In the attempt to overcome the crisis of knowledge in wisdom thought, even the non-Essene texts from Qumran developed the wisdom notion of a pre-existent order of being and history which was to be realised in the Eschaton. This notion was taken up in non-wisdom texts and elaborated into a dualistic ordering of the world and of history, structured in epochs. In this form the notion was used by the Essene community to deal theologically with their negative experience of reality (schism, persecution by Hasmonoaeans, delay of the Eschaton). The results of this investigation are thus able to...

This volume of conference papers presents new discoveries, updated information, and technological advances in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Two papers examine the identity of the messiahs in 4Q246 and 4Q521. A thorough analysis of scribal markings in the Dead Sea texts is presented. Biblical studies include multiple literary editions of biblical texts, the book of Numbers at Qumran, and the appearance of the Tetragrammaton in 4QSamᵃ texts. The notions of judgment and salvation according to Sapiential Work A are thoroughly examined, and the relationship of the six Barki...

This volume deals with the Copper Scroll, an almost two thousand year old cryptic proto-Mishnaic Hebrew Dead Sea document. It is the largest known ancient text to have ever been recorded on metal. The Introduction covers the nature and site of the discovery, opening of the two brittle oxidized copper rolls, deciphering the text, controversy about genuineness of the content, etc. The in-depth study presents the primary major studies, and offers a new reading, translation, and interpretation, including alternatives, as well as detailed studies of some unique aspects. The analysis is based on...

All the evidence for daily, sabbath, and festival prayers in the Qumran scrolls is analysed in detail, document by document. On the basis of formal features and social-liturgical setting, these prayers are compared with each other to uncover divergent prayer traditions. Comparative material beyond the scrolls is used to reassess their place in the development of Jewish prayer.
Evidence for prayers of different origin found at Qumran is important for reconsidering the nature of the scrolls, the community(s) which used them, and the history of Jewish liturgy. For several texts significant...

In December 1995 an international symposium was held in Leiden, concerning the subject of the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the book of Ben Sira. The papers, presented at this symposium, are collected in this volume. The papers deal with various aspects of grammar, syntax, and lexicon of Hebrew texts of the Judean Desert. They include the first publications of a Nahal Hever text, and the important apocryphal book of Ben Sira.

This volume explores the use and interpretation of the Bible in the Dead Sea Scrolls and associated apocryphal, early Christian and rabbinic literature.
Interpretive interests, techniques and traditions are examined in many types of ancient works: rewritten bibles, pseudepigrapha, legal codes, prayers, sapiential texts, admonitions and historical treatises.
The authors highlight the contribution of the new finds from the Judean Desert to such major issues as attitudes to the Bible and the Law in antiquity, continuity and innovation vis a vis the biblical world, common and unique...

The Damascus Document is one of the key texts to have been discovered in both spectacular Jewish manuscript discoveries of the 20 th century: the Cairo Genizah and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The legal part of this document has until recently received little scholarly attention. With the recent publication of eight manuscripts of the Damascus Document from cave 4, which provide a substantial amount of additional legal material, the legal part of this document is set to be the focus of research in coming years.
This volume provides a detailed analysis of the Laws of the Damascus Document which...

This volume contains the published proceedings of the conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls, held at Provo, Utah, July 15-17, 1996. Forty-three articles, all dealing with various aspects of the Scrolls, are placed under the following divisions: Technology, Editions and Analyses of Texts, The Qumran Community, Calendar, Levi and the Priesthood, Messianism and Eschatology, and Wisdom and Liturgy.
The volume offers the most recent scholarship on a number of issues and topics pertaining to the Qumran community, newly translated biblical and non-biblical texts, and technological advances that...

The papers published in this volume were presented at the Third International Orion Symposium (1998), to mark the centennial of the discovery of the Damascus Document (CD) in the Cairo Geniza and the final publication of the 4QD manuscripts in the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert series.
Since its discovery, CD has sparked lively debate about its sectarian origins and halacha, issues with far-reaching implications not only for the development of Jewish law but also for the very nature of Second Temple period Judaism and its continuity into the early medieval period.
The contributors...

Following a successful symposium held in Leiden in 1995 a second international gathering took place, also in Leiden, two years later. The volume contains revised papers covering a wide range of linguistic and textual subjects and presented by scholars from eight countries: Austria (Reiterer), Denmark (Ehrensvard), France (Joosten), Israel (Fassberg, Hurvitz, Kister, Qimron), Netherlands (Baasten, Beentjes, Muraoka, van Peursen, van Uchelen, Wesselius), Spain (Perez Fernandez), UK (Aitken, Elwolde), USA (M. Smith). A subject index and an index locorum are included.