The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible

by Eugene C. Ulrich

Overview

The Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran provide the oldest, best, and most direct witness we have to the origins of the Hebrew Bible. Prior to the discovery of the Scrolls, scholars had textual evidence for only a single, late period in the history of the biblical text, leading them to believe that the text was uniform. The Scrolls, however, provide documentary evidence a thousand years older than all previously known Hebrew manuscripts and reveal a period of pluriformity in the biblical text prior to the stage of uniformity.

In this important collection of studies, Eugene Ulrich, one of the world's foremost experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls, outlines a comprehensive theory that reconstructs the complex development of the ancient texts that eventually came to form the Old Testament. Several of the essays set forth his pioneering theory of "multiple literary editions," which is replacing older views of the origins of the biblical text.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible represents the leading edge of research in the exciting field of Scrolls studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802846112
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/13/2005
Series:	Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature Series
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	1,131,331
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at the University of NotreDame. He is one of the three General Editors of the DeadSea Scrolls Publication Project (with E. Tov of Israeland É. Peuch of France), having begun working on thescrolls in 1971. He has published several volumes ofcritical editions of the biblical scrolls in Discoveriesin the Judean Desert (Oxford University Press). Havingwritten or contributed to eighteen books on the scrolls, hewas appointed an Area Editor to Oxford's Encyclopedia ofthe Dead Sea Scrolls. One of the translators of theNew Revised Standard Version of the Bible, he hasauthored numerous articles and has served as editor of theBulletin of the International Organization forSeptuagint and Cognate Studies, and served on theeditorial boards of the Catholic Biblical Quarterlyand Dead Sea Discoveries.

Table of Contents

PART 1: THE SCROLLS AND THE HEBREW BIBLE

1. The Community of Israel and the Composition of the Scriptures
2. The Bible in the Making: The Scriptures at Qumran
3. Double Literary Editions of Biblical Narratives and Reflections on Determining the Form to Be Translated
4. The Canonical Process, Textual Criticism, and Latter Stages in the Composition of the Bible
5. Pluriformity in the Biblical Text, Text Groups, and Questions of Canon
6. Multiple Literary Editions: Reflections Toward a Theory of the History of the Biblical Text
7. The Palaeo-Hebrew Biblical Manuscripts from Qumran Cave 4
8. Orthography and Text in 4QDan a and 4QDan b and in the Received Masoretic Text

PART 2: THE SCROLLS, THE SEPTUAGINT, AND THE OLD LATIN

9. The Septuagint Manuscripts from Qumran: A Reappraisal of Their Value
10. Josephus’s Biblical Text for the Books of Samuel
11. Origen’s Old Testament Text: The Transmission History of the Septuagint to the Third Century C.E.
12. The Relevance of the Dead Sea Scrolls for Hexaplaric Studies
13. The Old Latin Translation of the LXX and the Hebrew Scrolls from Qumran
14. Characteristics and Limitations of the Old Latin Translation of the Septuagint

Acknowledgments
Index of Modern Authors
Index of Ancient Literature

Editorial Reviews

Journal for the Study of Judaism
"A superb overview of the ways in which the Qumran biblical scrolls help us to understand the development of the Hebrew texts of the Bible. . . . This collection of essays is an excellent and balanced introduction to the development and the pluriformity of the biblical texts, which should be read by students and scholars alike. "

Journal of Biblical Literature
"There are few scholars in the field of textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible with more breadth and depth of knowledge than Eugene Ulrich. . . His theoretical writings on the subject of text criticism have been scattered in various Festschriften and other volumes. The present volume does a welcome service in bringing together these essays into one collection. . . It is a 'must-have' on any text critic's shelf."

Old Testament Essays
"Ulrich outlines a comprehensive theory that reconstructs the complex development of the ancient texts that eventually came to form the Old Testament. . . This volume, which represents the leading edge of research in the field of Dead Sea Scroll Studies, will be indispensable to everyone interested in the origins and development of the Hebrew Bible, in the pluriformity of the Biblical text, and in the canonical process and will contribute to a deeper appreciation of the world of Early Judaism and Christianity and of their continuing legacy today."

Expository Times
"It is excellent that this volume will make Ulrich's valuable work more widely known. He has opened up new ways of understanding how authoritative traditions were handled in the first centuries before the fall of the Temple in 70 CE."

From the Publisher

It is excellent that this volume will make Ulrich's valuable work more widely known. He has opened up new ways of understanding how authoritative traditions were handled in the first centuries before the fall of the Temple in 70 CE.

Expository Times

Ulrich outlines a comprehensive theory that reconstructs the complex development of the ancient texts that eventually came to form the Old Testament.... This volume, which represents the leading edge of research in the field of Dead Sea Scroll Studies, will be indispensable to everyone interested in the origins and development of the Hebrew Bible, in the pluriformity of the Biblical text, and in the canonical process and will contribute to a deeper appreciation of the world of Early Judaism and Christianity and of their continuing legacy today.

Old Testament Essays

Ulrich (Hebrew scriptures, U. of Notre Dame-Indiana), a pre-eminent Dead Sea scrolls scholar, has been editing the Qumran biblical scrolls for the past two decades. This volume contains 14 essays that he wrote over the years for various conferences and collections. They deal first with the Hebrew texts and then with the Greek and Old Latin texts, focusing on both general and specific aspects of the complex development of the ancient texts that eventually came to form the Old Testament. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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