Living Questions (1).
The Dead Sea
Scrolls
Themes
An
Invitation to Journey
Questions from the
Foundations: Bible, Tradition, Experience and Tradition
Thinking
Theologically
Creativity and
Stories of Creation
Restoring
Relationships
Evil and a God of
Love: The Place of Suffering
Intimacy with God
Social Justice and
the Prophets
A Kingdom without
Walls: Ruth and Jonah
Lives of Jesus
Compassion: The
Heart Of Jesus’ Ministry
Paul and Religious
Diversity
Our United Church
In the World: Many
faiths, Many cultures Many Gifts
An Invitation to Journey
“Wisdom is asking the questions
for which there are no answers.” –Harrell Beck
*Respect for every person and question.
*There are no “dum (b)” questions.
*Listening with care to the questions
of others.
*Be open to “answers” we do not expect.
*Be open to the reality that there may
be no one answer.
“Human beings live in story like fish
in the sea.”--John Dominic
Crossan
Sessions Outline
Questions From the Foundations: 3 Sessions:
The Dead Sea
Scrolls: The desert sands of scripture and tradition
Tradition and Canon
Hebrew Roots
(TANAKH): God of Liberation
Historical Jesus:
Gallilean Peasant?
Greek Roots and
Routes (Gospels and Writings)
The Early Church
Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead
Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1947-1956 in 11 caves (5 by Beduin;
6 by archaeologists) on the upper northwest shore of the Dead Sea.
Near the caves are
the ancient ruins of Qumran.
The Scrolls appear
to be the library of a Jewish sect which was hidden away in caves
around the outbreak of the Jewish-Roman War (66 C.E.).
The sect has most
often been identified with the Essenes, who are mentioned by the
historian Josephus and are in a few other sources, but are not in the
New Testament.
The Scrolls so far
discovered represent a library of over 900 documents representing as
many as 350 separate works in multiple copies, many of which are
represented only by fragments.
Cave 4 alone
contained 520 texts in 15,000 fragments.
This library
contains copies of the Scriptures (Isaiah Scroll), copies of other
non-canonical books known to us (Enoch), and holy writings which the
group itself produced (rules of faith, commentaries on Scriptures, and
many other fascinating works otherwise unknown to us).
In Cave 3, there
was one Copper Scroll found, which contains a list of 64 hiding places
where gold, silver, sacred objects, and other scrolls were hidden.
The major intact
texts, from Caves 1 & 11, came into Israeli hands and were
published by the late 1950's--they are now in the Shrine of the Book
museum in Jerusalem.
The bulk of the
scrolls were in Jordanian control and were placed with a team of
Christian scholars.
As much as 40% of
the Scrolls, mostly fragments from Cave 4, remained unpublished and
unreleased (photos), until pressure mounted in the 1980's.
Scrolls related to
those found in the caves around Qumran were also found at Masada, the
Herodian fortress taken over by Jewish Zealots after the fall of
Jerusalem in 70 C.E. and finally taken by the Romans in 73 C.E.
An ostracon (inscribed pottery sherd) containing a
16 line letter written in 68 C.E. by someone giving their property over
to the community was discovered at the site of Qumran in January, 1996.
Bibliography.
Fitzmyer,
Joseph A. The Dead Sea Scrolls:
Major Publications and Tools
for Study. Society of Biblical Literature Resources for Biblical
Study,
no. 20. Atlanta, Ga: Scholars Press, 1990. A basic reference book
that allows you to see what has
been published about each scroll.
Fitzmyer, Joseph A. Responses to 101
Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls.
New York: Paulist Press, 1992. Answers to the most frequently asked
questions about
the scrolls by a prominent scholar in the field.
Hackwell, W. John. Signs, Letters,
Words. New York: Scribner's,
1987. A history of writing as put together from
archaeological evidence.
Shanks, Hershel, editor. Understanding
the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader
from the Biblical Archaeology Review. New York: Random House,
1992. Anthology of articles by various authors with
different points of view which provides a popular introduction to the
controversy surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls. The editor was
responsible
for getting the scrolls exposed to the world through facsimile
editions.
Thiede, Carsten Peter. The
Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish Origins
of Christianity. New York: Palgrave/MacMillan, 2003. This
book looks at the relationship between First Century Judaism and its
sister religion Christianity. He argues that the community that
created and preserved the scrolls viewed the emerging “Christian”
communities as part of Judaism. A book that proposes a new kind
of
relationship between the Dead Sea Scroll community and the emerging
Christian community.
Vermes, Geza. The Dead Sea Scrolls
In English. 3rd edition. London:
Penguin Books, 1990. An authoritative translation of the
scrolls by an
Oxford scholar. In hardback and paperback editions.
Vermes, Geza. The Dead Sea Scrolls:
Qumran in Perspective. Revised
edition. Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1977. Presents the view
that the scrolls are a product of
the Essenes, a sectarian group. Provides a good introduction on a
scholarly level. Available in hardback and paperback editions. The
author
is the keynote speaker at the Library of Congress symposium.
Wilson, Edmund. Israel and the Dead
Sea Scrolls. New York: Farrar Straus
Giroux, 1978. Excellent introduction by a famous critic
concerning
the discovery and early theories about the Qumran community. First
appeared in the New Yorker in the 1950's where it served to introduce
millions of Americans to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Yadin, Yigael. The Temple Scroll:
The Hidden Law of the Dead Sea Sect.
New York: Random House, 1985.
Describes the last large scroll -- the Temple Scroll
-- to be uncovered. The profuse illustrations and accessible content
make
this a worthwhile book for secondary school use.
Some related web-sites:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Texts/dss.html
http://www.centuryone.com/25dssfacts.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/toc.html
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/SCR/Scrolls.html
http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~humm/Resources/Texts/dss.html
An Australian Broadcasting Link: (interview with Vermes) is
particularly interesting because it is an interview with Geza Vermes
and
others with first hand expertise and scholarship on the scrolls (it has
sound as well as written transcript of the interview):
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/features/scrolls/default.htm
The Gnostic Society Library also
offers good material):
http://www.gnosis.org/library/dss/dss.htm
The Bible and Science gives
an excellent introduction:
http://www.bibleandscience.com/archaeology/discoveries/scrolls.htm
and Wikipedia provides a pretty good
over
view:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_scrolls