The Bible, Qumran, and the Samaritans - Paperback

by Magnar Kartveit (Editor), Gary N. Knoppers (Editor)

Discoveries on Mount Gerizim and in Qumran demonstrate that the final editing of the Hebrew Bible coincides with the emergence of the Samaritans as one of the different types of Judaisms from the last centuries BCE. This book discusses this new scholarly situation.

Scholars working with the Bible, especially the Pentateuch, and experts on the Samaritans approach the topic from the vantage point of their respective fields of expertise. Earlier, scholars who worked with Old Testament/Hebrew Bible studies mostly could leave the Samaritan material to experts in that area of research, and scholars studying the Samaritan material needed only sporadically to engage in Biblical studies.

This is no longer the case: the pre-Samaritan texts from Qumran and the results from the excavations on Mount Gerizim have created an area of study common to the previously separated fields of research. Scholars coming from different directions meet in this new area, and realize that they work on the same questions and with much common material.This volume presents the current state of scholarship in this area and the effects these recent discoveries have for an understanding of this important epoch in the development of the Bible.

Back Jacket

The study of the Bible and research on the Samaritans have over the last decades been changed fundamentally in many ways. In this book the focus is on the change created by new material emerging from two sites: the manuscripts from the Dead Sea, especially from Qumran, and the ruins and inscriptions found on Mount Gerizim. The pre-Samaritan texts from Qumran and the results from the excavations on Mount Gerizim have created an area of study common to previously separated fields of research. Biblical scholars and experts on the Samaritans in this volume discuss this new situation.

Author Biography

Gary N. Knoppers, University of Notre Dame, IN, U.S.A. and Magnar Kartveit, VID Specialized University, Stavanger, Norway.