George J. Brooke - Böcker

This rich set of essays in honour of Professor John Healey FBA represents both his wide-ranging interests and those of the Journal of Semitic Studies of which he has been editor for thirty years. The studies by leaders in their respective disciplines cover texts and languages, history and archaeology. Amongst other topics the essays pay attention to the Jewish Targums, to Biblical Studies, to Nabataean matters, to Early Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic, to Syriac sources, to Islamic traditions, and to aspects of Near Eastern archaeology. Though disparate in subject matter, as a whole the essays offer a significant cross-section of what is at the forefront in Semitic Studies and of how the various methods used to analyse and assess such sources are being continuously adapted and honed.

New in paperback, this is a fully illustrated volume on the discovery, meaning and significance of all the Dead Sea Scrolls by acknowledged experts in the field. Offering intriguing historical and religious insights into the period of authorship, from Babylon to Bar Kokhba, and expert interpretation of the manuscripts using palaeography, Carbon-14 dating and computer reconstructions, the book also Includes factfiles, tables, reconstructions, scroll photographs and a guide to where to see the scrolls today.

This book contains the papers delivered at the 1996 Copper Scroll Symposium which was organized by the Manchester-Sheffield Centre for Dead Sea Scrolls Research to mark the 40th Anniversary of the opening of this enigmatic scroll in Manchester. The papers cover the history of the Scroll's interpretation (P. Muchowski, P. Davies, B. Segal, M. Wise); how it should be conserved, restored and read (N. Cacoudre, M. Lundberg, E. Puech); how it was produced (P. Kyle McCarter); the meaning of its technical terms (J.F. Elwolde, A. Lange, J. Lefkovits, J. Lubbe, L. Schiffman); its genre (M. Bar-Ilan, R. Fidler, T. Lim); its geography (P.S. Alexander); its correlation with archaeological remains (H. Eshel); and not least who wrote it, when and why (S. Goranson, I Knohl, H. Stegemann, B. Thierine, A. Wolters) with an Introduction by G. Brooke. This is volume 40 in the Journal for the Study of Pseudepigrapha Supplement series.

What is the significance of the birth of Jesus for people today? This text examines the continuing significance of the birth for the third millennium, considering issues such as Jesus' circumcision and His DNA to the power of nativity stories and their symbolic efficacy.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the last century. They have great historical, religious, and linguistic significance, not least in relation to the transmission of many of the books which came to be included in the Hebrew Bible. This companion comprises over 70 articles, exploring the entire body of the key texts and documents labelled as Dead Sea Scrolls.Beginning with a section on the complex methods used in discovering, archiving and analysing the Scrolls, the focus moves to consideration of the Scrolls in their various contexts: political, religious, cultural, economic and historical. The genres ascribed to groups of texts within the Scrolls— including exegesis and interpretation, poetry and hymns, and liturgical texts — are then examined, with due attention given to both past and present scholarship. The main body of the Companion concludes with crucial issues and topics discussed by leading scholars. Complemented by extensive appendices and indexes, this Companion provides the ideal resource for those seriously engaging with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the last century. They have great historical, religious, and linguistic significance, not least in relation to the transmission of many of the books which came to be included in the Hebrew Bible. This companion comprises over 70 articles, exploring the entire body of the key texts and documents labelled as Dead Sea Scrolls.Beginning with a section on the complex methods used in discovering, archiving and analysing the Scrolls, the focus moves to consideration of the Scrolls in their various contexts: political, religious, cultural, economic and historical. The genres ascribed to groups of texts within the Scrolls— including exegesis and interpretation, poetry and hymns, and liturgical texts — are then examined, with due attention given to both past and present scholarship. The main body of the Companion concludes with crucial issues and topics discussed by leading scholars. Complemented by extensive appendices and indexes, this Companion provides the ideal resource for those seriously engaging with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

While recent decades have seen a plethora of studies exploring the complex processes that shaped biblical books traditionally designated as Prophets, much remains to be done in order to uncover the rich history of their interpretation throughout the ages. This collection of essays aims at filling this gap by exploring different aspects of the exegesis of the Former and Latter Prophets in contexts both ancient and modern, Jewish and Christian. From the inner-biblical interpretation of the Prophets to the Dead Sea Scrolls, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the New Testament, Patristic writings, and contemporary rhetoric, this volume sheds light on how key figures in those books were read and understood by both ancient and not so-ancient readers.

This booklet is a fresh consideration of German-speaking scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls; it divides the scholarship into two phases corresponding with pre- and post 1989 Germany. In the first phase the dominant place given to how the scrolls inform the context of Jesus is analyzed as one of several means through which the study of Judaism was revitalized in post-war Germany. Overall it is argued that the study of the Scrolls has been part of the broader German tradition of the study of antiquity, rather than simply a matter of Biblical Studies. In addition the booklet stresses the many very fine German contributions to the provision of study resources, to the masterly techniques of manuscript reconstruction, to the analysis of the scrolls in relation to the New Testament and Early Judaism, and to the popularization of scholarship for a thirsty public. It concludes that German scholarship has had much that is distinctive in its study of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

In Jewish Education from Antiquity to the Middle Ages fifteen scholars offer specialist studies on Jewish education from the areas of their expertise. This tightly themed volume in honour of Philip S. Alexander has some essays that look at individual manuscripts, some that consider larger literary corpora, and some that are more thematically organised. Jewish education has been addressed largely as a matter of the study house, the bet midrash. Here a richer range of texts and themes discloses a wide variety of activity in several spheres of Jewish life. In addition, some notable non-Jewish sources provide a wider context for the discourse than is often the case.