Abstract
This volume is a collection of twenty-seven updated and partly rewritten articles by Devorah Dimant, a leading scholar in the field of Qumran Studies and professor emeritus at the University of Haifa, Israel. In this collection, she captures three decades of Qumran scholarship, while an introductory essay (pp. 1–24), written especially for this volume (‘The Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls – Past and Present’), reflects on the rapid expansions and changes in the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Here, Dimant deliberates the major changes from the first period of research in 1950–1980 that was marked by the early discovery and publication of the material, to the second period of research from 1980 onwards. It is especially the departure from the idea of a small, inclusive Qumran community towards an understanding of the group as being part of Second Temple Judaism that opened up new perspectives in interpreting the material. The new perspectives comprise the assessment of the sectarian literature as a distinct corpus, and a new focus on the non-sectarian texts, namely the emerging prominence of the texts that rework the Hebrew Bible, the so-called parabiblical compositions, and the acknowledgement of the Aramaic works as being a distinct corpus with its own genres, styles, and themes.
The collection of articles in the main body of the volume illustrates this change of perspectives in different ways. Dimant herself understands the volume as a ‘research tool that takes into account the contemporary concerns and new vistas’ (preface). While the first part of contributions concentrates on ‘The Qumran Library’ (pp. 27–218), addressing literary questions of vocabulary, themes and genres, the second part ‘The History of the Qumran Community’ (pp. 221–246) assesses the question in light of new research. The third part concentrates on ‘Themes in Qumran Literature’ (pp. 249–332) that cover a range of topics such as ‘Resurrection, Restoration, and Time-Curtailing’ as well as ‘Time, Torah and Prophecy. The final part focuses on ‘Texts from Qumran’ (pp. 335–504), and demonstrates the broad range of Dimant’s first-hand research on the scrolls, which spans both periods of research indicated in the introduction. This is indeed a valuable research tool that can heartily be recommended to anyone interested or working in the field.