Alexandria and Qumran: Back to the Beginning

Kenneth Silver (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

612 Seiten

2017
Archaeopress Archaeology (Verlag)
978-1-78491-728-9 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

This year, 2017, marks 70 years since the discovery of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls at Khirbet Qumran by the Dead Sea in 1947. The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most well-known archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. This book addresses the proto-history and the roots of the Qumran community and of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the light of contemporary scholarship in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria, as the centre for Hellenistic Jews and the location of the Library of Alexandria, forms a key to understanding the theme of the book. The relationship of this context to the thoughts of the Essenes, the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, the Jewish Therapeutae of Egypt living in the neighbourhood of Alexandria and the Pythagoreans are especially studied in this work. Historical sources (both Jewish and Classical authors) and archaeological evidence are taken into account in the wider Graeco-Roman context. The connection between the Jewish Therapeutae in the Lake Mareotis region and the Palestinian Essenes is explained by the ‘Jewish Pythagoras’ based on the idea that the movements share the same philosophical tradition based on Judaism and Pythagoreanism. The prototypes of the Dead Sea Scrolls are explained in their Egyptian context, in association with the Library of Alexandria, the Egyptian temple manuals, and the formation of libraries in the Hellenistic period including that of Qumran.

Dr Kenneth Silver is a historian and professional archaeologist, who has lived and worked for decades in the Near East. He is a specialist in Hellenistic and Roman archaeology, history and numismatics. He has worked with archaeological material in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Turkey. He has previously published a number of scientific articles and monographs in this field. His current research interests include the study of early Jewish-Christian relations and the history of early Christianity. Presently he is the director of a survey and mapping project in Northern Mesopotamia studying the border zone between the late Roman/ Byzantine Empire and Persia.

Preface and Introduction; I Alexandria and Jewish Philosophies; II Pythagorean Philosophy; III Background to the Organisation of the Qumran-Essene Community; IV Qumran and the Pythagorean Philosophy: The Eleven Pythagorean Tetraktys in Comparison with the DSS; V Daily Life and Religion among the Qumran-Essenes; VI The Qumran Sundial and Ancient Solar Thinking; VII Back to the Beginning; VIII Summary; Sources, Bibliography, and Index

Erscheinungsdatum	02.12.2017
Zusatzinfo	42 figures, 11 maps and plans (24 plates in colour)
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	175 x 245 mm
Gewicht	1518 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Philosophie Altertum / Antike
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
ISBN-10	1-78491-728-1 / 1784917281
ISBN-13	978-1-78491-728-9 / 9781784917289
Zustand	Neuware