Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 The archaeology of Palestine 63 bce–ce 70
- 2 The Herodian Temple
- 3 Recent archaeology in Palestine: achievements and future goals
- 4 The contribution of Jewish inscriptions to the study of Judaism
- 5 The social, economic and political history of Palestine 63 bce–ce 70
- 6 The Diaspora in the Roman period before ce 70
- 7 The Gentiles in Judaism 125 bce–ce 66
- 8 Gentiles as seen by Jews after ce 70
- 9 The synagogue
- 10 The Temple and the synagogue
- 11 The early liturgy of the synagogue
- 12 Women in the synagogue
- 13 The Pharisees
- 14 The Sadducees – their history and doctrines
- 15 The Essenes
- 16 The baptist sects
- 17 The troublemakers
- 18 The Samaritans and their sects
- 19 Galilean Judaism and Judaean Judaism
- 20 Jesus: from the Jewish point of view
- 21 Paul: from the Jewish point of view
- 22 Jewish Christianity
- 23 Apocalyptic: the disclosure of heavenly knowledge
- 24 The Qumran sectarian writings
- 25 The Dead Sea Scrolls and pre-Tannaitic Judaism
- 26 Prayer in the Qumran Texts
- 27 Philo of Alexandria
- 28 Josephus (ce 37–c. 100)
- 29 The rabbi in second-century Jewish society
- 30 The Hellenistic–Roman Diaspora ce 70–ce 235: the archaeological evidence
- 31 The legacy of Egypt in Judaism
- 32 Jewish elements in gnosticism and magic c.ce 70–c.ce 270
- Bibliographies
- Index
- References
26 - Prayer in the Qumran Texts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
By
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 The archaeology of Palestine 63 bce–ce 70
- 2 The Herodian Temple
- 3 Recent archaeology in Palestine: achievements and future goals
- 4 The contribution of Jewish inscriptions to the study of Judaism
- 5 The social, economic and political history of Palestine 63 bce–ce 70
- 6 The Diaspora in the Roman period before ce 70
- 7 The Gentiles in Judaism 125 bce–ce 66
- 8 Gentiles as seen by Jews after ce 70
- 9 The synagogue
- 10 The Temple and the synagogue
- 11 The early liturgy of the synagogue
- 12 Women in the synagogue
- 13 The Pharisees
- 14 The Sadducees – their history and doctrines
- 15 The Essenes
- 16 The baptist sects
- 17 The troublemakers
- 18 The Samaritans and their sects
- 19 Galilean Judaism and Judaean Judaism
- 20 Jesus: from the Jewish point of view
- 21 Paul: from the Jewish point of view
- 22 Jewish Christianity
- 23 Apocalyptic: the disclosure of heavenly knowledge
- 24 The Qumran sectarian writings
- 25 The Dead Sea Scrolls and pre-Tannaitic Judaism
- 26 Prayer in the Qumran Texts
- 27 Philo of Alexandria
- 28 Josephus (ce 37–c. 100)
- 29 The rabbi in second-century Jewish society
- 30 The Hellenistic–Roman Diaspora ce 70–ce 235: the archaeological evidence
- 31 The legacy of Egypt in Judaism
- 32 Jewish elements in gnosticism and magic c.ce 70–c.ce 270
- Bibliographies
- Index
- References
Summary
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the single most valuable source for the study of Jewish prayer in the Second Temple period. Other evidence for Jewish prayer practice during this period is notoriously ambiguous: what prayers are preserved appear almost exclusively in literary contexts – either narratives or poetic collections – and references to liturgical prayer are rare. By contrast, in the Dead Sea Scrolls are collections of prayer texts for various designated occasions and indications of a detailed cycle of liturgical prayer such as is otherwise only clearly attested after the destruction of the second temple. Thus, this body of data is potentially a valuable link between the mostly ad hoc prayers glimpsed in the Hebrew Bible and the later synagogue liturgy.
On the other hand, neither the source of these prayers nor the relationship between those who prayed them and Judaism at large are obvious. Some view the prayers in the Dead Sea Scrolls as sectarian products representing a marginal practice of limited relevance to the study of Jewish prayer in general. According to this view, the Yaḥad (a common self-designation for the sectarian community in the Qumran texts) developed its liturgy in the place of the sacrificial cult from which it was alienated, anticipating by over two centuries the ‘service of the heart’ which would emerge after the destruction of the second temple. However, a growing conviction among scholars that many of the Dead Sea Scrolls did not originate within the Qumran community – and many of the prayer texts fall into this category – raises the possibility that these prayers reflect Jewish practice more widely.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Judaism , pp. 852 - 876Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999
References
‘Psaumes, hymnes, cantiques et prières dans les manuscrits de Qumrân’ in Le Psautier: Ses origines, ses problèmes littéraires, son influence, Orientalia et Biblica Lovaniensia 4 (Louvain 1962).Google Scholar
Qumrân Grotte 4, III (4Q482–4Q520). vol. 7 of Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (Oxford 1982).
