Some recent news regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls via Jim Davila’s PaleoJudaica.com:
BOOK REVIEW from the H-JUDAIC list:
John Joseph Collins. Beyond the Qumran Community: The Sectarian
Movement of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Grand Rapids William B. Eerdmans
Pub. Co., 2010. xii + 266 pp. Illustrations. $25.00 (paper), ISBN
978-0-8028-2887-3.
Reviewed by Alex Jassen (University of Minnesota)
Published on H-Judaic (October, 2010)
Commissioned by Jason Kalman
Revisiting the Origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls
[...]
Into this fray enters John J. Collins’s new book _Beyond the Qumran Community: The Sectarian Movement of the Dead Sea Scrolls_. The bulk of its pages carefully assess the merits and drawbacks of many of the prevailing theories on the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran. At the same time as Collins deftly critiques sixty years of scholarship, he offers his own vision for the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls and their relationship to the site of Qumran. Collins is well positioned to undertake both tasks, having long been active in the study of the scrolls. His sobering approach to the material allows the evidence to speak for itself–rather than the phenomenon Collins observes far too often, of scholars speaking for the text (and, of course, saying far too much). In this sense, a good deal of this volume consists of a careful deconstruction of other approaches, many of which are rendered speculative at best by the textual or archaeological evidence. His analysis of the textual evidence is restrained, perhaps too restrained for many. But, in the end, this judicious approach often leaves the reader in agreement with Collins versus the alternatives.
[...]
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GOOGLE’S PLAN with the IAA to put the Dead Sea Scrolls online (noted here) has received endless media coverage, most of it repetitive. But here’s an interesting little photo essay from National Geographic.
JAMES CHARLESWORTH is interviewed by the BBC about the new Google Dead Sea Scrolls archiving project.
Background here.
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THREE MORE Dead Sea Scroll fragments have been acquired by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary:
Fort Worth seminary obtains more pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Posted Friday, Oct. 22, 2010 (Star-Telegram)
FORT WORTH — Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has acquired three more fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the seminary announced this week.
The fragments were obtained from a private collector in Europe through a gift from a friend of the seminary, according to a news release. Early analysis shows that the new fragments include two portions of Deuteronomy and one of the Psalms.
[...]
SBTS obtained three additional fragments early this year.
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BOOK REVIEW in BAR:
The Dead Sea Scrolls, A Full History, Vol. 1
by Weston W. Fields
Leiden/Boston, Brill, 2009, 592 pp.
$99 (hardcover)
Reviewed by Charlotte Hempel
This lavishly illustrated volume contains a virtual mini-archive of the momentous events relating to the discovery, acquisition and early publication history of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Fields interviewed all the living major, as well as some minor, players or their family members in different parts of the world. Among them are Arab nomads, local Arab antiquities dealers, scholars, wealthy collectors and librarians. Fields studied the archives of universities and institutions in various countries and reproduces much of what he has discovered word for word.
[...]
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THE OXFORD HANDBOOK OF THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS is coming out in the UK in a week, and a couple of weeks later in the USA. Follow the link for details. The Amazon link is here. Professor Timothy Lim, co-editor of the volume, also has sent the table of contents. I [Jim Davila] have contributed an article on the Scrolls and mysticism.
Introduction: Current Issues in Dead Sea Scrolls Research
Timothy H. Lim and John J. Collins
PART I ARCHAEOLOGY OF KHIRBET QUMRAN AND THE JUDAEAN WILDERNESS
1. Khirbet Qumran and its Environs
Eric M. Meyers
2. The Qumran Cemetery Reassessed
Rachel Hachlili
PART II THE SCROLLS AND
JEWISH HISTORY
3. Constructing Ancient Judaism from the Scrolls
Martin Goodman
4. The Origins and History of the Teacher’s Movement
Michael O. Wise
5. Women in Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Tal Ilan
PART III THE SCROLLS AND SECTARIANISM
6. Sectarian Communities in the Dead Sea Scrolls
John J. Collins
7. The Classical Sources on the Essenes and the Scrolls
Communities
Joan E. Taylor
8. Sociological Approaches to Qumran Sectarianism
Jutta Jokiranta
9. Qumran Calendars and Sectarianism
Sacha Stern
10. The Book of Enoch and the Qumran Scrolls
James C. VanderKam
PART IV THE BIBLICAL TEXTS, INTERPRETATION, AND LANGUAGES OF THE SCROLLS
11. Assessing the Text-Critical Theories of the Hebrew Bible after Qumran
Ronald S. Hendel
12. Authoritative Scriptures and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Timothy H. Lim
13. Rewritten Scripture
Molly M. Zahn
14. The Continuity of Biblical Interpretation in the Qumran Scrolls and Rabbinic Literature
Bilhah Nitzan
15. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek in the Qumran Scrolls
Jan Joosten
PART V RELIGIOUS THEMES IN THE SCROLLS
16. Purity in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Jonathan Klawans
17. Apocalypticism and Messianism
Michael A. Knibb
18. Exploring the Mystical Background of the Dead Sea Scrolls
James R. Davila
19. Wisdom Literature and Thought in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Armin Lange
20. Iranian Connections in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Albert De Jong
21. Was the Dead Sea Sect a Penitential Movement?
David Lambert
PART VI THE SCROLLS AND EARLY CHRISTIANITY
22. Critical Issues in the Investigation of the Scrolls and the New Testament
Jo¨rg Frey
23. Monotheism, Principal Angels, and the Background of Christology
L. W. Hurtado
24. Shared Exegetical Traditions between the Scrolls and the New Testament
George J. Brooke
PART VII THE SCROLLS AND LATER JUDAISM
25. Halakhah between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Literature
Aharon Shemesh
26. The Contribution of the Qumran Scrolls to the Study of Ancient Jewish Liturgy
Daniel K. Falk
27. Reviewing the Links between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Cairo Genizah
Stefan C. Reif
PART VIII NEW APPROACHES TO THE SCROLLS
28. Rhetorical Criticism and the Reading of the Qumran Scrolls
Carol A. Newsom
29. Roland Barthes and the Teacher of Righteousness: The Death of the Author of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Maxine L. Grossman
30. The Scrolls and the Legal Definition of Authorship
Hector L. Macqueen
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