167 BCE BCE Maccabean revolt (led by family of non-zadokite priests).

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1 The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Intersection of Archaeology and Religion (four weeks) Sarah Wisseman and Janet Elaine Guthrie The discovery and interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls radically changed our understanding of biblical archaeology, the development of the Bible, and the history of the Jewish and Christian faiths. Who were the people of Qumran? How did their beliefs and practices differ from those of other Jewish sects of the first and second centuries BCE? What does archaeology tell us about the scroll librarians and how they lived? What is the relationship between the scrolls and the Bible? This four-week class, taught by a retired archaeologist and a retired pastor, will explore the historical and archaeological context of the scrolls, the lifestyle of the people who wrote them, and the implications of these ancient documents for religious history. This course will contain a mixture of archaeology and selected scroll texts and their meaning. Homework is not required, but the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library website ( provides extensive information, including high-resolution images of major scrolls, translations, and history of the discovery and publication. Below you will find an abbreviated chronology, a glossary of key terms, and a select bibliography. CHRONOLOGY: 198 BCE BCE Seleucid control of Palestine 167 BCE BCE Maccabean revolt (led by family of non-zadokite priests). 150/140 BCE Religious schism, leading to exile (perhaps first to Damascus) of Teacher of Righteous and disciples 142 BCE - 63 BCE Independent Hasmonean dynasty, ruled by Simon Maccabees and descendants. Struggles for control among Jewish factions ca. 100 BCE Qumran community established 63 BCE Roman occupation of Palestine begins 37 BCE - 4 BCE Herod the Great as Roman puppet king in Palestine ca. 4 BCE Jesus born 30 CE Jesus crucified CE Paul the Apostle: journeys and letters 66 CE First Jewish revolt against Rome 68 CE Qumran destroyed, likely by Roman army

2 70 CE Jerusalem and its Temple destroyed by Roman army 73/74 CE Fall of Masada 70-90s CE Gospels written CE Josephus writes histories of Jews CE Second Jewish revolt (Bar Kochba revolt) against the Romans GLOSSARY OF DEAD SEA SCROLL TERMS: (adapted in part from Library of Congress website and the New Interpreter s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.) Apocalypse: Greek term meaning revelation or disclosure; visions that present divine secrets and/or prophesy the future. Apocrypha: books included in the Septuagint and Vulgate but excluded from Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament. Aramaic: a Semitic language known since the ninth century BCE; official language of the Persian empire; used extensively in southwest Asia and by the Jews after the Babylonian exile; the cursive script replaced the ancient paleo-hebrew script for secular writing as well as for holy scriptures. BCE: Before the Common Era; indicates that a time division falls before the Christian era; same as B.C. Belial: name used in the Bible for Satan; carries the meaning worthless or wicked. In the Scrolls, Belial is an evil angel of darkness who commands the angels of destruction and the people known as sons of darkness. CE: Common Era; indicates that a time division falls within the Christian era; same as A.D. Canon: a collection of books accepted as holy scripture. Carbon-14: dating method in which radioactive isotope of carbon is used to date organic materials (C 14 exists in all living things until death, then the isotope decays at known rate. Ex: amount of C 14 left in a wooden board can give estimate of when tree died) Codex: Ancient book, constructed from handwritten leaves and stitched together by hand, such that it resembles a modern book format. Dead Sea Scrolls: Biblical writings (all the books of the Hebrew Bible except Esther) and non-biblical writings (sectarian documents, plus a variety of Jewish writings from the Second Temple Period), most dating from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE. Found in caves near the settlement at Qumran. Denarii: Roman Republican coins, originally cast in silver and worth 10 asses; known as a "penny" in the New Testament. Eschatology: beliefs about the last things, in other words, how the present world will end and what the ultimate destiny of humankind will be. The Qumran Essenes believed they were living at the end of days and expected an ultimate victory for the children of light and the restoration of the Temple.

