DISCOVERIES IN THE JUDAEAN DESERT: VOLUME XVIII. QUMRAN CAVE 4: XIII by Joseph M. Baumgarten (Editor) ( 9780198263968 )

Item Details

Title:

DISCOVERIES IN THE JUDAEAN DESERT: VOLUME XVIII. QUMRAN CAVE 4: XIII
THE DAMASCUS DOCUMENT (4Q266-273)

By:

Joseph M. Baumgarten (Editor)

Format:

Hardback

List price:

£290.00

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ISBN 10:

0198263961

ISBN 13:

9780198263968

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Publisher:

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

16 January, 1997

Series:

Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XVIII

Pages:

256

Description:

This edition presents for the first time eight the Qumran manuscripts of the Damascus Document, the key work for understanding the history, theology, and legal doctrines of the Dead Sea Scroll community. The new texts include the hitherto unknown beginning and ending of the work as well as substantial additions to the corpus of laws. These primary sources are essential for all students of early rabbinic Judaism as well as the background ofChristianity.

Synopsis:

In this long awaited edition Baumgarten presents all the known Qumran Cave 4 manuscripts of the Damascus Document on the basis of J. T. Milik's original transcriptions. These eight manuscripts antedate the two medieval Cairo Geniza texts (CD) by more than a millennium and are indispensable for all future literary and historical studies on one of the major foundational works of the Qumran community. For the first time we have the paraenetic beginning and ending of the work, as well as major additions to the legal corpus found in one of the medieval texts. The laws of this corpus and the historical identification of the Jews who formulated them were earlier in this century the subject of much controversy, but have since been largely ignored in Qumran scholarship. Some even suggested that they were not an integral part of the Damascus Document. It is now apparent from the expanded corpus that the interpretation of biblical law was a central concern of the Qumran community. Among the new subjects treated are such matters as the ethical arrangement of marriages, the role of women in the sect, and the legal status of fetal life.These laws are found side by side with allusions to the cosmic conflict of light and darkness and a view of history in which periods of wrath are ordained to precede the end of days.

Illustrations:

42 pp plates

Publication:

Imprint:

Clarendon Press

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Returnable

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DISCOVERIES IN THE JUDAEAN DESERT: VOLUME XXXV. HALAKHIC TEXTS (HB)