Qumran Hebrew: An Overview of Orthography, Phonology, and Morphology. By Eric D. Reymond. Resources for Biblical Study, vol. 76. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2014. Pp. xvii + 309. $37.95.

After referring briefly to the fantasies regarding the origins of Christianity as elicited by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 (Dupont-Sommer, Allegro, Thiering), the purpose of the contribution is to put the Jesus movement into relief in the context of first-century Judaism. The identity of the Qumranites is argued to be Essene scribes. The identity, ideology and practices of the latter are compared with those of Jesus of Nazareth and the movement he elicited using the following rubrics: (...) (1) Jesus, the teacher of righteousness and the powers that be; (2) asceticism versus itinerary charismaticism; (3) caring versus lack of caring for the sick, poor and marginalised; (4) elitist priests and scribes versus lower-class peasants; (5) the interpretation of the law; (6) religious and daily practices (baptism, ritual meal, sacrifice, prayer, community of possessions, scribal activity); (7) religious views or ideology (kingdom of God, the new covenant, light and darkness, politics). The result is a picture of Jesus (with his focus on human suffering) in sharp relief versus Qumran and facets of the early church. (shrink)

Qumran und die Archäologie. Edited by Jörg Frey; Carsten Claussen; and Nadine Kessler. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, vol. 278. Tübingen: mohr Siebeck, 2011. Pp. xi + 561, illus. €139.

The purpose of this paper is to present the Qumran conception of temple as an intermediate stage between the understanding of temple in Jewish eschatology and the Ismaili innerness of the “temple of light.” All of it in the frame of the conception of temple as Garden of Eden based in the “alternative memory”2 yielded by parabiblical priestly traditions.

In this article we examine how Qumran Hebrew can contribute to our knowledge of historical Hebrew linguistics. The premise of this paper is that Qumran Hebrew reflects a distinct stage in the development of Hebrew which sets it apart from Biblical Hebrew. It is further assumed that these unique features are able to assist us to understand the nature of the development of Biblical Hebrew in a more precise way. Evidence from the syntax of participial negation at Qumran as opposed (...) to Biblical Hebrew provides evidence for this claim. (shrink)

The Qumran community of Essenes belongs to the religious sects of Palestine II. BC - 1st century BC not. It arose in the line of Judaism and was closely connected with the Jewish religion. This is evidenced by the spiritual library of the community and the strict observance of the law of Moses by its members. In order to get closer to the understanding of nature and the essence of spirituality, one should not only take into account the complete legal (...) features of its similarity to official or normative Judaism, but to note the differences that existed between them. These differences were determined in the social and religious isolation of the Qumran community from the Jewish community and were reflected in a desert, similar to the monastic way of life, in rejection of participation in the temple cult, a specific ritual of washing, different from the established burial ceremony, in the use of a special solar calendar. All this testifies at the same time to the specificity of the ideological views of the members of the Qumran Brotherhood. It is difficult to say whether the theological system of the Qur'an outlook has survived to date, since its essential elements were transmitted orally and not recorded. (shrink)

La question du sexe des résidents du site de Qumrân a longtemps été ignorée, comme s’il allait de soi qu’une telle communauté ne pouvait compter que des hommes. Longtemps aussi les spécialistes ont raisonné en utilisant uniquement les textes des manuscrits trouvés dans les grottes de la mer Morte comme si les données matérielles fournies par les fouilles du site archéologique de Qumrân ne pouvaient leur être associées. Cet article entend analyser les raisons pour lesquelles les chercheurs ont pu affirmer (...) que les femmes étaient a priori exclues de Qumran. Il entend également montrer comment les objets produits par les fouilles prouvent, au contraire, une présence de femmes sur le site. (shrink)

John, Qumran, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Sixty Years of Discovery and Debate. Edited by Mary l. Coloe and Tom Thatcher. Early Judaism and Its Literature, vol. 32. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011. Pp. xiii + 228. $28.95.

The recent publication of A Grammar of Qumran Aramaic by T. Muraoka provides a much-needed analysis of this important corpus of Aramaic texts. The grammar treats not only the corpus of texts found near Wadi Qumran, collectively known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, but also texts from neighboring regions along the Dead Sea, including Wadi Murabba’at and Naḥal Ḥever. The book is thorough and well written and represents the first in-depth grammar of these texts; it goes well beyond the only (...) other existing grammar, that of Ursula Schattner-Rieser, L’araméen des manuscrits de la mer Morte: I. Grammaire. Muraoka’s grammar lists copious textual citations that give a reader the sense that the observations are backed up by solid data. All the same, it does not attempt to state more than the evidence can allow. The thoroughness of the treatment allows one to compare afresh some points of contact between the grammar of these texts and that of the Hebrew scrolls. Despite the usefulness of this grammar and the nuance with which it is realized, the grammar does contain some points of confusion and inconsistency, some of which are outlined below. (shrink)

The confluence of different Jewish traditions in the Qumran library is evident. The Enochic traditions are not only counted as the oldest influences in Qumran, they also give it a certain theological unity. This is even more true in the case of demonology. Belial’s figure brings together a rich lexicographic heritage in which different traditions are integrated under the characteristics of the Watchers and Giants of the Enochic tradition (1 En 6—8). This study analyzes the theological characterization of the demonological (...) figures found in Qumran to specify the Enochic influence on it. (shrink)

The relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth is defined by most New Testament scholars and historians of Christianity in terms such as “contrast”, “radical difference” or “parting of the ways”. This article aims at reviewing in a detailed way the many phenomenological parallels that the sources permit to establish between these Palestinian preachers of the first half of the 1st century c.e. (a task which has virtually not been made before). i will also reconsider some supposed differences (...) which, according to most scholars, imply the existence of a contrast between them, and i will argue that these differences do not exist or are not important enough to build a contrastive image. in this way, i aim at showing that the idea of a sharp opposition between John and Jesus is an untenable view and the result of a distortion of the available data due to ideological (more specifically, theological) prejudices. (shrink)

The “Mysteries” of Qumran: Mystery, Secrecy, and Esotericism in the Dead Sea Scrolls. By Samuel I. Thomas. Early Judaism and Its Literature, vol. 25. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009. Pp. xvii + 311. $39.95.

This book examines the collection of prayers known as the Qumran Hodayot (= Thanksgiving Hymns) in light of ancient visionary traditions, new developments in neuropsychology, and post-structuralist understandings of the embodied subject. The thesis of this book is that the ritualized reading of reports describing visionary experiences written in the first person "I" had the potential to create within the ancient reader the subjectivity of a visionary which can then predispose him to have a religious experience. This study examines how (...) references to the body and the strategic arousal of emotions could have functioned within a practice of performative reading to engender a religious experience of ascent. In so doing, this book offers new interdisciplinary insights into meditative ritual reading as a religious practice for transformation in antiquity. (shrink)

In the spring of 1956, a comprehensive inventory of the manuscripts from Qumran Cave 4 was prepared which established the manuscript assignments for each of the members of the first editorial team. The manuscripts numbered 4Q521-4Q579 were assigned to Jean Starcky. Unfortunately Père Starcky died before publishing his allotment, which included primarily parabiblical and pseudepigraphic compositions in Hebrew or Aramaic. Though quite amorphous in character, the group reflects the interest in biblical themes and liturgy characteristic of Second Temple period Judaism. (...) In this volume, Émile Puech presents a critical text edition of the Hebrew manuscripts from this corpus. His edition of the Aramaic texts is scheduled to appear as Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Volume XXXI. (shrink)