**This class will be taught on Zoom**
Click to watch Introduction video
This course will take students on a guided tour of the history, discoveries and mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In richly illustrated sessions, we’ll begin with an overview of the historical events leading up to the era of the Scrolls. From there we’ll visit Qumran, the home of the Scrolls, then tell the comedy of errors in the Scrolls’ discovery and publication. But the core of the class will be a deep dive into the Scrolls themselves and what they tell us about early Judaism and Christianity.
Week by Week Outline
Session 1: Background: Israel’s History-1500 BCE-100 CE
a. 1500-1250: From the Patriarchs to the Exodus
b. 1250-1000: The era of the Judges
c. 1000-586: From David to the destruction of Judah
d. 586-167: Judea under many masters-Babylon, Persia, Greece
e. 167 BCE-100 CE: From the Maccabees to Roman control
Session 2: The Home of the Scrolls—A Tour of Qumran and the Caves
a. Discovery and excavation of the site
b. Phases of occupation and duration
c. Who lived there?
d. Qumran’s rooms and what they tell us
Session 3: Scholars’ Nightmare: The Discovery and Publication of the Scrolls
a. Before 1947: tantalizing finds but no breakthrough
b. Winter 1947: the Cave 1 mother lode
c. The race to find more: Metropolitan Samuel, E. L. Sukenik and Yigael Yadin
d. The publishing struggle and the triumph of Hershel Shanks
Session 4: A Tour of the Scrolls: What Copies of Bible Books and Apocrypha Reveal a. Scroll types and styles
b. Where Scrolls fill in missing bits of our current Bible
c. Comparing Scroll biblical texts and other ancient translations
d. Scrolls Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha
Session 5: A Tour of the Texts: A Wealth of Sectarian Texts
a. Damascus Document and the Community Rule
b. Commentaries
c. Revelations about Qumran life and belief: War Scroll and Temple Scroll
d. The Scrolls and the Christian Bible
Session 6: New Discoveries and Controversies
a. How technology aids Dead Sea Scrolls research
b. What’s a fake? The disappointing Angel Scroll
c. A ‘fake’ that may be real: Moses Shapira’s scroll
d. Gabriel’s Revelation: a Dead Sea Scroll in stone
e. The future of Dead Sea Scrolls discovery and research
