The Dead Sea Scrolls are found in many varied publications -- often ordered only by publication date, rather than a more easily navigable system -- making specific texts difficult to find.Joseph Fitzm
The Dead Sea Scrolls are found in many varied publications -- often ordered only by publication date, rather than a more easily navigable system -- making specific texts difficult to find.
Joseph Fitzmyer's guide offers a practical remedy to this dilemma. A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature starts by explaining the conventional system of abbreviations for the Scrolls. Then it helpfully lists specifically where readers can find each of the Scrolls and fragmentary texts from the eleven caves of Qumran and all the related sites, using the officially assigned numbers of the text.
Fitzmyer supplies information on study tools helpful for scholars -- concordances, dictionaries, translations, outlines of longer texts, and more -- and briefly indicates electronic resources for the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
James A. Sanders
— Claremont School of Theology, Claremont Graduate University, Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center
"Joseph Fitzmyer has done it again: a complete and reliable reference work giving far greater access to the Scrolls for scholars, students, and future readers than previously available. . . After 1991 over thirty volumes of the series have been published. This volume provides data for access to all the published Scrolls, various bibliographies of the Scrolls, early survey reports of the discoveries and of the archaeology involved, concordances, dictionaries and grammars that have been compiled, listings of translations available, Fitzmyer's own outlines of some of the major ancient documents, a bibliography covering topics of interest concerning the Scrolls, an exhaustive list of sigla and numbers used to designate the individual manuscripts, and finally a list of the electronic resources available for accessing the texts themselves. It is a remarkable achievement and a necessary tool for all serious students of the Scrolls as well as for tyros just entering the field. The gratitude of the whole world of Scrolls scholarship is due to Fitzmyer for this precious gift."
Eugene Ulrich
— University of Notre Dame
"Father Fitzmyer — a veteran scholar intimately involved in scrolls scholarship since the first discoveries, and blessed with an unsurpassed reputation for thoroughness and accuracy — has produced a portable gold mine of essential information on the Dead Sea Scrolls. This guide is encyclopedic in scope and detail, containing a broad array of classified lists of the manuscripts from Qumran and all other sites, outlines of major texts, catalogs of concordances and translations, bibliographies covering all aspects from archaeology and paleography to Halakah and the New Testament, and descriptions of valuable electronic resources."
Daniel J. Harrington, S.J.
— Boston College School of Theology and Ministry
"Fr. Joseph Fitzmyer has been one of the premier experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls for more than fifty years. His guidebook is full of accurate information about the ancient texts and the best modern scholarship. It is the ideal starting point for doing serious research on these important documents and their significance for early Judaism and early Christianity."
View Review quote
