Phillip R. Callaway - The Dead Sea Scrolls for a New Millennium

The Dead Sea Scrolls for a New Millennium

PHILLIP R. CALLAWAY

Welcome

About the Author

Copyright 2011 Phillip R. Callaway. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, W. th Ave., Suite , Eugene, OR 97401 .

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ISBN : - - 60899 - -

Cataloging-in-Publication data:

Callaway, Phillip R.

The Dead Sea scrolls for a new millennium / Phillip R. Callaway.

xii + p. ; cmIncludes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN : - - 60899 - -

. Dead Sea scrolls. . Dead Sea scrollsHistory. . Qumran communityHistory. I. Title.

BM C 2011

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

Scriptural quotations are from the Oxford Annotated Bible/Revised Standard Version 1962 .

Pitts Theology Library, Emory University for use of images from their Digital Image Archives 2011

Paleography of the Scrolls, Treasure Locations of the Copper Scroll, and Temple Scrolls Courts are from Philip R. Davies, George J. Brooke, and Phillip R. Callaway, The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls . London: Thames & Hudson 2002

Map of Israel in New Testament Times is from http://www.bible.history.com/maps/palestine_nt_times.html 2011

To Azusa

Maps, Illustrations, and Tables

Illustrations

Temple Scrolls Courts

Treasure Locations of the Copper Scroll

Map of Israel in New Testament Times

Scholars and Scribes

Paleography of the Scrolls

Ezra in Prayer

Creation of Adam and Eve

The Prophet Isaiah

Noahs Ark and the Flood

Map of Ancient Jerusalem

Rebuilding the Jerusalem Temple

The Convent of St. Saba

Tables

Chronology of Jewish History

Discoveries in the Judaean Desert

Comparison of de Vaux and Magness

Translation of Prophetic Text on Stone

Scrolls and Palaeographical Periodization

Biblical Book and Number of Qumran Manuscripts

Table of Contents: Temple Scroll

The -Day Calendar

A Sabbath Primer

Some Works of the Law ( QMMT): Manuscripts, Contents,
Paleographical Periods

Phylacteries: Comparison of Rashi and Rabbenu Tam

Preface

S TUDYING THE D EAD S EA Scrolls is a fascinating way to spend ones life. Along the way you are permitted to share what you have learned with others who care about the Scrolls. You are constantly asking yourself what they meant in the past and what they might mean for the future. My fortune has been to have been introduced to the Scrolls by John H. Hayes in his class on the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. It was amazing to discover that so much ancient Jewish literature had not been part of the canon I knew. Hayes also introduced me to Josephus Antiquities , War , and Life . With Hartmut Stegemann at the Qumranforschungsstelle in Marburg and Gttingen, Germany I first read Yadins Hebrew transcription of the Temple Scroll , the Aramaic fragments of Enoch, got a taste of Some of the Works of the Law , and realized that reconstructing history is a very human enterprise just as is the reconstruction of partial scrolls. In Philip R. Davies, a stimulating conversationalist, I found a scholar of similar curiosity and a willingness to question the status quo in Dead Sea Scrolls studies.

When I study the series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD), I understand how much I have learned from and admire the editors of each volume in that incredible scholarly series. No doubt, I have also profited from all the preliminary editions that I have read in the journals and several editions of scrolls outside DJD. No doubt, I have also been influenced by numerous authors who have written on the Scrolls.

Above all, studying the Dead Sea Scrolls has shown me that I, too, am one of those clearing a path in wilderness, which is mentioned in Isaiah and the Rule of the Community ( QS). I too have spent a goodly portion of my life reading and re-reading the ancient manuscripts trying to get to know their authors, editors, and scribes, attempting to understand why they would think such a thing and decide to write it down. The first part of my personal journey with the Scrolls focused on the -day calendar as a central reason for the emergence of the Qumran community. In the next stage of my adventure I asked quite seriously whether one can reconstruct a history of the Qumran community based on the language of the so-called historical Scrolls. I did this because I wanted to study history and not theology. The Dead Sea Scrolls are certainly historical, but preserve little material for writing a history of the Qumran community within the broader context of Second Temple Judaism. In the last twenty years I began to feel that the Scrolls represent the library or personal collections of people like Ben Sira and his grandfather. In short, I realized that the Scrolls are not the vestiges of an insignificant hyper-orthodox group that rejected everything about their traditions. In fact, just the opposite seems to be the case. The Dead Sea Scrolls represent the largest collection of Jewish literature in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that existed in the Second Temple period and, for that matter, in the First Temple period. It is a very traditional collection compared with the historical writings of Josephus and the philosophical tomes of Philo. Nevertheless, it has its own emphases and surprises.

As supplemental or comparative reading to The Dead Sea Scrolls for a New Millennium , I would also like to recommend James C. VanderKams The Dead Sea Scrolls Today ( 2010 ), Lawrence H. Schiffmans Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls ( 1994 ), Hartmut Stegemanns The Library of Qumran ( 1998 ), Martin Abegg, Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrichs, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible ( 1999 ), and Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English ( 1997 ).

English quotations from the Jewish Bible come from my copy of the Oxford Annotated Bible/Revised Standard Version ( 1962 ). English quotations of the non-biblical Scrolls derive from Geza Vermes translation, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English ( 1997 ). English quotations of readings from the biblical manuscripts depend greatly on the translation of Abegg, Flint, and Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible ( 1999 ).

Abbreviations

Ant. Josephus, Antiquities of the Judeans

b. Babylonian Talmud ( Babli )

BA Biblical Archaeologist

BAR Biblical Archaeology Review

BASOR Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

Bib Biblica

BR Bible Review

col. column

DSD Dead Sea Discoveries

frag. fragment

IEJ Israel Exploration Journal

JBLSup Journal of Biblical Literature Supplement

JJS Journal of Jewish Studies

JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplements

l. line

LXX Septuagint

m. Mishnah

MT Masoretic text

NTS New Testament Studies

PJBR The Polish Journal for Biblical Research

QC The Qumran Chronicle

RB Revue Biblique

RQ Revue de Qumran

Sam Samaritan Pentateuch

STDJ Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah

VTSup Vetus Testamentum Supplement

War Josephus, Judean War

Temple Scroll Courts