Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman

It is important to compare what you have seen in the scrolls with parallel material in the other Second Temple texts, New Testament and rabbinic literature.  (Meyer)

Philo

Philo seems to display two closely related approaches.  The first is a type of anthropological dualism.  In this approach, Philo generally takes a negative view of flesh (Greek sarks).  It is the seat of characteristics that essentially enslave the spirit.  Bodily desire is what led Eve to transgression. In the same way, the passions of men are kindled by, thus causing sin.  The soul also can give rise to evil, although only when the flesh has power over it.  But because of his Judaism, Philo maintains the concept of free will including the will to choose between good and evil.  He emphasizes that human beings may not use their physical constitution as an excuse for transgression.  But he also has a second approach, a type of cosmic dualism, in which God is a understood as a non-fleshly, non-corporeal being.  Hence, only that which fits the same non-physical category, that is, the soul, can truly know God.  In this approach, the body… Continue reading →

The Qumran sectarian corpus offers us a unique opportunity to study the links between several central, underlying concepts in the ideology of the Dead Sea sect. Specifically, in keeping with our theme all “embodiment,” we seek to investigate a number of ideas that are prominent in the Qumran corpus that are connected with concepts of the body. These particular beliefs are linked in a complex interplay that we hope to explain and illustrate. While our title highlights body and soul and purity and impurity, we will also see that these issues are in turn closely linked to concepts of sin and atonement.  While this presentation will concentrate on sectarian texts, we will also refer to a variety of other Second Temple compositions. This will enable us to provide a context for our discussion.

Bodily Imagery in the Hodayot

The Hodayot (Thanksgiving) Scroll deals extensively with issues pertaining to the nature of the human body.  We should first look at passages that describe the human body in negative terms. It appears that these notions are not based on an assumption of a strict division between body and soul. Rather, the soul is regarded as apportioned into one of two… Continue reading →

Among other issues, 4Q266 also takes up the question of purification after childbirth.  This topic also appears in 4Q265 (Miscellaneous Rules) where an explanation for the number of days of purity and impurity is found that is also paralleled in Jub.3:8-14.[1] Our passage is closely based on Lev. 12:2-8.  At the end, we are told that the parturient (like the menstrually impure woman and one who has had an irregular flow) may not eat of holy foods nor enter the sanctuary, and that violation of these two regulations constitutes a capital crime (lines 9-10).  Our text has rearranged the biblical order of these restrictions in order to make the points that they apply after the birth of both male and female offspring and that they apply both to the times of “impure blood” and to those of “pure blood.”  From the Bible, we would not have known that a violation of this regulation would constitute a capital crime, but our text makes that claim.

Regarding the text’s emphasis on the fact that the offerings occur after both periods have elapsed and that only then may the parturient eat of holy food or enter the Temple,… Continue reading →