Eileen Schuller

Women in the Dead Sea Scrolls

In keeping with the concerns of this Conference for issues of methodology in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, I would like to situate this paper and take some methodological clues h m a broader area than is perhaps usual in Qumran Studies. Today, it is acknowledged that “’women in antiquity’ is now a fully established area of specialization within classical scholarship,”’ and, more specifically, the study of women in the religions of the ancient world has developed into a sub-specialization. A feminist critical methodology has evolved which seeks to put women as well as men at the center of our study and reconstructions. Given the androcentric nature of both our ancient sources and of much modem scholarship, this has necessitated a painstaking task of reading old texts with new presuppositions about the presence and roles of women, of gathering and preserving whatever information has survived, and of using a disciplined imagination in the reconstruction of historical reality. In an important survey article in 1983, Ross Kraemer was already able to synthesize an extensive body of primary research on women in Early Christianity and in the Greco-Roman religions; however, on turning to Judaism, she noted the contrast: “all in all, there has been very little carehl scholarly consideration of women in the varieties of Judaism in late antiquity.”2 The last ten years have done much to fill this lacuna and there are now major studies on Jewish women in the Diaspora, in Philo, Josephus, in the Mishnah, and in much of the Apocrypha and P~eudepigrapha.~ Yet there has not been, to my knowledge, similar scholarly work on women in that type (those types)

The Dead Sea Scrolls

This volume considers the transmission of interpretive traditions and the details of scribal practices. The essays explore the variety of ways that texts are interpreted at Qumran and also re-evaluates sectarian categorizations of texts along with distinctive scribal practices.

Canadian Scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls

Canadian scholars actively involved in the acquisition, publication and study of the Dead Sea Scrolls from as early as 1950 up until the present. This article demonstrates that Canadian scholars have been well represented in almost every aspect of Dead Sea Scrolls research. In addition, a number of tadopted Canadianst have contributed in major ways to the publication of the Scrolls. The survey has indicated, graduate work on the Scrolls has been centered at a cluster of universities: in French-speaking Canada at Universite de Montreal, in English Canada at McMaster University and more recently at the University of Toronto, and at Trinity Western University, Langley, B. C. Finally, some mention should be made of what has proven to be a major avenue in Canada for the promotion and dissemination of information about the Scrolls to the general public: public exhibits of the Scrolls themselves. Keywords:canadian scholars; Dead Sea Scrolls; publication

Women In The Dead Sea Scrolls: Research In The Past Decade And Future Directions

For the sixtieth anniversary conference held at the Shrine of the Book in July 2008 the author was asked by the conference organizers to survey developments in research on women in the Dead Sea Scrolls over the past ten years and to look ahead to the future. By the late 1990s in the field of Biblical Studies, both Old Testament/ Hebrew Bible and New Testament, much attention had been devoted to exploring women in the texts and in the communities that produced these texts. In surveying the last ten years, it becomes apparent that there is a core of passages and topics that have generated ongoing scholarly attentionand about which the final word has probably not been said. As we look to the future, it is becoming increasingly clear that we will not advance our understanding of how women fit by focusing only on those texts that name women explicitly. Keywords: Dead Sea Scrolls; Qumran; women

Recent Scholarship on the Hodayot 1993–2010

The Hodayot are a collection of poetic compositions of praise and thanksgiving that first became known with the discovery of the manuscripts in the caves of Qumran. These texts are preserved in eight copies, two found in cave l (1QHa, 1QHb) and six found in cave 4 (4QHa-e, 4QpapHf, 4Q427-432). This collection is reckoned, along with compositions such as the Rule of the Community, the War Scroll and the Pesharim, as one of the core sectarian documents of the specific type of Judaism reflected in the scrolls. The first part of this article describes the manuscripts, 1QHa, 1QHb, and 4QHa-f, with a specific focus on the distinctive features of each that contribute to our understanding of the nature and formation of the collection; the second part discusses specific topics that have been important in Hodayot research since the publication of the manuscripts from cave 4.

The Dead Sea Scrolls And Jewish-Christian Dialogue

The occasion of the fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls called forth numerous academic conferences and survey volumes attempts to articulate and synthesize the wide ranging importance and influence of this discovery for the study of the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, New Testament, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Septuagint, Hebrew and Aramaic linguistics, and still more related fields of scholarship. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has also played a role, both directly and indirectly, in the Jewish-Christian dialogue as it has developed in the post-World War II era. In this chapter, the author suggests that one can see different ways in which the scrolls have had an impact on Jewish-Christian relations: (1) on the academic study of early Judaism and early Christianity; (2) on statements from Jewish-Christian dialogue; and (3) on personal relationships. Keywords: Dead Sea Scrolls; early Christianity; early Judaism; Jewish-Christian Relations

Book Review: 4Qinstruction: the Mystery of Existence: Jean-Sebastien Rey, 4QInstruction: Sagesse et Eschatologie (Leiden: Brill, 2008.

This book, a revision of the author’s 2006 dissertation at Marc Bloch University Strasbourg and the Catholic University of Leuven, is a close study of 4QInstruction, a major wisdom text preserved in eight very fragmentary copies among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The editio princeps was published in 1999 in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert 34, edited by John Strugnell and Daniel Harrington. Rey has presented a much expanded analysis of the best preserved and most significant fragments. His independent work on the text usually confirms what is in DJD, but he does propose different Hebrew readings and new reconstructions in a number of places. The book is divided into three sections. The first is a technical study of Hebrew linguistic features and vocabulary that demonstrate close ties between 4QInstruction and Ben Sira, columns 3-4 on the Two Spirits in the Rule of the Community and three specific passages in the Hodayot. The second and longest section is a careful exposition of standard sapiential themes: poverty, agriculture, husband and wife, and respect for parents. The third section analyzes the distinctive way in which this work combines eschatology, creation and ethics, in particular, the repeated use of the phrase ‘the mystery of existence.’ Very briefly, Rey summarizes his conclusions about 4QInstruction: it is roughly contemporaneous with Ben Sira but has quite different views especially on poverty and wealth; it is ‘d’origine essénienne mais non qumrânienne;’ knowledge of ‘the mystery of existence’ is the essence of the wisdom that leads to salvation; this wisdom is universal and accessible to all. Although the author’s brief proposal of an ‘essene’ origin is rather nebulous and needs further development, the book as a whole is a learned and insightful analysis that contributes much to the study of this important text.

199.00. pp. 339. ISBN: 978-90-04-17268-5)

this regard I have a suggestion: the introductory chapter on Pentateuchal criticism might well have been reduced to a few footnote references-there are a plethora of works that cover this-and its place taken by a careful argument for incorporating Jungian psychological theory into the interpretation of biblical texts. I realize my plea is probably in vain; it seems almost mandatory that technical studies such as this plod through the rather dry details of where we have been before they take us where they wish to go! Larry R. Helyer Department of Religion & Philosophy Taylor University