Cecilia Wassen

On the Education of Children in the Dead Sea Scrolls

This article examines three passages from the Rule of the Congregation and the Damascus Document that pertain to the topic of children’s education. The education of children was considered important within the Qumran movement, which is evident in the curriculum in 1QSa and the fact that such a high-level official as the Examiner had a supervisory role over the teaching. In contrast to the level of education of children in Jewish society in general at the turn of the era, which appears to have been quite rudimentary and consisting mainly of memorization, it appears that children within the movement received a thorough education in both reading and writing. The content of the teaching focused on the laws of the Torah and the Book of Hagu, which is an unknown composition. It is likely that both boys and girls received some education. Cet article examine trois passages de la Règle de la Congrégation et le Document de Damas qui se rapportent au thème de l’éducation des enfants. L’éducation des enfants était considérée comme importante au sein du mouvement de Qumrân, importance qui est évidente dans le programme de 1QSa et le fait qu’un tel fonctionnaire de haut niveau que l’examinateur a eu un rôle de supervision sur l’enseignement. Contrairement au niveau de l’éducation des enfants dans la société juive en général au début de l’époque, qui semble avoir été assez rudimentaire et composé principalement de mémorisation, il semble que les enfants au sein du mouvement ont reçu une éducation complète en lecture et en écrit. Le contenu de l’enseignement a été axé sur les lois de la Torah et le Livre d’Hagu, qui est une composition inconnue. Il est probable que les garçons et les filles ont reçu une certaine éducation.

Women, Worship, Wilderness, and War: Celibacy and the Constructions of Identity in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Women, Worship, Wilderness, and War: Celibacy and the Constructions of Identity in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Jesus' Table Fellowship with "Toll Collectors and Sinners" Questioning the Alleged Purity Implications

Jesus’ attitude towards purity practices is a hotly debated issue. The majority of scholars argue that Jesus challenged purity halakhah in some way. One of the proofs cited to support the position that Jesus allegedly disregarded purity laws is that he ate with “tax collectors and sinners.” Whereas purity concerns are not explicit on the story level in the texts, many scholars still find Jesus’ actions contradictory to the norms. This paper discusses if purity plays a part, and if so how, in Jesus’ sharing meals with people considered sinners. As I will show, purity concerns only play a minor role in Jesus’ meal practice and there is nothing in his behaviour that indicates that he somehow challenged purity norms, only social norms.

The Use of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Interpreting Jesus’s Action in the Temple

In order to understand Jesus’s violent outburst in the temple, scholars frequently turn to Jewish texts from the late Second Temple Period, including the Dead Sea Scrolls. The same texts are used to support contrasting explanations of the event. This paper evaluates these interpretations and offers an analysis of the key texts on the Jerusalem temple in the Scrolls. It concludes that the negative attitudes towards the temple that are reflected in Jesus’s action and some of the sectarian writings from Qumran share an expectation that the temple would become defiled in the end time. From such an apocalyptic perspective, it did not matter how the temple priests actually ran their business, since they were bound to be criticized by those Jews, such as Jesus and the Qumran sectarians, for whom the final age had arrived.

Index of Other Ancient Sources

A timely collection of contributions by major scholars in the field of prayer and poetry in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Index of Qumran References

A timely collection of contributions by major scholars in the field of prayer and poetry in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Index of Biblical References

A timely collection of contributions by major scholars in the field of prayer and poetry in the Dead Sea Scrolls.