‘Sacrifice and Worship Among the Jewish Sectarians of the Dead Sea (Qumran) Scrolls’, Harvard Theological Review 46 (1953).Google Scholar
‘Jewish Hymns, Odes, and Prayers (c. 167 bce–135 ce)’ in Early Judaism and its Modern Interpreters, edited by and , The Bible and its Modern Interpreters (Philadelphia 1986).Google Scholar
(ed.) Rule of the Community and Related Documents, vol. 1 of The Dead Sea Scrolls. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations. With , et al., The Princeton Theological Seminary Dead Sea Scrolls Project (Tübingen 1994).
ed. Damascus Document, War Scroll, and Related Documents, vol. 2 of The Dead Sea Scrolls. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek Texts with English Translations. With , et al., The Princeton Theological Seminary Dead Sea Scrolls Project (Tübingen 1995).
‘New Liturgical Manuscripts from Qumran’ in Proceedings of the Eleventh World Congress of Jewish Studies, Division A, The Bible and Its World (Jerusalem 1994).Google Scholar
‘Dibre Hamme’ orot: Prayer for the Sixth Day (4q504 1–2 v–vi)’ in Prayer from Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology, edited by et al. (London 1997).Google Scholar
‘Is Divrei Ha-me'orot a Sectarian Prayer?’ in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research, edited by and (Jerusalem 1992).Google Scholar
‘On the Special Character of Sabbath Prayer: New Data from Qumran’, Journal of Jewish Music and Liturgy 15 (1992/3).Google Scholar
‘Prayers from Qumran and Their Historical Implications’, Dead Sea Discoveries 1 (1994).Google Scholar
‘Prayers from Qumran: Issues and Methods’ in Society of Biblical Literature 1993 Seminar Papers (Atlanta 1993).Google Scholar
‘Prayers from Qumran: Issues and Methods’ in Society of Biblical Literature 1993 Seminar Papers, edited by (Atlanta 1993).Google Scholar
, and , The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered. The First Complete Translation and Interpretation of 50 Key Documents Withheld for Over 35 Years (Shaftesbury 1992).
, , and . ‘A Qumran Composition Containing Part of Pss. 154 and a Prayer for the Welfare of King Jonathan and His Kingdom’, Israel Exploration Journal 42 (1992).Google Scholar
‘Jewish Prayer Literature and the Jerusalem Church in Acts’ in The Book of Acts in its Palestinian Setting, edited by , The Book of Acts in Its First Century Setting (Grand Rapids 1995).Google Scholar
Daily, Sabbath, and Festival Prayers in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Leiden, Brill 1998).
‘Jewish Prayer Literature and the Jerusalem Church’ in (ed.) The Book of Acts in its First Century Setting 4 (Grand Rapids, Michigan 1995).Google Scholar
‘The Psalms from the Judaean Desert: Relationships and Textual Affiliations’ in New Qumran Texts and Studies: Proceedings of the First Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Paris 1992, edited by , STDJ 15, (Leiden 1994).Google Scholar
‘Psalms, Hymns and Prayers’ in Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period. Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, Qumran Sectarian Writings, Philo, Josephus, edited by , vol. 2. Compendia Rerum Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum (Assen 1984).Google Scholar
‘The Magnificat and the Benedictus’ in Judaism and the Origins of Christianity (Jerusalem 1988).Google Scholar
The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated. The Qumran Texts in English, translated by (Leiden 1994).
Hodayot, Psalms from Qumran (Aarhus 1960).
The Prayers of Jesus. Translated by , , and (Philadelphia 1967).
et al. Prayer from Alexander to Constantine: A Critical Anthology (London 1997).
. The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English, trans. by (Leiden 1994).
‘“He Has Established for Himself Priests": Human and Angelic Priest-hood in the Qumran Sabbath Shirot’ in Archaeology and History in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The New York University Conference in Memory of Yigael Yadin, edited by . Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series 8 (Sheffield 1990).Google Scholar
Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, a Critical Edition, HSS 27 (Atlanta 1985).
(ed.) Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: a Critical Edition (Atlanta 1985).
‘4qBerakhot (4q286–290): Preliminary Report’ in New Qumran Texts and Studies: Proceedings of the First Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Paris 1992, edited by and Martinez, STDJ 15 (Leiden 1994).Google Scholar
‘4QBerakhot‘a–e’ (4Q286–290): A Covenantal Ceremony in the Light of Related Texts’, Revue de Qumran 16 (1995).Google Scholar
‘Benedictions and Instructions for the Eschatological Community (11QBer; 4Q285)’, Revue de Qumran 16 (1993).Google Scholar
‘Harmonic and Mystic Characteristics in Poetic and Liturgical Writings from Qumran’, Jewish Quarterly Review 85 (1994).Google Scholar
‘Hymns from Qumran – 4q510 –4q511’ in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research, ed. and (Leiden 1992).Google Scholar
Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry (Leiden 1994).
