everettf

Has anybody on this board have any information on the dead sea scrolls??

Everettf

CX

For what information are you looking?

Toto

Check the recommended reading here

Previous thread that asked about the DSS with some recommended reading and commentary

Peter Kirby's Open Scrolls Project

Celsus

Vanderkam and Flint's The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a very good, orthodox introduction.

Joel

Infidelettante

I highly recommend The Dead Sea Scrolls and The first Christians, Essays and Translations by Robert Eisenman from Element Books.

JT

my dog earl

Wouls anyone care to summarize in a few short paragraphs what it all means, if thats possible of course?

spin

The Dead Sea Scrolls is an extremely important window into pre-Pharisaic Jewish religion. Despite most stuff you read about them, they are not documents of some off the wall sect with little influence in Jewish life, but documents from mainstream Jewish religion -- before the Pharisees set down orthodoxy.

These documents came from in and around the temple and feature a torah-centred group, which was mostly the temple priesthood and its offshoots, which during the Hellenistic crisis were forced to flee the temple, leaving it to a corrupt management -- the wicked priest and the last priests of Jerusalem. When the Hasmoneans came into power this priesthood returned to the temple and had control of it almost continuously until the arrival of Pompey the Great in 63 BCE. These were essentially the Sadducees and most of them were killed by Pompey the Great while in the temple after a long siege. Many died still performing their religious obligations at the altar, ie they were priests.

The scrolls are a mixed group of documents which includes the oldest copies of texts from the Hebrew bible, various extra-biblical books known from the period -- now called pseudepigraphic books --, and texts unique to Qumran, ie relatively new texts of the period, not recognized by the Pharisees. Only a few of this last group survived the period -- just one text at Masada and another found in a Cairo synagogue.

The texts were certainly not copied at Qumran, which was an economic centre, but came from Jerusalem -- the only possible source. There were several hundred scribes who worked on the texts, which totally contradicts the common view that Qumran was a scribal centre: no such centre could alone support several hundred scribes. Only Jerusalem could.

When the Sadducees were routed by Pompey, there was no group to oppose the Pharisees. There was no group to return to get the texts from Qumran. There was no group to maintain the special Qumran texts. Herod had to import Sadducees from the diaspora as high priests, the most famous family coming from Egypt, for Pompey had sent many Sadducees to the slave markets through out the Mediterranean.

We now need to read the scrolls as a mixed collection of texts which will give us insight into what Judaism was like before the Pharisees.


spin

mrmoderate

Mostly because of how dedicated he was to getting the Dead Sea Scrolls published I like reading books and articles by Hershel Shanks on them.

spin

Shanks is clueless in the area. He is bound by whichever scholars appeal to him in selling his magazine and derivative books. Sometimes there are good light articles, such as the Schiffman article in his first book on the DSS, but Schiffman has published better substantiated pieces elsewhere than BAR.

The DSS are a quicksand field. So many people have a vested interest in reclaiming them for xianity, for Judaism, for some a priori commitment or another. What gets printed needs to be read in the light of various other works, so that you can navigate through the claims and counterclaims.

Read everything that gets said about the scrolls with caution (including my claims).


spin


spin

everettf

Thats the problem. It seems there all written by scholars with a religious bent. If they don't like what is written they could change it, and with the missing parts it could be taken out of context. I was reminded of something told to me many years ago.

Imagine you have never heard of the word porch, Your interpreting a document and it reads "A boy sits on a girls porch" What would you interpret that to mean?

Are there any real unbiased interpretations? Someone with a real open mind?

Everettf