Abstract:
The important contribution that the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) hold for New Testament studies is
probably most evident in Ad Hebraeos. This contribution seeks to present an overview of
relevant extant DSS fragments available for an investigation of the Old Testament explicit
quotations and motifs in the book of Hebrews. A large number of the explicit quotations in
Hebrews were already alluded to, or even quoted, in some of the DSS. The DSS are of great
importance for the study of the explicit quotations in Ad Hebraeos in at least four areas, namely
in terms of its text-critical value, the hermeneutical methods employed in both the DSS and
Hebrews, theological themes and motifs that surface in both works, and the socio-religious
background in which these quotations are embedded. After these four areas are briefly
explored, this contribution concludes, among others, that one can cautiously imagine a similar
Jewish sectarian matrix from which certain Christian converts might have come – such as the
author of Hebrews himself.
