Description
Book SynopsisThe Dead Sea Scrolls have demonstrated the fluidity of biblical and early Jewish texts in antiquity. How did early Jewish scribes understand the nature of their pluriform literature? How should modern textual critics deal with these fluid texts? Centered on the Serekh ha-Yaḥad – or Community Rule – from Qumran as a test case, this volume tracks the development of its textual tradition in multiple trajectories, and suggests that it was not understood as a single, unified composition even in antiquity. Attending to material, textual, and literary factors, the book argues that ancient claims for textual identity ought to be given priority in discussions among textual critics about the ontology of biblical books
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures Abbreviations Introduction 1 Textual Criticism without Originals 2 Difference & Development 3 Textual Variants and Authorization 4 Construing Biblical Books 1 Textual Pluriformity, Textual Development, and Textual Criticism after Qumran 1 Introduction 2 Accounting for Pluriformity after Qumran 3 Higher and Lower Criticism 4 What Is Textual Criticism? 5 The Ontology of Biblical Literature 6 The Influence of Canon 7 Biblical and Non-biblical Texts 8 Excursus: What Do the Scrolls Represent? 9 The Serekh 2 Textual Pluriformity in the Serekh Tradition 1 Introduction 2 The Manuscripts 3 The Text 4 Pluriformity in S, and Text- and Redaction-Criticism 3 The Development of the Serekh Tradition 1 Introduction 2 Past Treatments 3 The Development of the Serekh 4 Conclusions 4 Wisdom, Torah, and Textual Identity 1 Introduction 2 Wisdom and Torah at Qumran 3 The Serekh and Its Authority 4 Summary and Conclusions 5 What Were Biblical Books? 1 Unfinalized Texts & The Rolling Corpus 2 Literary Editions & Rewritten Scripture 3 Ontology and the Individuation of Literary Works 4 What Was the Serekh ha-Yaḥad? 5 What is Textual Criticism? Epilogue: Editing Biblical & Early Jewish Texts Appendix: Synoptic View of the Serekh Bibliography Index of Passages Index of Modern Authors
