This book in two volumes gives the status quaestionis of the Qumran Copper Scroll, fifty years after its discovery. The first part of volume one, amply illustrated with graphics and images, gives the technical expertise of its state of preservation together with the proposals for treatment developed by the laboratory EDF-Valectra for its restoration-conservation. The production of a facsimile by means of galvanoplasty and digitalized images is explained. The second part of volume one gives a largely renewed edition of the engraved Hebrew text with an up-to-date commentary, French and English translations, and indices. The second volume of nearly 400 plates publishes photographs and X-Rays of each segment before and after treatment, as well as the reproduction by means of galvanoplasty and digitalized images.

A comprehensive analysis of the text 4Q Florilegium must begin with the acknowledgement that the text is fragmented in nature and alludes to others through quotations. With this acknowledgement, Brooke moves on to address the relevant contextual aspects of the text. What becomes clear is this: without appreciation of exegetical devices and techniques at use in early Judaism, any analysis of 4QFlor is as fragmentary as the text itself. Brooke's thorough and precise methodology for working through the text via context makes this book the go-to work on 4Q Florilegium.

The War Texts is the name given to a small group of Dead Sea Scrolls that depict the preparation for and the various phases of the eschatological battle between the 'Sons of Light' and the 'Sons of Darkness'. Jean Duhaime briefly surveys the history of these texts from their initial discovery to their official publication. He describes the different scrolls and gives details of their contents and their relationships to one another. Duhaime summarizes the various reasons supporting a dating of this composition to the Hellenistic or Roman period and provides an example of the use of the Bible in the War Texts. The contributors to the Companion to the Qumran Scrolls series take account of all relevant and recently published texts and provide extensive bibliographies. The books in the series are authoritatively written in accessible language and are ideal for students and non-specialist scholars. Companion to the Qumran Scrolls, 6

Unique in its genre and content, the War Scroll (1QM) presents a vision of an impending eschatological war. Although originally interpreted as being the product of a single author from the Qumran Sect, the composition's inconsistencies quickly led to the view that it is in fact an eclectic document with an elaborate compositional history. Yet all such theories were formulated prior to the publication of War Scroll-like texts from Caves 4 and 11. A careful re-examination of the War Scroll suggests instead that what began as a primitive and cohesive composition from the Hellenistic period about a two-stage conquest of the world was eventually updated in order to fit the new historical realities faced by the sectarians under Roman rule.

Series: Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum Section 1 - The Jewish people in the first century Historial geography, political history, social, cultural and religious life and institutions Edited by S. Safrai and M. Stern in cooperation with D. Flusser and W.C. van Unnik Section 2 - The Literature of the Jewish People in the Period of the Second Temple and the Talmud Section 3 - Jewish Traditions in Early Christian Literature

Highly respected New Testament scholar Craig Keener is known for his meticulous and comprehensive research. This commentary on Acts, his magnum opus, may be the largest and most thoroughly documented Acts commentary ever written. Useful not only for the study of Acts but also early Christianity, this work sets Acts in its first-century context. In this volume, the last of four, Keener finishes his detailed exegesis of Acts, utilizing an unparalleled range of ancient sources and offering a wealth of fresh insights. This magisterial commentary will be an invaluable resource for New Testament professors and students, pastors, Acts scholars, and libraries. The complete four-volume set is available at a special price.

The recovery of 800 documents in the eleven caves on the northwest shores of the Dead Sea is one of the most sensational archeological discoveries in the Holy Land to date. These three volumes, the very best of critical scholarship, demonstrate in detail how the scrolls have revolutionized our knowledge of the text of the Bible, the character of Second Temple Judaism, and the Jewish beginnings of Christianity.

The Jewish revolt against Rome in the first century C.E. provides ancient historians the opportunity to study one of the best-documented provincial revolts in the early Roman Empire. This volume brings together different disciplines, some for the first time. The contributors draw from a wide range of literary, archaeological, documentary, epigraphic and numismatic sources. The focus is on historiographical and methodological reflections on our sources, their nature and the sort of historical questions they allow us to answer. This volume combines fields of research that should not be pursued in isolation from each other if we wish to further our understanding of the Jewish revolt’s historical context.

This volume comprises the lectures delivered at a conference on the sapiential texts from Qumran hosted by A. Lange and H. Lichtenberger in Tubingen (1998) as well as a number of additional contributions. This literature, although found in the Qumran library, is mostly of non-Essene origin and can be dated to the third and second century BCE with a single exception which might be even older. The sapiential texts from Qumran add to the sparse corpus of postexilic sapiential literature and shed new light on the later Israelite and Jewish wisdom as well as on the sources from which early Christian wisdom traditions originated. Therefore, the volume attempts to understand the wisdom literature from Qumran in the broader context of sapiential thought in the Ancient near East, the Hebrew Bible, Ancient Judaism and the New Testament. Beyond this, the volume further includes treatments of introductory and linguistic questions as well as articles on specific sapiential texts.