The Bible and Its Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are of immense significance for the history of the text and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. This illustrated lecture led by Professor Lawrence Schiffman, will discuss the character of the various text-types in evidence in the Qumran biblical manuscripts and their significance for the history of the biblical text. The lecture will explore the various forms of biblical exegesis, rewritten Bible, Pesher and legal interpretation, and their contribution to the history of Judaism and Christianity.
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 7:30 PM on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/87968544830 Passcode 171692
The Purple of Royalty
A recent report from Israeli archaeologists should be of great interest to all of us. Excavations at Timna, just north of Eilat, have revealed a hoard of textiles, including some dyed purple, from the era of Kings Dovid and Shlomo, almost 3,000 years ago. No, Timna was not part of the Jewish kingdom at that time, but this is very much a story of significance for the history of Bnei Yisrael in the time of the Tanach. In fact, we will see that it is even connected to our understanding of the building of the Beis Hamikdash.
Read The Purple of Royalty in Ami Magazine.
John the Baptist and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Purity Perspectives
I want to begin my remarks today with a methodological issue that needs to be brought to bear in the attempt to place John the Baptist squarely within the framework of Second Temple Judaism. This has to do first with the extent of our knowledge of the religious situation in the Greco-Roman period in the Land of Israel and, second, with the ramifications of this situation on the use of comparative evidence.
Here is what concerns me: we need to recognize that the amount of information that we have about the complex ferment of ideas that was going on in this period is very fragmentary. This is true not only about many of the significant texts that were recovered at Qumran, of which we have some 5-15% preserved (judging form biblical MSS), but also about the various groups that we term “sects.” After all, had the Dead Sea Scrolls not been preserved and had they not been found, look how much less complex our view of Second Temple Judaism would have been! Now imagine how much richer our understanding would be if the libraries or genizot of other communities (assuming that such collections existed) were to come to light. So… Continue reading
