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
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.
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."
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