Qumran Prayer and Religious Poetry, translated by , STDJ 12 (Leiden 1994).
. ‘11qpsaP‘a’: un rituel d'exorcismes. Essai de reconstruction’, Revue de Qumran 14 (1990).Google Scholar
. ‘Les deux derniers psaumes Davidiques du rituel d'exorcisme 11qpsaP‘a’ iv 4-V 14’ in Forty Years of Research in the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. and (Leiden 1992).Google Scholar
‘Times for Praising God: A Fragment of a Scroll from Qumran (4q409)’, Jewish Quarterly Review 80 (1990).Google Scholar
The Psalms Scroll of Qumrân Cave 11, vol. 4 of Discoveries in the Judaean Desert of Jordan (Oxford 1965).
The Eschatological Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Study of the Rule of the Congregation. SBL Monograph Series 38 (Atlanta 1989).
‘The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Early History of Jewish Liturgy’ in The Synagogue in Late Antiquity, edited by (Philadelphia 1987).Google Scholar
‘Prayer, Hymnic and Liturgical Texts from Qumran’ in The Community of the Renewed Covenant: The Notre Dame Symposium on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Notre Dame 1994).Google Scholar
‘Some Observations on Blessings of God in Texts from Qumran’ in Of Scribes and Scrolls: Studies on the Hebrew Bible, Intertestamental Judaism, and Christian Origins Presented to John Strugnell on the Occasion of His Sixtieth Birthday, edited by , and College Theology Society Resources in Religion 5 (Lanham, MD 1990).Google Scholar
‘The Cave Four Hodayot Manuscripts: A Preliminary Description’, Jewish Quarterly Review 85 (1994).Google Scholar
‘The Psalm of 4Q372 1 within the Context of Second Temple Prayer’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 54 (1992).Google Scholar
Non-Canonical Psalms from Qumran: A Pseudepigraphic Collection, HSS 28 (Atlanta 1986).Google Scholar
‘Gott als König und seine Königsherrschaft in der Sabbatlieder aus Qumran’ in Königsherrschaft Gottes und himmlischer Kult in Judentum, Urchristentum und in der hellenistischer Welt, edited by and , (Tübingen 1991).Google Scholar
‘The Barki Nafshi Texts (4Q434 – 439)’ in Current Research and Technological Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls, Conference on the Texts from the Judean Desert, Jerusalem, 30 April 1995, edited by and , STDJ 20 (Leiden 1996).Google Scholar
‘The ‘Manual of Benedictions” of the Sect of the Judean Desert’, Revue de Qumran 2 (1960).Google Scholar
‘The Emergence of Institutionalized Prayer in Israel in Light of Qumran Literature’ in The World of Qumran from Within: Collected Studies (Jerusalem 1989).Google Scholar
‘Ein neuer Segensspruch aus Qumran (11QBer)’ in Bibel und Qumran: Beiträge zur Erforschung der Beziehungen zwischen Bibel- und Qumranwissenschaft, edited by (Berlin 1968).Google Scholar
The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London 1997).
, Jesus and the World of Judaism (London 1983).
, and . A Preliminary Edition of the Unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls: The Hebrew and Aramaic Texts from Cave Four. Facsicles Two and Three (Washington, DC 1992, 1995).
‘Prayer and Liturgical Practice in the Qumran Sect’ in The Dead Sea Scrolls: Forty Years of Research, edited by and (Leiden 1992).Google Scholar
‘The Angelic Song Over the Luminaries in the Qumran Texts’ in Time to Prepare the Way in the Wilderness, Papers on the Qumran Scrolls by Fellows of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1989–1990, edited by and , STDJ 16, (Leiden 1995).Google Scholar
‘The Heavenly Praise in Unison’ in Meqor Hajjim. Festschrift für Georg Molin zu seiner 75. Geburtstag, edited by (Graz 1983).Google Scholar
‘The Morning Prayers (Birkhoth Hashachar) in Qumran and in the Conventional Jewish Liturgy’, Revue de Qumran 13 (1988).Google Scholar
‘The Prayers for Knowledge, Repentance and Forgiveness in the ‘Eighteen Benedictions” – Qumran Parallels, Biblical Antecedents, and Basic Characteristics (Hebrew)’, Tarbiz 48 (1979).Google Scholar
, , and . The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (New York 1996).
Tefillin from Qumran (Jerusalem 1969).
‘The Politics of Piety. Social Conflict and the Emergence of Rabbinic Liturgy’ in The Making of Jewish and Christian Worship, edited by and (Notre Dame and London 1991).Google Scholar
‘Three Stages in the Development of Early Rabbinic Prayer’ in From Ancient Israel to Modern Judaism. Intellect in Quest of Understanding. Essays in Honor of Marvin Fox, vol. 1, edited by , , and (Atlanta 1989).Google Scholar
- 3
- Cited by