Reading the Dead Sea Scrolls: Essays in Method

Full title
Reading the Dead Sea Scrolls: Essays in Method
Updated By
Research notes

NR/Reader checked/26/11/2013

Reference type
Author(s)
Brooke, George J.
Year
2013
Issue / Series Volume
39
Series Title
Early Judaism and Its Literature
Publisher
Society of Biblical Literature
Place of Publication
Atlanta
Work type
Label
28/10/2013
Abstract

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which have long captured the public imagination, are now all available in principal editions and accessible translations. This book addresses the next stage in their analysis by raising questions about how they should be read and studied. The essays collected here illustrate two approaches. First, some essays argue that traditional methods of studying ancient texts need to be refined and broadened in the light of the Scrolls. The volume thus contains studies on text criticism, literary traditions, lexicography, historiography, and theology. Second, the book also argues that innovative methods of study, applied fruitfully in other areas, now also need to be applied to the Scrolls, such as studies that consider the relevance for the Scrolls of deviance theory, cultural memory, hypertextuality, intertextuality, genre theory, spatial analysis, and psychology. Many of the examples in these studies relate to how authoritative scripture was handled and appropriated by the groups that gathered the Scrolls together in the caves at and near Qumran, so some of the same texts are analyzed from several different perspectives.