Apotropaism is a word used to describe a number of texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls that are meant to deal with the problem of evil, especially the demonic. Yet, scholars of Early Judaism have labeled some texts as apotropaic while others have described them as exorcistic. Drawing on the criteria of proximity and time suggested by Philip S. Alexander, this dissertation argues the following points: 1) That the difference between an apotropaic ritual and an exorcistic ritual is the proximity of evil to the human being and the expected temporal efficacy of the ritual. By closely examining the language of each individual text, evidence suggests that such delineations can be based on these two criteria; 2) That some texts that have otherwise been neglected in the study of apotropaism at Qumran may be part of this group of protective rituals; 3) That there is a difference between works concerned primarily with protection from evil spirits (anti-demonic) and those concerned with Sin (anti-peccable); 4) That a number of shared elements within the apotropaic texts at Qumran emphasize themes such as covenant faithfulness, obedience, predestination, among others. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph D.)--New York University, 1981. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 447-466).

published_or_final_version / abstract / Fine Arts / Master / Master of Philosophy

Inaug.-diss--Giessen. / Lebenslauf.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Princeton University, 1965. / English and Chinese. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 207-212).

Previous research on the Qumran scrolls, and in particular, IQM, has only recently involved the use of the most stringent literary - and form - critical techniques. These are of great value to Qumran studies; the history of the sect and its ideas can be learnt only when the texts are properly understood. IQM has been recognised by most scholars as a composite work, and XV-XIX has long been regarded as a unit. To this must be added II-IX which also comprises a single document. Both these documents are themselves composite. II-IX is a war-rule written in the Hasmonean period, and drawing on sources which originated in the Maccabean and immediate post Maccabean period. XV-XIX is a dualistic war-rule, which has developed from an earlier non-dualistic rule, of which col. XIV, 2-16a represents a small fragment. Cols. X-XII consist of a collection of liturgical pieces which have been found to reflect a Maccabean context in many cases. Col. XIII represent a fragment of liturgy probably associated with a covenant ceremony. Cols. II-IX, X-XII, XIII, XIV, and XV-XIX were collected and probably copied together; XV, 4-6a seems to refer to two documents which were independent at the time of writing, but have subsequently been incorporated into IQM - these are identified as II-IX and X-XII. XIII and XIV existed as fragments when they were brought together with the rest of the material from cols. II-IX, X-XII and XV-XIX. XV-XIX probably attained its present form in the second half of the first century B.C. In the first half of the first century A.D. a compiler produced from the collected documents a war-rule which included an introduction (col. I) written by the compiler. The final result is the War Scroll, the manuscript of which was written soon after the composition (= IQM). Its purpose is to prepare for the imminent war against the Romans.

My dissertation analyzes the passages related to the priesthood, cult, and temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran. The Aramaic Scrolls comprise roughly 15% of the manuscripts found in the Qumran caves, and testify to the presence of a flourishing Jewish Aramaic literary tradition dating to the early Hellenistic period (ca. late fourth to early second century BCE). Scholarship since the mid-2000s has increasingly understood these writings as a corpus of related literature on both literary and socio-historical grounds, and has emphasized their shared features, genres, and theological outlook. Roughly half of the Aramaic Scrolls display a strong interest in Israel’s priestly institutions: the priesthood, cult, and temple. That many of these compositions display such an interest has not gone unnoticed. To date, however, few scholars have analyzed the priestly passages in any given composition in light of the broader corpus, and no scholars have undertaken a comprehensive treatment of the priestly passages in the Aramaic Scrolls. My dissertation fills these lacunae. After a brief introduction to the dissertation in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 gives an overview and assessment of earlier treatments of the Aramaic Scrolls. Chapters 3 through 5 offer analyses of the passages related to the priesthood, cult, and temple found in fourteen of the approximately thirty Aramaic Scrolls, dealing with each composition in turn. In Chapter 6, I synthesize the material in the previous three chapters, and show that the Aramaic Scrolls reflect a remarkably consistent conception of Israel’s priestly institutions. By way of conclusion in Chapter 7, I situate the Aramaic Scrolls in the context of broader scholarly proposals concerning the history of the Second Temple Jewish priesthood, and demonstrate how this corpus can shed new light on an otherwise poorly documented period in Jewish history, namely, the pre-Hasmonean, Hellenistic period. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / My dissertation is a literary analysis of themes related to the Jewish priesthood in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls. It uses the results of this literary analysis to understand better the history of the Jewish priesthood in the Second Temple period.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1962. / Appendix in Japanese characters. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 292-303).

The scope of our examination of the ideas and beliefs of the Qumran sect and the Church of the New Testament is limited to what contributes to our understanding of the nature of the respective communities. No attempt is made to present a full theological examination of the concepts which arise. The aim is not an exhaustive treatment, but rather to suggest areas where the beliefs of the communities throw light on each other. Our method is to begin by establishing the beliefs of the Qumran sect in each case, with particular reference to the Manual of Discipline, and then comparing this with the corresponding concept in the New Testament. This avoids the danger of reading back later Christian ideas into our treatment of the Scrolls. In our examination of the New Testament texts, we shall not assume that they constitute a unity nor that they can be taken at face value, but that they bear the marks of the interests of the early Church and of the conflicting tendencies and practices which marked its development. Consequently the tools of Form, Source and Redaction Criticism are utilized where they can contribute to our purpose. Chapter 1, p. vi.

This dissertation investigates ways in which early Jewish communities conceptualized the production and collection of writing. Through a study of 11QPsalms-a, the Qumran Psalms Scroll, it shows how modern book culture (shaped by the canon, codex, print, authorial copyright, and scholarly editing) has distorted our understanding of ancient texts and fostered anachronistic questions about their creation and reception. Taking seriously what early Jewish texts have to say about their own writtenness and building upon earlier scholarship on scriptural multiformity, the dissertation also uses theoretical insights from the field of Book History to study the identity, assembly, and literary context of the Psalms Scroll as an example of the ancient textual imagination. Physical and discursive evidence suggest that no concept of a “Book of Psalms” existed as a coherent entity in the ancient Jewish imagination, but that psalms collections were conceptualized and created in looser, unbounded ways. New metaphors made possible by electronic text, which likewise cannot be constrained into the categories of print book culture, can encourage new ways of imagining ancient concepts of fluid textuality as well. After a study of the status and compilation of the Psalms Scroll (Ch. 1-2), the dissertation engages the question of Davidic authorship (Ch. 3). David was not imagined as the author of a particular psalms collection, but as the inaugurator of a variety of liturgical traditions. The identity between an individual figure and a specific text should be unbound in favour of a looser relationship, allowing for the continuing growth of traditions inspired by the figure. Chapters 4 and 5 present a reading of the Psalms Scroll and Davidic lore alongside two other traditions: Ben Sira and angelic ascent literature. Both possess literary links with the Psalms Scroll, but also shed light on the ways in which ancient communities imagined writing and understood their own relationship to their texts. Thus, reading across canonical and generic boundaries embeds psalms traditions in a richer context of reception and provides a fuller picture of the ancient textual imagination. The conclusion makes a comparative gesture toward the Nachleben of psalms collecting in Syriac Christianity.