There is still a popular conception that the Dead Sea Scrolls can solve the problem of early Christianity, but that prevents us from learning about the rise of Christianity through these Jewish texts. Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
Overview Overview- The Decline of Sectarianism Primary sources The Theodotus Inscription in Jerusalem- The Functions of the Synagogue, Texts and Traditions, ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken NJ, 1998, p.474. Secondary sources Qumran in the Roman Period, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1994. Masada and Its […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls The emergence of the new consensus becomes even clearer when we look at the documents found in the Bar Kokhba caves located along the shore of the Dead Sea, south of Qumran and north of Masada, primarily at Wadi Murabba‘at and Nahal Hever. Some of these documents, which allegedly came from […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls In March 1952 a team of archaeologists discovered in Qumran Cave 3 a scroll engraved on two copper sheets which had originally formed one whole 2.40 × 0.30 m in size (de Vaux 1953- 85–86). In 1955/56 H. W. Baker (1956) at Manchester University in England solved the difficult task of […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls The priests and sectarians of Qumran never cut off entirely their relations with the priests of Jerusalem, despite their strenuous opposition to and criticism of the views and practices of those priests. As a result of this ongoing contact, the strange document known as the Copper Scroll reached Qumran. This scroll, […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls Ironically, what also encouraged the shift from sectarianism to Jewish consensus in the first century C.E. was the rise of Christianity. Although I have intentionally confined my study to issues bearing primarily on the history of Judaism, I have occasionally mentioned how the scrolls relate to Christianity. We have seen that […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls For many years, the Dead Sea sect had expected the Roman conquest of Palestine. The Dead Sea sectarians felt confident that the coming of the Kittim—as they called the Romans—would trigger the great eschatological battle. But this final, expected war failed to materialize after the Romans easily defeated the divided Hasmonaean […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls This inscription, of the mid-first century C.E., not only introduces us to a family of archisynagogues but explains some of the purposes of the synagogue itself. The early date of this inscription testifies to the presence of a synagogue in Jerusalem even before the destruction of the Second Temple. Theodotus, son […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls The sectarianism of the Second Temple period involved itself primarily with thoughtful debate on the correct interpretation of the Torah and the shape of Jewish life and law. It also led the Jewish people into an unsuccessful revolt against Rome. This defeat led to the end of sectarianism and the emergence […]