The Dead Sea Scrolls are 900 fragments of what were scrolls in antiquity, which constituted the library of a group of Jews who lived at the shore of the Dead Sea. Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
The Scrolls fall into three categories – books of the Hebrew scriptures, apocryphal literature and materials from the sectarians themselves. Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
The richness of the inner debate of Judaism and the beautiful literature of the Second Temple period becomes clear through the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
The real relevance of the Dead Sea Scrolls is not the Scrolls themselves, but a real understanding of Second Temple times. Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University
The Shrine of the Book is the home of several exceptional archaeological finds: the Dead Sea Scrolls and other rare ancient manuscripts. The dome covers a structure which is two-thirds below the ground, and is reflected in a pool of water that surrounds it. Across from the white dome is a black basalt wall. According […]
Secondary sources Frequently Asked Questions about the Dead Sea Scrolls What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? Lawrence H. Schiffman, COJS. Dead Sea Scrolls Overview The Dead Sea Scrolls Timeline The Dead Sea Scrolls, John J. Collins, Anchor Bible Dictionary (ed. David Noel Freedman), Doubleday, NY, 1992, Vol.2, p.85-101. Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls This study’s point of departure is a collection of obscure Josephan narratives, most in his Antiquities and one in the Jewish War, dealing with clashes between religious figures and Roman authorities in first-century Judaea. The obscurity results from Josephus’ failure to explain the clashes. He merely reports what happens, without explaining […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls After the destruction of the second temple in 70 C.E. the rabbis gathered in Yavneh and launched the process which yielded the Mishnah approximately one hundred years later. Most modern scholars see these rabbis as Pharisees triumphant who define “orthodoxy,” expel Christians and other heretics, and purge the canon of “dangerous” […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls Fifty Years After Their Discovery (ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman, Emanuel Tov and James C. VanderKam), Israel Exploration Society, Jerusalem 2000, p.587-599. The following discussion aims to study the halakhic opposition to sectarianism. Based on a close reading of talmudic texts and rulings, an interpretation grounded in actual […]
