The material variance of the Dead Sea Scrolls : on texts and artefacts
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Date
Authors
Tigchelaar, Eibert
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AOSIS OpenJournals
Abstract
What does a sacred text look like? Are religious books materially different from other
books? Does materiality matter? This article deals with three different aspects of material
variance attested amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ancient Jewish religious text fragments, of
which were found in the Judean Desert. I suggest that the substitution of the ancient
Hebrew script by the everyday Aramaic script, also for Torah and other religious texts, was
intentional and programmatic: it enabled the broader diffusion of scriptures in Hellenistic
and Roman Judea. The preponderant use of parchment for religious texts rather than
papyrus may be a marker of identity. The many small scrolls which contained only small
parts of specific religious books (Genesis, Psalms) may have been produced as religious
artefacts which express identity in the period when Judaism developed into a religion of
the book.
Description
Keywords
Judean Desert, Dead Sea Scrolls, Identity, Judaism, Ancient Jewish religious text fragments
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Tigchelaar E., 2016, ‘The
material variance of the Dead
Sea Scrolls: On texts and
artefacts’, HTS Teologiese
Studies/Theological Studies
72(4), a3281. http://dx.DOI.
org/ 10.4102/hts.v72i4.3281.