Among the invaluable manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are numerous fragments of liturgical texts pertaining to the ritual life of Jews living around the turn of the common era. These fascinating writings include prayers for annual festivals, a covenant renewal liturgy, a mystical liturgy for Sabbath sacrifices, a grace ceremony for mourners, daily and weekly prayers, liturgies of purification, and perhaps even a wedding ceremony. In this volume, the first to be published in the Eerdmans Commentaries on the Dead Sea Scrolls series, James Davila introduces, translates, and provides a detailed exegesis of these important documents. The book begins with a general introduction to the Qumran library and Jewish liturgical traditions. Davila then provides an introduction, translation, notes on the original Hebrew, and line-by-line commentary for each of the Qumran liturgical works. Davila's excellent translation work combines overlapping fragmentary manuscripts into a single, smoothly flowing text, and his commentary includes numerous fresh insights and observations on these writings. Giving full attention to parallel texts found in the Hebrew Bible and other Jewish and Christian writings through late antiquity, Davila firmly situates the Qumran liturgical works in their historical context in Second Temple Judaism and discusses their significance as background to the Jewish liturgy, Jewish mysticism, and Christian origins. Shedding light on a period of Jewish history whose ritual life formerly lay almost entirely in darkness, this volume makes--and subsequent ECDSS volumes will make--a valuable contribution to our understanding of the biblical world.

Second Temple Judaism exerted a profound and shaping influence upon early Christianity. TheJewish Roots of Christological Monotheism documents this influence by exploring thewaysin whichthe Christian praxisofChrist-devotion in the first two centuries of the Common Era can be understood as a manifestation of Jewish monotheism. The volumeapproaches this phenomenonalongfour distinctivelines of inquiry: (1)reexamining (and problematizing) the theological force of monotheismduring the Second Temple period; (2)retracing the historical steps of Christianity's adaptation, mutation, and/or redefinition of Jewish monotheism; (3)exploring and debating the influence of non-Jewish traditions on this process; and (4)mappinghowChristianity's unique appropriation of Jewish monotheism helps explain the intriguing relationships among emerging Christian, Jewish,andgnosticcommunities. Eighteen chapters, each from an expert in the study ofearlyJudaism and Christianity, comprise the volume.The chapters collectively demonstratehow the creationofnew mythic narratives, the revelatory power of mystical experiences, and the sociology of community formation capitalized on Jewish mediator traditionsto initiate thepraxis of Christ-devotion.

This volume inaugurates the publication of the series of biblical Dead Sea Scrolls written in the Jewish (or square') script that were discovered in Cave 4 at Qumran. It contains twenty-six manuscripts of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. These Hebrew texts antedate by a millenium what had previously been considered the earliest surviving biblical manuscripts in the original language. They document a pluriformity acceptable in the ancient biblical textual tradition that formed the basis for the Samaritan Pentateuch and helps to illumine the historical and theological relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans. Superior textual variants from these manuscripts have been adopted in recent revised translations of the Bible. This book is intended for biblical scholars, scholars of ancient Judaism and Christianity.