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11 - Scriptural interpretation at Qumran

from Part II - The Hebrew Bible and Old Testaments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2013

James Carleton Paget
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Joachim Schaper
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
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Summary

The Qumran Dead Sea scrolls constitute a collection of Jewish manuscripts recovered from eleven caves near an ancient settlement called Khirbet Qumran on the north-western shore of the Dead Sea. The interpretation of scripture in sectarian manuscripts is central to understanding the Qumran community in its late Second Temple context. This chapter demonstrates how diverse the interpretation of the scriptures at Qumran was. It is possible to see in the Qumran sectarian writings a range of interpretative methods from plain-sense exegesis through more ideologically motivated handling of scriptural texts to what Bernstein has classed eisegesis. The Damascus document contains instances of both plain-sense and highly ideological exegesis. Scholars have noticed various interpretative techniques at Qumran and elsewhere in the late Second Temple period. Attempts have been made to identify similarities with the exegetical rules of later rabbinic literature.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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