Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Maxine L. Grossman is associate professor of Jewish studies and religious studies in the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland. Her other work includes Reading for History in the Damascus Document: A Methodol

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Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Contents

Contributors..................................................................................................................................................................ixAbbreviations.................................................................................................................................................................xiIntroduction: Tools for Our Work..............................................................................................................................................1When the Evidence Does Not Fit: Method, Theory, and the Dead Sea Scrolls Sarianna Metso......................................................................................11Constructing, Deconstructing and Reconstructing Fragmentary Manuscripts: Illustrated by a Study of 4Q184 (4QWiles of the Wicked Woman) Eibert Tigchelaar.....................26The Linguistic Analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls: More Than (Initially) Meets the Eye Martin G. Abegg, Jr.....................................................................48The Dynamics of Change in the Computer Imaging of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient Inscriptions Bruce Zuckerman........................................................69Methods and Theories in the Archaeology of Qumran Jodi Magness...............................................................................................................89Dead Sea Scrolls and the Historiography of Ancient Judaism Hayim Lapin.......................................................................................................108Counterfactual History and the Dead Sea Scrolls James R. Davila..............................................................................................................128Methodological Reflections on Determining Scriptural Status in First Century Judaism Eugene Ulrich...........................................................................145Sources and Redaction in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Growth of Ancient Texts Charlotte Hempel..................................................................................162Sociological Models for Understanding the Scribal Practices in the Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls Steve Delamarter................................................................182Rhetorical Criticism and the Dead Sea Scrolls Carol A. Newsom................................................................................................................198Of Calendars, Community Rules, and Common Knowledge: Understanding 4QSe-4QOtot, with Help from Ritual Studies Robert Kugler..................................................215Women and Men in the Rule of the Congregation: A Feminist Critical Assessment Maxine L. Grossman.............................................................................229Social-Scientific Approaches to the Dead Sea Scrolls Jutta Jokiranta.........................................................................................................246The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Essenes, and the Study of Religious Belief: Determinism and Freedom of Choice Jonathan Klawans.....................................................264Bibliography..................................................................................................................................................................284Index of Subjects.............................................................................................................................................................307Index of Ancient Texts and Manuscripts........................................................................................................................................311

Introduction

The study of the Dead Sea Scrolls is, at its most basic, an interdisciplinary endeavor. In identifying, reconstructing, translating, and interpreting the texts from Qumran — not to mention assigning meaning to them in the larger contexts of ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and biblical studies — scrolls scholars range widely through the fields of philology, literary analysis, ancient history, and beyond. The fragmentary state of the evidence makes such interdisciplinary work a necessity. But interdisciplinarity is also an opportunity — to contextualize the evidence in new ways, introduce new modes of analysis, and potentially reconfigure the larger picture of the world of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The purpose of this volume on methods and theories in the study of these texts is to bring together a range of diverse perspectives on and scholarly approaches to the scrolls, some addressing issues that are foundational to the field, and some exploring avenues that lead in untested or experimental directions. In formulating their contributions, authors were asked to provide not only an introduction to a given approach to the scrolls, but also a more self-reflective assessment of the limits of their approaches and the potential pitfalls associated with them. Contributors were also invited to focus on a single example or a cluster of related examples, in the interest of providing readers with a concrete and vivid sense of how their approaches work in actual practice.

Interest in questions of method has ebbed and flowed over the course of the history of scrolls scholarship, but the current moment — in which full editions of the scrolls and helpful electronic tools are available to students and scholars with diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise — is one in which methodological pursuits are particularly apt. Several conferences have been devoted to the subject of how the scrolls are studied, and these have generated conference volumes that serve as important resources in the field. A number of comprehensive treatments of the scrolls also incorporate discussions of scholarly approaches to the texts, material culture, and contexts of the scrolls, and the fiftieth anniversary of their discovery generated a significant burst of publications a decade ago, reflecting similar interests.

This volume attempts to do something a bit different from these more comprehensive scholarly resources. First, the essays collected here are purposely introductory. Contributors have been careful to define their terms and outline their questions in ways that will be inviting to new readers without being off-putting to those with more scrolls experience. Ideally, these essays will be of use to established scholars and senior graduate students, but they are equally designed to be accessible to serious undergraduate students in courses on the scrolls, and to those whose interest in the scrolls comes out of their work in other areas of study. At the same time, this volume purposely is not an introduction, in the sense of a comprehensive treatment of approaches to the scrolls as such. Although interest in a certain degree of coverage can be seen in the topics addressed here, the real focus of this volume is on the overlap and intersection of interests that reflect the current state of scholarship in the field, as well as its potential for future development. Thus, some topics — scribal practices, Scripture and its transmission, the nature of the rule texts — have necessarily received attention from multiple authors, while other topics — the calendar texts, Josephus's treatment of fate and free will...