The Dead Sea Scrolls

This volume presents the proceedings of an international conference of the same title held at the University of Birmingham in 2007. The contributors are drawn from the ranks of leading international specialists in the field writing alongside promising younger scholars. The volume includes studies on the contribution of the Scrolls to Second Temple Jewish history, the archaeological context, the role of the temple and its priesthood, as well as treatments on selected texts and issues. These proceedings offer a timely and up to date assessment of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the material remains unearthed at Qumran in their wider context and not infrequently challenge prevailing lines of interpretation. Helen Jacobus has won the Sean Dever Memorial Prize with her contribution to this volume. Commenting on the Dever prize, Professor Carol Meyers of Duke University, North Carolina, said: The judges thought highly of Helen's meticulous scholarship and careful presentation of the data in her discussion of the zodiac and its role in Jewish calendars.

Review:

This is truly a demonstration of the dynamism of modern Qumran scholarship. Deborah Rooke, JSOT 2013 This collection testifies to a tendency in current scholarship (an admirable one, in my opinion) to embrace that complexity, to resist easy answers and to tolerate uncertainty. As such, the studies included here raise issues and model approaches that will continue to shape study of the Scrolls for years to come. Molly Zahn, DSD This volume will provide scholars with a new vantage point from which to consider the corpus of texts from Qumran. Its strength lies firstly, in opening new material and textual areas for further discussion, and secondly, in challenging several of the existing assumptions that potentially distort, or oversimplify, the complexity of the scrolls and their origins. It is also set to become a much-cited resource in refining the more general, impressions of the texts and their provenance. Shani Tzoref, Strata The authors make for a veritable who's who in the world of Qumran scholars [...] This volume contains excellent articles that provide stimulating reflections on earlier phases in Qumran scholarship and also offer new insights that significantly contribute to advancing the field.