The Dead Sea Scrolls in Their Historical Context

Part 1 The Qumran community, Essenes and other sects: the Dead Sea sect and other Jews - commonalities, overlaps and differences; the wicked priest or the liar?; what did you go out to see? John the Baptist, the scrolls and late second temple Judaism. Part 2 The Qumran biblical texts and the Masoretic text: the Qumran biblical scrolls - the scriptures of late second temple Judaism; Qumran evidence for a biblical standard text and for non-standard and parabiblical texts; "E Pluribus Unum" - textual variety and definitive interpretation in the Qumran scrolls. Part 3 Sectarian law and normative Jewish law: Halakah and sectarianism in the Qumran scrolls; the story of Joseph and the "Book of Jubilees"; sabbatical chronologies in the Dead Sea scrolls and related literature; Qumran calendars -theory and practice; the place of the Book of Jubilees at Qumran and beyond. Part 4 Theology of the Qumran community, second temple Judaism and early Christianity: the nature of Messianism in the light of the Dead Sea scrolls; Judaisms in the Dead Sea scrolls - the case of the Messiah; the branch in the last days - observations on the new convenant before and after the Messiah; the Dead Sea scrolls and Merkavah mysticism.