Aramaica Qumranica

The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls represent roughly 13% of the Qumran library and correspond to a wide range of genres and topics. This book consists of the proceedings of a conference on the Aramaic scrolls from Qumran which took place in Aix-en-Provence in 2008. It includes both the papers themselves and a transcription of the discussions. The 22 papers tackle linguistic, exegetical and historical questions, focusing in particular on: the relation of the Aramaic texts to what we know as the Hebrew Bible; their literary genres; the question of their sectarian or non-sectarian provenance; the character of the corpus, and specifically its relevance to the development of apocalypticism and messianism in the Jewish tradition.

Katell Berthelot, Ph. D. (2001) in History of Religions, Sorbonne University (Paris), is Researcher at the CNRS, France. She has published extensively on Judaism in the Greco-Roman world, including Philanthrôpia judaica. Le débat autour de la “misanthropie” des lois juives dans l’Antiquité (Brill, 2003).

Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, Ph. D. (2002) in Comparative Religion, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is Researcher at the CNRS, France. He has published extensively on Early Judaism and Early Christianity, including The Impact of Yom Kippur on Early Christianity (Mohr Siebeck, 2003).

The editors are to be commended for producing an exceptionally fine volume, which makes a substantial improvement to our understanding of the context and nature of the Aramaic scrolls from Qumran: a highly enigmatic, albeit distinct corpus.

Sandra Jacobs
King’s College, London


It is worth stressing that most of the papers are followed by a response or/and discussions also published in the book. This precious detail allows the reader not only to feel the atmosphere of the lively discussion but to follow the reactions of other scholars to theories and explanations proposed in the papers. The whole book is an important contribution to the ongoing discussion on the Aramaic scrolls from Qumran, their literary forms, origin, and ways of their modern explanations.

Henryk Drawnel
Institute of Biblical Studies, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin