Geza Vermes has a unique view on the Dead Sea Scrolls. His entire academic life has literally been devoted to their study, almost from the time of their discovery. No other living academic can claim such an association. As a result, it's possible that no one has read them as carefully as he. Capping a long and full academic career, Geza Vermes acts as editor of the Journal of Jewish Studies.
Writing in Standpoint.online, Geza Vermes adds to the debate begun by Rachel Elior over the possible fabrication of the Essenes by Philo and Josephus and the suggestion that the scrolls were written by the Sadducees.
Of course in this day of instant response, Elior is able to proffer a response online as well as to generate other dialogues on her views.
The give-and-take in this area is intriguing. But more than that, it is refining and enhances our ability to appreciate the environment in which these scrolls were written, which was also the cradle in which Jesus Christ and the early church lived and worked.
H/T to James Davila of PaleoJudaica for the links.
Israel Knohl, a professor at Hebrew University and Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, discusses the importance, to both Judaism and the followers of Christ, of the recent discovery of a stone since known as Gabriel's Revelation.
The idea of a suffering Messiah has long been held by Christian scholarship to be an after-the-event concept added by the apostles to justify the death of Jesus Christ. Knohl shows how this concept predated the birth of Jesus and explores the way this is shown in Gabriel's Revelation.
Sixty years after their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls still spark controversy and debate. What, if anything, have they established so far, and how will they be remembered?
Book examines the religious sentiments in Judaea in the first century
"Common Judaism" was a term coined by E.P. Sanders to describe the religious sensibilities among people who lived during the period known as the Second Temple. This period coincided with the life of Jesus Christ, who, like the majority of the populace, did not follow the strictures of the major religious groups such as Sadducees, Pharisees or Essenes. Obviously some of the population had no religious interest at all, but the majority were considered to follow a form of "common" Judaism.
A book published late last year examines the concept of a common Judaism in greater detail, building on the work of Sanders, who, in fact, contributed an essay to the book.
This appears to be a useful work for reevaluating the social environment of Judea and Galilee during the period when Jesus and the apostles taught in the first century C.E., making disciples of "the way." These were the First Followers.
