{"title":"Esoteric wisdom texts from Qumran","authors":"G. Brooke","doi":"10.1177/0951820720969375","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The dominant approach to sapiential compositions found in the caves at and near Qumran has been based on traditional views of the wisdom books of the Hebrew Bible. The intention here is to look rather at the likely contexts of the transmission of the sapiential literature in the movement that preserved the Scrolls. In so doing, particular attention is given to esoteric writings. The first part of the paper outlines three key factors that indicate how a change of perspective might be justified and facilitated, namely views among biblical scholars that the overarching category of Wisdom Literature has lost much of its heuristic value, early Jewish views on evil and how to deal with it, and views on secrecy in early Judaism. The second major part is a brief consideration of sapiential compositions in the light of those key factors, suggesting a hierarchy of texts to match the social hierarchy and its accompanying hierarchy of knowledge for the group responsible for collecting the Scrolls in the caves at and near Qumran.","PeriodicalId":14859,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2020-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/0951820720969375","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0951820720969375","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"RELIGION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The dominant approach to sapiential compositions found in the caves at and near Qumran has been based on traditional views of the wisdom books of the Hebrew Bible. The intention here is to look rather at the likely contexts of the transmission of the sapiential literature in the movement that preserved the Scrolls. In so doing, particular attention is given to esoteric writings. The first part of the paper outlines three key factors that indicate how a change of perspective might be justified and facilitated, namely views among biblical scholars that the overarching category of Wisdom Literature has lost much of its heuristic value, early Jewish views on evil and how to deal with it, and views on secrecy in early Judaism. The second major part is a brief consideration of sapiential compositions in the light of those key factors, suggesting a hierarchy of texts to match the social hierarchy and its accompanying hierarchy of knowledge for the group responsible for collecting the Scrolls in the caves at and near Qumran.
期刊介绍:
The last twenty years have witnessed some remarkable achievements in the study of early Jewish literature. Given the ever-increasing number and availability of primary sources for these writings, specialists have been producing text-critical, historical, social scientific, and theological studies which, in turn, have fuelled a growing interest among scholars, students, religious leaders, and the wider public. The only English journal of its kind, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha was founded in 1987 to provide a much-needed forum for scholars to discuss and review most recent developments in this burgeoning field in the academy.