3 Essenes ("Judah" in some Qumran writings): one of several orders of Jews living in Palestine during the Second Temple Period. One separatist Essene group formed an ascetic monastic community and retreated to the wilderness near the Dead Sea. First Temple Period: ca BCE; ended with destruction of the First Jerusalem Temple and exile of the Hebrews to Babylon. Genizah: a storehouse for damaged or defective Hebrew writings and ritual articles. Halakhah (pl. halakhot): corpus of Jewish religious law; disagreement on these matters caused the Judean Desert sect to secede from Israel. Hasmonean: a family of Jewish patriots to which the Maccabees belonged. Herodian: associated with Herod the Great's reign 37-4 BCE. Judea: southern region of ancient Palestine including the Qumran region. Josephus, Flavius: ca CE, Jewish historian whose writings are an important resource for understanding Jewish life and practice in the Second Temple period. In The War of the Jews and Antiquities of the Jews, he described the characteristics of the three philosophical sects among the Jews: the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Essenes. Kittim: term used in the Scrolls for the Romans, over whom the Jewish faithful expected to win a final victory. Maccabees: a priestly Jewish family which ruled Palestine in the second and first centuries B.C.E. and wrested Judea from the rule of the Seleucids and their Greek practices. The Jewish holiday Hanukkah commemorates the Maccabees' recapture of Jerusalem and reconsecration of the Jerusalem Temple in December 164 BCE. Masada: major site south of Qumran that became last stronghold of the Jewish Zealots who committed suicide rather than surrender to the Romans. MT, Masoretic Text: MT is the abbreviation used for the standard text of the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, based on the text tradition of the Masoretes of Tiberias. The Masoretes were meticulous scholars, focused on standardizing and preserving the biblical text. They added vowel points, accent marks, and notations to the Hebrew consonants to aid understanding and liturgical use. The MT was fixed from the 8th century C.E. Masoretic codices include the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex. Mishnah: collection of Jewish traditions based on rabbinic traditions and compiled about 200 C.E.; part of the Talmud. Paleography: the study of ancient languages and scripts and how they evolve. Paleo-Hebrew: ancient Hebrew script; one of the offshoots of the Phoenician script; used exclusively in the First Temple period and in priestly circles and as a symbol of nationalistic revival in the Second Temple Period. A version of this script is still used today by the Samaritans. Parchment: prepared animal skin on which text is written. Pentateuch: the first five books of scripture: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; the first of three major divisions of the Hebrew Bible. Also known as the Torah, the law. Pesher (s), pesharim (pl). Biblical interpretations that comment on the relevance of Scripture passages for the current age, as practiced by authors in the Second Temple era. The DSS include verse-by-verse pesharim, thematic pesharim, and commentary embedded in other texts. Pharisees ("Ephraim" in some Qumran writings): one of several orders of Jews during the Second Temple period. The Qumran Essenes saw the Pharisees as major rivals.

