| Survey of the Manuscripts | p. 47 |
| Biblical Texts | p. 47 |
| Biblical Scrolls | p. 48 |
| Targums | p. 50 |
| Tefillin and Mezuzot | p. 51 |
| Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Texts | p. 52 |
| Apocrypha | p. 52 |
| Tobit | p. 52 |
| Sirach (Ecclesiasticus or the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira) | p. 53 |
| Letter of Jeremiah (= Baruch 6) | p. 54 |
| Psalm | p. 151 |
| Pseudepigrapha | p. 54 |
| Enoch or 1 Enoch | p. 55 |
| Jubilees | p. 57 |
| Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs | p. 58 |
| New Pseudepigrapha | p. 60 |
| Other Texts | p. 61 |
| Commentaries on Biblical Material | p. 62 |
| Continuous Commentaries | p. 62 |
| The Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab) | p. 64 |
| The Nahum Commentary (4Q169) | p. 67 |
| The Commentary on Psalms (4Q171, 173) | p. 69 |
| Thematic Commentaries | p. 70 |
| Florilegium (4Q174) | p. 70 |
| The Testimonia (4Q175) | p. 70 |
| The Melchizedek Text (nQMclch) | p. 73 |
| A Commentary on Genesis (4Q252) | p. 74 |
| Paraphrases | p. 75 |
| Legal Texts | p. 75 |
| The Damascus Document | p. 76 |
| The Rule of the Community | p. 77 |
| The Temple Scroll | p. 80 |
| Some of the Works of the Torah (4QMMT) | p. 81 |
| Writings for Worship | p. 83 |
| The Cycle of Worship | p. 83 |
| Liturgical Texts | p. 84 |
| Calendrical Texts | p. 85 |
| Poetic Compositions | p. 86 |
| The Thanksgiving Hymns | p. 86 |
| Other Poems | p. 87 |
| Eschatological Works | p. 88 |
| The War Rule | p. 88 |
| Texts about the New Jerusalem | p. 90 |
| Wisdom Texts | p. 90 |
| 4Q184 Wiles of the Wicked Woman | p. 91 |
| 4Q185 Sapiential Work | p. 91 |
| Instruction | p. 91 |
| The Copper Scroll (3Q15) | p. 92 |
| Documentary Texts | p. 93 |
| The Identification of the Qumran Group | p. 97 |
| The Case for the Essene Hypothesis | p. 97 |
| The Evidence from Pliny the Elder | p. 97 |
| The Contents of the Qumran Texts and Essene Beliefs and Practices | p. 101 |
| Theology | p. 102 |
| Determinism | p. 102 |
| The Afterlife | p. 105 |
| Practice | p. 107 |
| Nonuse of Oil | p. 108 |
| Property | p. 108 |
| The Pure Meal | p. 111 |
| Bodily Functions | p. 112 |
| Spitting | p. 113 |
| Problems With the Essene Hypothesis | p. 114 |
| Entry Procedures | p. 114 |
| Marriage | p. 116 |
| The Name Essene | p. 118 |
| Other Theories | p. 119 |
| Sadducees | p. 119 |
| Jerusalem Origins | p. 122 |
| The Qumran Essenes | p. 127 |
| A Sketch of the Qumran Group's History | p. 127 |
| The Pre-Qumran Period | p. 128 |
| The Qumran Period | p. 133 |
| Phase I | p. 133 |
| Phase II | p. 136 |
| A Sketch of Qumran Thought and Practice | p. 137 |
| Predeterminism | p. 137 |
| The Two Ways | p. 138 |
| The Community of the New Covenant | p. 139 |
| Scriptural Interpretation | p. 141 |
| The Latter Days | p. 141 |
| Special Laws | p. 141 |
| The Universe | p. 142 |
| Worship | p. 144 |
| The End and the Messiahs | p. 145 |
| The Qumran Essenes and Their Place in Judaism | p. 147 |
| The Scrolls and the Old Testament | p. 157 |
| The Text of the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament | p. 157 |
| The Period of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament | p. 158 |
| The Pre-Qumran Textual Witnesses | p. 159 |
| The Masoretic Text | p. 159 |
| The Septuagint | p. 160 |
| The Samaritan Pentateuch | p. 161 |
| Qumran Contributions | p. 162 |
| The Great Isaiah Scroll | p. 162 |
| Qumran Agreements with the Septuagint against the Masoretic Text | p. 163 |
| Minor Examples | p. 163 |
| Major Examples | p. 164 |
| Jeremiah | p. 164 |
| Samuel | p. 166 |
| An Unusual Case | p. 167 |
| Theories about Textual Development | p. 168 |
| A Theory of Local Texts | p. 168 |
| A Theory of Textual Plurality and Variety | p. 169 |
| Successive Literary Editions | p. 171 |
| New Information About the History of Some Texts | p. 171 |
| The Book of Psalms | p. 172 |
| Daniel 4 | p. 176 |
| A Canon of Scripture | p. 178 |
| Evidence outside Qumran | p. 178 |
| The Prologue to Sirach (the Wisdom of Jesus ben Sira) | p. 179 |
| 2 Mace 2:13-15 | p. 181 |
| Philo, On the Contemplative Life 25 | p. 182 |
| Luke 24:44 | p. 182 |
| Matt 23:35 | p. 183 |
| 4 Ezra 14:23-48 | p. 184 |
| Josephus, Against Apion 1.37-43 | p. 185 |
| Evidence from Qumran | p. 186 |
| Criteria | |
| Authoritative Books | p. 188 |
| Books Quoted as Authorities | p. 188 |
| Other Authoritative Books | p. 190 |
| Jubilees | p. 191 |
| 1 Enoch | p. 192 |
| The Temple Scroll | p. 193 |
| The Scrolls and the New Testament | p. 197 |
| Introduction | p. 197 |
| Similarities Between the Scrolls and the New Testament | p. 201 |
| Language and Text | p. 201 |
| Language | p. 201 |
| The Many | p. 202 |
| The Guardian | p. 203 |
| Other Examples | p. 203 |
| Text | p. 204 |
| New Testament Papyri in Cave 7? | p. 204 |
| Qumran Words and Phrases in the New Testament | p. 204 |
| The Sermon on the Mount | p. 205 |
| Characters | p. 206 |
| John the Baptist | p. 206 |
| Others | p. 209 |
| Practices | p. 210 |
| Shared Property | p. 210 |
| The Meal | p. 211 |
| Calendar | p. 214 |
| Eschatology | p. 215 |
| Messianism | p. 215 |
| Biblical Interpretation | p. 219 |
| Teachings | p. 222 |
| Conclusions | p. 224 |
| Controversies about the Dead Sea Scrolls | p. 227 |
| Editing and Publishing the Scrolls | p. 227 |
| Events Since 1989 | p. 233 |
| Postscript | p. 243 |
| Index | p. 249********* |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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