BIB 615 Dead Sea Scrolls
This introduction to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls concentrates on selected issues: their historical context's, including a survey of the archaeological issues regarding the site of Qumran and the caves, a survey of the history of their study, the literary nature of the corpus and the variety of genres encompassed therein, and contemporary approaches to and issues in their study. Each of these issues is discussed in connection with the careful reading of key texts. We include portions of the manuscripts of the Community Rule, Damascus Covenant, 4QMMT and the Temple Scroll, as well as selected wisdom texts. Students write a research paper on a text from those to be covered in class; papers on texts outside of the syllabus will also be possible.