Rhetoric and the Dead Sea Scrolls : : Purity, Covenant, and Strategy at Qumran / / Bruce McComiskey.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2021 English
• VerfasserIn: McComiskey, Bruce,
• Place / Publishing House: University Park, PA : : Penn State University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (242 p.) :; 2 illustrations

Discovered in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient Israelite documents, many of which were written by a Jewish sectarian community at Qumran living in self-exile from the priesthood of the Second Temple. This first book-length study of the rhetoric of these texts illustrates how the Essenes employed different rhetorics over time as they struggled to understand God’s word and their mission to their people, who seemed to have turned away from God and his purposes.Applying methods of rhetorical analysis to six substantive texts—Miqṣat Maʿa"7;eh ha-Torah, Rule of the Community, Damascus Document, Purification Rules, Temple Scroll, and Habakkuk Pesher—Bruce McComiskey traces the Essenes’ use of rhetorical strategies based on identification, dissociation, entitlement, and interpretation. Through his analysis, McComiskey uncovers a unique, fascinating story of an ancient religious community that had sought to reintegrate into Temple life but, dejected, instead established itself as the new covenant people of God for this world, only to turn ultimately to a trust in a metaphysical afterlife.Presenting forms of ancient Jewish rhetoric largely uninfluenced by classical rhetoric, this book broadens our understanding of human and religious rhetorical practice, even as it provides new insight into the events that led to the emergence of the Talmudic period. Rhetoric and the Dead Sea Scrolls will be useful to scholars working in the fields of religious rhetoric, Jewish studies, and early Christianity.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Rhetorics of Identification, Distinction, and Persuasion in Miqsat Maʿaśeh ha-Torah (4QMMT) -- Chapter 2 Performative Rhetorical Strategies in the Rule of the Community (1QS) -- Chapter 3 Dissociation as a Rhetorical Strategy in the Damascus Document (CD) -- Chapter 4 Impurity and Purification as Material Rhetoric in the Purification Rules (4QTohorot A and B) and the Temple Scroll (11QT) -- Chapter 5 Hermeneutics/Rhetoric in the Book of Habakkuk and the Habakkuk Pesher (1QpHab) -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Resources for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls -- Index