Revitalization in Judea: An Anthropological Study of the Damascus Document

This thesis seeks to gain a fresh perspective on the movement reflected in the Damascus Document by asking if it could be seen as a Revitalization Movement, a theoretical construct developed by the American anthropologist Anthony Wallace. Signs of a cultural identity crisis and the changes in society causing it are evident throughout the Damascus Document.
By comparing the findings to Wallace’s model, we understand that the movement could have developed as a reaction to a context of profound cultural changes. This study challenges the prominent view that the major crisis causing the rise of the movement was the Babylonian
exile, as another paradigm related to Isa 7.17, featuring Ephraim’s departure from Judah, is alluded to in several ways. The princes of Judah are compared to Ephraim and depicted as those who depart, because they have adopted a foreign way of life, the way of the kings of Greece. While both paradigms were seen to represent collective memories used as warnings of judgment, the theme of division of the northern and the southern kingdoms in the past is portrayed as comparable to the current conflict in society.