The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls

by Joseph A. Fitzmyer

Publisher:

Paulist Press

, 2009

Overview

Noted Bible scholar Joseph A. Fitzmyer assesses the impact of the texts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Written for interested readers and students of the Bible, this book emphasizes the importance of the discovery of these texts along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1963.

Contents

• The Dead Sea Scrolls: Terminology, Discovery, and Dating
• The Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeology, the Excavation of Khirbet Qumran
• The Palestinian Jewish Sect of the Essenes: History and Organization
• The Languages of the Scrolls
• The Scriptures in the Scrolls: Old Testament, Targums, Canon
• The Use and Interpretation of Scripture in the Sect
• Apocryphal, Sapiential, Liturgical, and Eschatological Literature
• Beliefs and Practices of the Sect: Dualism, Eschatology, Messianism, Calendar
• The Scrolls and Christianity: John the Baptist, Jesus of Nazareth, New Testament
• The Scrolls and the Writings of Paul of Tarsus
• The Scrolls and Johannine Writings
• The Scrolls and Other Christian Writings
• The Copper Scroll
• The End of the Qumran Community

Top Highlights

“In the broad sense, it denotes texts, not discovered in the Dead Sea itself, but in caves and holes along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1963.” (Page 1)

“These Qumran Scrolls have supplied texts that fall into three groups: (1) biblical texts (copies of every book of the OT, except Esther); (2) sectarian texts (rulebooks, liturgical, and poetic writings); and (3) parabiblical Jewish documents, often misnamed ‘intertestamental’ (Enoch, Jubilees, etc.).” (Page 11)

“In one instance, the text is preserved in both Hebrew and Aramaic (the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit)” (Page v)

“A Bedouin boy, subsequently identified as Jum‘a Muhammad Khalil, had been tending goats, when one of them went astray. As he went in search of it, he idly tossed a stone through a hole in a cliff and heard it break something. Out of curiosity, he and some companions returned two days later, enlarged the hole, and crept into a small cave. There one of the companions, Muhammad ed-Di’b, discovered eight jars, in two of which he found seven scrolls, some wrapped in ancient linen, along with many fragments. In March 1947, he and his companions brought the scrolls and fragments to an antiquities dealer in Bethlehem, known as Kando (Khalil Iskander Shahin).” (Pages 2–3)

“The result of this remarkable find between 1947 and 1956 has been hailed as ‘the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times’ (W. F. Albright).” (Page 10)

Product Details

• Title: The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls
• Author: Joseph A. Fitzmyer
• Publisher: Paulist Press
• Print Publication Date: 2009
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 176
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Qumran community; Dead Sea Scrolls; Dead Sea Scrolls › Relation to the New Testament
• ISBNs: 9780809146154, 0809146150
• Resource ID: LLS:IMPCTDDSSCRLLS
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:05:34Z

About Joseph A. Fitzmyer

Joseph A. Fitzmyer (1920–2016), SJ, was professor emeritus of biblical studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He was a noted scholar of New Testament and Aramaic, and taught at Woodstock College, University of Chicago, Fordham University, and Weston School of Theology. In 1984 he was awarded the Berkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by the British Royal Academy. He was the American member of the Biblical Commission, president of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, and past president of both The Society of Biblical Literature and the Catholic Biblical Association. He authored over 20 books, including The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins, and he was coeditor of the New Jerome Biblical Commentary.