Viewing posts for the category Dead Sea Scrolls/Qumran
Dead Sea Scrolls: Sectarian Texts
by James Duguid | August 5, 2026
Some of the most interesting documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls are those that describe the founding beliefs and rules of the community itself. These texts give us a window into what this community was all about, and there has been a good deal written about how we should place this community within Judaism on the basis of this evidence. Since they contain reasoning about how to observe the law, they also give us important evidence of debates withing Judaism at the time, and often shed light on similar debates in the New Testament or Rabbinic legal interpretation.
Dead Sea Scrolls: Apocryphal Texts
by James Duguid | August 3, 2026
Congregants in the Presbyterian circles I run in tend to view apocryphal texts with fascination, suspicion, or a mixture of both. We are aware that other branches of Christianity accept books we do not, and that there are even more books beyond that which no major branch of Christianity accepts as authoritative, which are nevertheless out there. I find a couple of insights helpful here: First, a book might be helpful even if it is not canonical or authoritative (a point made by Article 6 of the 39 Articles). Second, we can think of many of these apocryphal works as commentaries – an analogy that comes from Greg Beale. They tell us how Jews of the time were thinking about the Bible, and they can even give us insightful interpretations of Scriptures we consider canonical. Such texts are in any case indispensable for understanding how Jews thought at the time of Jesus. They let us know how Jews at this time were reading the Bible, and they are often a helpful background for understanding the New Testament, especially for eliciting assumptions that lie behind arguments made by the apostles.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Isaiah and Phylacteries
by James Duguid | August 2, 2026
The final rotation of Dead Sea Scrolls is on exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in DC. This blog post will cover the biblical material that is here this time: a copy of Isaiah, and a phylactery. For an introduction to the topic, see my first post here.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: Psalms, Lamentations, Numbers
by James Duguid | April 17, 2026
There is a new rotation of scrolls on exhibit at the Museum of the Bible in DC. I thought I’d put together a new post about the biblical manuscripts in particular, looking at interesting text critical readings. For an introduction to the topic, see my first post here. To see all my posts so far, click here.
The Dead Sea Scrolls: 11Q10 Targum Job
by James Duguid | January 16, 2026
With the Dead Sea Scrolls in the District of Columbia this year, I’ve been writing some posts about the particular scrolls that are visiting. My first and second posts covered copies of biblical manuscripts found at Qumran, but now I will move on to some of the other literature there. In this post, we will explore 11Q10 Targum Job.