Nascent Christianity between Sectarian and Broader Judaism: Lessons from the Dead Sea Scrolls

Scholars of Qumran have developed methods and insights that make it possible to distinguish between the material in the Scrolls that relates to the exclusive beliefs and practices of the group that supposedly produced the manuscripts, and the content associated with the beliefs and practices shared with "wider Judaism." This invites a critical reassessment of the "witness value" of the traditions formed within the nascent Christian community – another eschatologically inclined Jewish group from the period preceding the destruction of the Temple. While some elements here clearly represent the peculiar outlook of the Jesus movement, others seem to reflect religious patterns of broader circulation. Discussing a few characteristic examples, this paper suggests that the comparative study of the New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls (together with other relevant Jewish writings) allows for a better understanding of the interaction between the "sectarian" and "common" Jewish elements in earliest Christianity, on the one hand, and for a fuller picture of what is called Formative Judaism, on the other.