The Dead Sea scrolls : a very short introduction

153 Pages·2005·1.562 MB·English

by  Lim, Timothy H

The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction
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Timothy H. Lim
THE DEAD SEA
SCROLLS
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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© Timothy H. Lim 2005
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Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2005
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 0–19–280659–9
978–0–19–280659–8
1357910864 2
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall
For my dear children
Jonathan and Alison
Contents
List of illustrations ix
1
The Dead Sea scrolls as cultural icon 1
2
The archaeological site and caves 20
3
On scrolls and fragments 32
4
New light on the Hebrew Bible 40
5
Who owned the scrolls? 58
6
Literary compositions from the Qumran library 66
7
The Qumran-Essene community in context 72
8
The Qumran community 84
9
The religious beliefs of the Qumran community 100
10
The scrolls and early Christianity 106
11
The greatest manuscript discovery 117
References 121
Further reading 127
Appendix: Hitherto unknown texts 130
Index 135
List of illustrations
1 Headline from the Times, 7 The Habakkuk Pesher 33
6 June 1996 2 © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
NI Syndication
8 The Rule of the
2 Judaean Desert 8 Community 34
© Timothy H. Lim © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
3 The Shrine of the Book,
9 The Leningrad Codex 44
Israel Museum 10
Department of Manuscripts,
© Buddy Mays/Corbis National Library of Russia
4 Front cover, On Scrolls,
10 Copy of Samuel,
Artefacts and Intellectual
preserving 1 Samuel
Property 19
10–11 48
Timothy H. Lim, Hector L.
Israel Antiquities Authority
MacQueen, and Calum M.
Carmichael (eds.) (Sheffield:
11 Fragment of
Sheffield Academic Press, 2001)
4QGen-Exoda naming
5 Aerial view of Khirbet Mount Moriah as
Qumran 24 ‘Elohim Yireh’ 50
Albatross Israel Antiquities Authority
6 Maps of the Dead Sea 12 David and Goliath in
area, showing location of battle 53
Khirbet Qumran, the
The Metropolitan Museum of
caves, and cemetery 28 Art, gift of J. Pierpont Morgan,
1917