4 Philo Judaeus: 20 B.C.E-50 CE. Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria. Phylacteries (tefillin): two small leather boxes containing four scriptural passages in Hebrew and traditionally worn on the left arm and on the forehead by Jewish men during morning prayers. Pliny the Elder: ca CE: Upper class Roman historian who wrote about the Essenes and identified their location as the Dead Sea area although he never visited Judea. Psalms (tehillim): collection of Biblical hymns, i.e. sacred songs or poems used in worship and non-canonical passages. Pseudepigrapha: pseudonymous or anonymous Jewish religious writings of the period 200 B.C.E. to 200 CE, especially those attributed to biblical characters. Qumran: northern Dead Sea desert plain, part of Jordan ( ); region of eleven caves yielding Hebrew biblical, sectarian, and literary scrolls. Includes the settlement where excavations have uncovered a complex of communal structures and generated numerous artifacts. Sadducees ("Menasseh" in some Qumran writings): one of several orders of Jews during the Second Temple Period; priestly and aristocratic Jewish families who interpreted the law more literally than the Pharisees. Second Temple Period: 520 BCE - 70 CE; a time of crucial development for monotheistic religions; ended with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE Period in which many biblical texts were copied and many sectarian documents written. Sectarian: characteristic of a sect, a religious group adhering to a distinctive doctrine. Septuagint: the Greek version of the Old Testament (including the Apocrypha) translated by Jewish scholars in the third to second centuries BCE; the first vernacular translation of the Bible. Seleucid Empire: created out of part of Macedonian Empire after death of Alexander the Great (323 BCE) which at its height extended from southern coast of modern Turkey south through Palestine and east to India's border; dated BCE. Scripture: Authoritative sacred writings, considered in both ancient Judaism and early Christianity to have divine origin, communicate the will and truth of God, and be a source of regulations for the life of the people. Talmud: the authoritative body of Jewish law and tradition incorporating the Hebrew Mishnah and the Aramaic Gemara and supplementing the scriptural law; developed in the fourth and fifth centuries CE. Tanakh: Acronym used to designate the Jewish Scriptures, made from three Hebrew words that refer to the three parts of the Hebrew Bible: Torah (the Law), Nevi im (the Prophets), and Ketuvim (the Writings). Targums: Jewish Aramaic versions of Scripture. Teacher of Righteousness: leader of the Qumran sect at or near the time of the Qumran settlement; he was a descendant of a priestly family and respected as an interpreter of the Law. Some of the Thanksgiving Hymns have been attributed to him, although authorship is uncertain. It has been suggested that he may have served for a time as the High Priest in Jerusalem. His rival was the Wicked Priest, one of the early Hasmonean rulers. Tetradrachm: The most common ancient Greek silver coin before the Roman Empire. It was made of silver and equivalent to four drachmas. Tetragrammaton: the four Hebrew letters that represent the divine name of God, usually transliterated YHWH or JHVH; out of reverence, Jews ceased to pronounce the word aloud.

5 Wicked Priest: Rival and enemy of the Teacher of Righteousness; often identified as one of the non-zadokite high priests Jonathan or Simon Maccabee. Yahad: the self-designation of the sectarian group that lived at Qumran. Zadok:, Zadokites: According to the Bible, Zadok was a priest for David and Solomon s highest-ranking priest. Sons of Zadok or Zadokites were his priestly descendants; they were connected with the Qumran community, as members and leaders. BIBLIOGRAPHY Note: The best starting places for learning about the scrolls are the overview by James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today and the edited volume Davies et al., The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Collins, John J. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, A volume in the Lives of Great Religious Books series. Includes an Appendix identifying Personalities in the Discovery and Subsequent Controversies. Davies, Philip R., Brooke, George J., & Philip R. Callaway, The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thames and Hudson, Flint, Peter W. & James C. VanderKam, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment. 2 volumes. Leiden: Brill, 1998 & [Josephus]. The Works of Flavius Josephus (translated by William Whiston), available online through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. For a detailed description of the Essenes, see The War of the Jews, Book 2, Chapter 8. Jewish sects are also discussed in Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 1. Lim, Timothy H. & John J. Collins, eds. The Oxford Handbook of The Dead Sea Scrolls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Magness, Jodi. The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, Magness, Jodi. The Archaeology of the Holy Land: From the Destruction of Solomon s Temple to the Muslim Conquest (2012). Martinez, Florentino Garcia. The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English. Second Edition. Leiden: E. J. Brill & Grand Rapids, MI: Wm Eerdmans Publishing, Ulrich, Eugene. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Developmental Composition of the Bible. Leiden: Brill, VanderKam, James C. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2012.

6 VanderKam, James C. The Dead Sea Scrolls Today. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, VanderKam, James C. An Introduction to Early Judaism. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, VanderKam, James & Peter Flint. The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity. San Francisco: HarperCollins, WEBSITES Israeli Dept of Antiquities: Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls: