Dead Sea Scrolls Module (2001)
at the Divinity School of the University of St Andrews
This course is being taught again beginning 8 February 2005, this time with web pages and a blog. For more information please go to the St. Andrews Dead Sea Scrolls website.
OUTLINE OF THIS PAGE
Introduction
The List Archive
An International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls
Textbooks for the Course Module on the Dead Sea Scrolls
An Annotated Bibliography for the Course Module
Links to Related Sites
Schedule of Topics and Classes
These pages were created and are maintained by Dr. James R. Davila, Lecturer in Early Jewish Studies, for the honours course module DI3212/3213 (postgraduate DI4212), "The Dead Sea Scrolls," which was taught in the spring semester of 2001. This module was a survey of the Dead Sea Scrolls and related manuscript finds from the Judean Desert. The class read and discussed the major sectarian texts from Qumran with a view toward understanding their place in Second Temple Judaism. Attention was also given to the archaeological context of the Qumran discoveries, as well as to the revolutionary importance of the scrolls for our understanding of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. Related manuscript discoveries were also studied, such as the letters from the period of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Readings for the online course were in English only. The realtime course for registered St. Andrews students met in the second semester on Mondays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm in Seminar Room One.
A public discussion group for this module opened on 5 February 2001, and the students and instructor used electronic mail to dialogue with students and scholars outside the University of St. Andrews on the subject matter of the course. This is the Community Rule that gave our rules for engagement at the time. The qumran list is no longer operating .
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
You can have sent to you the archive of qumran list messages by sending the case sensitive message:
get qumran qumran.0102
get qumran qumran.0103
get qumran qumran.0104
get qumran qumran.0105
get qumran qumran.0106
to the majordomo address ("qumran.0102" is the archive for February of 2001, "qumran.0103 is the archive for March, etc.). Files for a few messages I sent out in the months before the list opened are also available. See the archive index).
The course and its accouterments served as a prologue to a conference that was held on 26-28 June 2001 at the University of St. Andrews. This International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity gathered scholars from around the world to explore how the Scrolls contribute to our knowledge of the background of both rabbinic and noncanonical forms of Judaism, and of the origins and early development of Christianity. Abstracts of the papers are posted on the Dead Sea Scrolls Conferenc e web page. See the conference web page for more details.
The following textbooks were used for the module in 2001:
Florentino GarcÃa MartÃnez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English (Leiden: Brill, 1995) (Hereafter, "DSST " )
James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994) (Hereafter, "VanderKam" )
Articles were also assigned from the following encyclopedic works:
David Noel Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary (6 vols.; New York: Doubleday, 1992) (Hereafter, ABD . )
Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. VanderKam (eds.), Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2000) (Hereafter, EDSS )
An annotated bibliography for the Qumran texts and the topics covered in the module is also available.
Some relevant and related sites on the World-Wide Web include:
- The Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls - Located at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Orion Center has the premier website for the Dead Sea Scrolls and includes papers and abstracts on the Scrolls, a bibliography of publications since 1995, a page of links, a bulletin board, and many other goodies. The Orion online discussion list on the Dead Sea Scrolls is also highly recommended. Subscription information is available on the Orion Center website.
- Scrolls from the Dead Sea - An exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Library of Congress.
- The Home Page of Robert A. Kraft - Professor Bob Kraft is a pioneer in using computer technology for teaching and research. His home page has links to materials from a number of courses he has taught online (including Religious Studies 225, "Dead Sea Scrolls"), as well as to his own online publications, and many other resources useful for our course. (Other websites for courses given on the Dead Sea Scrolls include those at Uppsala University (much of which is in Swedish), and North American Baptist College Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, taught by Professor Tyler F. Williams.)
- Also, Professor David Suter of St. Martin's College is teaching a course on the Dead Sea Scrolls in the spring semester of 2001 which will coordinate its topics approximately with my online course.
- The West Semitic Research Project, chaired by Professor Bruce Zuckerman of the University of Southern California, has been producing top-quality photographs of ancient inscriptions, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, since the early 1980s. This site includes an educational section with photographs and commentary on selected Dead Sea Scrolls.
- The Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem houses some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, as well as other manuscripts. This website contains some general information and bibliography on the Scrolls.
- Taylor-Schechter Unit Home Page - A page devoted to the texts from the Cairo Geniza at Cambridge University. The Cairo Geniza is a massive repository of manuscripts in a synagogue in Cairo. It was first brought to the attention of European scholars in the late nineteenth century and publication of the contents is not yet complete. Among the finds were two copies of the Damascus Rule, a sectarian text of which copies were also recovered at Qumran.
- Ioudaios-L - A scholarly list devoted to the discussion of first century Judaism. This site contains subscription information, a database of members, archived articles, and other information and links.
- Ioudaios Review - An online journal that contains book reviews and articles having to do with first century Judaism and its general historical context.
- Resource Pages for Biblical Studies - A collection of links compiled by Professor Torrey Seland of Volda College in Norway.
- Dr. Davila has taught two online courses on related subjects in recent years, one on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha and one on Divine Mediator Figures in the Biblical World.
The latter was associated with the International Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus, which was held at St. Mary's College in June of 1998.
SCHEDULE OF TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS
The realtime seminar at St. Mary's College met in Seminar Room One on Mondays from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. The Hebrew section met for an additional hour in Seminar Room Three from 2:00 to 3:00 pm on Thursdays. The first three weeks of the seminar consisted of lectures by the instructor. These and later online lectures by the instructor and guest lecturers are marked "(L)." The rest of the sessions will consist of seminars based on previously circulated student essays "(S)."
Week 1 (5 Feb)
Opening Message and Introduction (L)
Read: VanderKam 1-70, 187-201 (if possible)
Week 2 (12 Feb)
The Damascus Document and the Community Rule (L)
Read: DSST,
33-73, 2-32; EDSS
, 165-70, 793-97 (or ABD,
2:8-10, 1:1110-1112; VanderKam 71-98
Week 3 (19 Feb)
The War Rule and the Pesharim (L)
Read: DSST,
94-140, 185-299; EDSS,
965-68, 644-56 (or ABD,
6:875-76; 5:245-51); VanderKam 99-119
(Presentation of student essays began in the fourth week)
Week 4 (26 Feb)
Poetic Texts/ the Hymns Scroll (S: David Kinnen)
Read: DSST,
302-404; EDSS,
365-69 (or ABD,
6:438-41); VanderKam 121-58
Week 5 (5 Mar)
Liturgical Texts/ the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (S: Ruth Tyldesley)
Read: DSST,
406-57; EDSS,
887-89 (or ABD,
6:155-56); VanderKam 159-85
Week 6 (12 Mar)
Halakhic Texts/ the Temple Scroll (S: Alexandra Walter)
Read: DSST,
76-92, 142-84; EDSS,
927-33 (or ABD,
6:348-50)
Week 7 (19 Mar)
The Archaeology of Qumran (S: Judy McKay)
Read: EDSS
, 57-63 (or ABD,
5:590-94)
The Copper Scroll (S: Emma Tee)
Read: DSST,
460-63; EDSS,
144-48 (or ABD,
1:1133-34)
(Spring Break, 26 Mar - 8 April)
Online lectures during spring break:
First Week: David Suter, "Enoch as Precursor: The Role of the Enochic Manuscripts in the Qumran Literature" (L)
Second Week: Davila, "The Perils of Parallels" (L)
Week 8 (9 Apr)
Texts from the Period of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (S: Andrea Ogier)
Read: EDSS,
73-75, 78-83 and ABD,
1:598-606
Week 9 (16 Apr)
The Worshiped Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (S: Duncan Zuill)
Read: EDSS,
404-408
Week 10 (23 Apr)
Paul and the Dead Sea Scrolls (S: Timothy Rochester)
Read: EDSS,
638-41
The Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls (S: Stella Wassell)
Read: EDSS,
262-69 (or ABD,
2:619-26)
Week 11 (30 Apr)
The Sadducees and the Dead Sea Scrolls (S: Fraser Walker)
Read: EDSS,
812-16
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Archives of Jerusalem (S: Lynette Dobson)
Read: Norman Golb, "Who Hid the Dead Sea Scrolls?" BA
48 (1985): 68-82
Online guest lecture:
Rochelle Altman, "The Writing World of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (9 June)
The International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls
as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity
(26-28 June)
These pages were last updated 31 January, 2005
Dr James R Davila (jrd4@st-andrews.ac.uk)