Introduction (2001)

INTRODUCTION TO DI3212/DI3213: THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Greetings, members of the Qumran list!

Today (5 February, 2001) marks the first realtime session of this year's seminar at the University of St. Andrews and the opening of the list for discussion. For now the list will be unmoderated, although I reserve the right to switch to a moderated format anytime I judge the noise level to be too high. Let me remind you that all list discussion is to be governed by our Community Rule, which has been distributed to all members. If for some reason you deleted it without reading it, you can find it on the web page (see below), or you can have it sent to you from the majordomo archive by sending the message:

get qumran qumran.community.rule

to:

majordomo@st-andrews.ac.uk

Note that this command is case sensitive; it must be sent in small letters exactly as it appears above. (It's best just to copy the phrase and paste it into a new message.)

In general to post to the list you should (1) have read the assignments; (2) have kept up with the list discussion thus far; and (3) adhere to the rules in the Community Rule. Please remember to begin the subject header of each posting to the list with Qum: and to sign your name and e-mail address at the end of the message (no pseudonyms please).

Messages to the list must be sent to qumran@st-andrews.ac.uk. Do not use the majordomo address, except in order to subscribe and unsubscribe. PLEASE NOTE: If you want to REPLY to a message from the list, you still must send it to the address qumran@st-andrews.ac.uk. Using your reply function will send the message only to the sender of the message to which you are replying.

This course module is inspired by the fine models provided by James O'Donnell in his online courses on Augustine and Boethius and Robert Kraft in his online course on the Dead Sea Scrolls (both at the University of Pennsylvania.) Our discussion list currently has 353 people from at least thirty-one countries signed on (both an all-time high!) and I want to thank all of you for your interest. It also builds on the online courses I have taught here at St. Andrews in past years on the Old Testment Pseudepigrapha and on Divine Mediator Figures in the Biblical World. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Information Technology Services at St. Andrews for setting up this system and helping to maintain it.

WEB PAGES AND ARCHIVE

The Dead Sea Scrolls web page is available at:

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_sd/qumran.html

This page contains information on the Qumran list and archive; a collection of links to related sites on the World-Wide Web; information on textbooks; and a schedule of classes and assignments. It has links to our Community Rule, to the web page on the International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity; and to the Annotated Basic Bibliography for the course. The bibliography for the 2001 session is still under construction, but I intend to place it on the majordomo server for e-mail access when it is finished.

To get a list of all the files available on the qumran archive send the (case sensitive) message:

index qumran

to majordomo@st-andrews.ac.uk

SCHEDULE, ETC.

The provisional schedule of classes is given on the web page and will be updated as the semester progresses. I assume all members have access to one of the major translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls (_DSST_, _DSSNT_, or _CDSSE_-- see the web page); to VanderKam's, _The Dead Sea Scrolls Today_; and to either the _Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls_ (_EDSS_) or the _Anchor Bible Dictionary_ (_ABD_). If you do not have one or more of these three, you will not be getting the full benefit out of this discussion list.

The realtime module meets every Monday for two hours, with an additional hour on Thursdays for some students to read Hebrew texts (the latter will not figure much in the online discussion, although I have posted the list of readings on the web page). I will be lecturing (and posting lecture summaries to the list for discussion) for the first three weeks. After that, we will move on to the student seminar papers and online discussion of a wide range of texts and problems. In today's realtime session in the classroom at St. Andrews I gave a introductory lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other manuscript finds from the Judean Desert. A summary of this lecture will come in my next message. Over the next few months we will survey the major (mostly better preserved) texts from the Qumran library; we will look at the archaeology of the site of Qumran; we will examine some of the scrolls and inscriptions from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt; we will examine some potential parallels between the Dead Sea Scrolls and later Judaism and early Christianity; and we will discuss, compare, and evaluate some of the major global intepretations of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There will be a number of guest lectures from outside speakers in April, May, and June, followed by the International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls mentioned above, which is scheduled for 26-28 June. The list will close on June 30th.

The Qumran list is now open for discussion.

(c) 2001
Reproduction beyond fair use only on permission of the author.