In 1946 the first of the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries was made near the site of Qumran, at the northern end of the Dead Sea. Despite the much publicized delays in the publication and editing of the Scrolls, practically all of them had been made public by the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the first discovery. That occasion was marked by a spate of major publications that attempted to sum up the state of scholarship at the end of the twentieth century, including The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (OUP 2000). These publications produced an authoritative synthesis to which the majority of scholars in the field subscribed, granted disagreements in detail. A decade or so later, The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls has a different objective and character. It seeks to probe the main disputed issues in the study of the Scrolls. Lively debate continues over the archaeology and history of the site, the nature and identity of the sect, and its relation to the broader world of Second Temple Judaism and to later Jewish and Christian tradition. It is the Handbook's intention here to reflect on diverse opinions and viewpoints, highlight the points of disagreement, and point to promising directions for future research.
Reviews
The importance of this work ... lies not merely in this wealth of expertise but rather in its unique objective. ... the decision of Collins and Lim to highlight contested questionsin diverse areas of Scrolls' scholarship give this particular volume a refreshing and welcome overarching unity. It will be consulted and appreciated by any scholar whose work engages the field of Second Temple Judaism. * Shane Berg, Scottish Journal of Theology *
The result is a great work with excellent essays, which not only marks a decade of scrolls scholarship, butamore importantlya is a farewell to an era of consensus and authoritative views and the welcoming of scholarly disagreement and discourse. * Eibert Tigchelaar, Bibliotheca Orientalis *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199663088
Author Timothy H. Lim
Format Paperback
Page Count 806
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1394g
Dimensions(mm) 246mm * 171mm * 46mm