Priesthood, Cult, and Temple in the Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran

The Hellenistic period was a pivotal moment in the history of the Jewish priesthood. The waning days of the Persian empire coincided with the continued ascendance of the high priest and Jerusalem temple as powerful political, cultural, and religious institutions in Judea. The Aramaic Scrolls from Qumran, only recently published in full, testify to the existence of a flourishing but previously unknown Jewish literary tradition dating from the end of Persian rule to the rise of the Hasmoneans. Throughout this book, Robert Jones analyzes how Israel’s priestly institutions are represented in these writings, and he demonstrates that they are essential for understanding the Jewish priesthood at this crucial stage in its history.

Robert E. Jones, Ph.D. (2020), McMaster University, is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University. His published work has focused on literary representations of the priesthood in the Dead Sea Scrolls.