The Dead Sea Scrolls: Winter 2021 Course

Rev'd Dan Graves

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Three Sessions per Week

Session Description

Location

Online

In 1947, in caves near the shore of the Dead Sea, a trove of ancient Jewish writings was discovered. Many of these texts, previously unknown, offer new insight into Judaism of the Second Temple period and important context for the study of the New Testament and Christian origins.

Join Fr. Dan Graves for this eight-week course, in which we will read a selection of the most important non-biblical scrolls and fragments in order to deepen our understanding of the roots of both modern Judaism and Christianity. In addition to exploring the theology and religious thought of the Scrolls, we will review their discovery and subsequent controversial publication, who might have written and collected them, and their relationship to the archaeological remains at Khirbet Qumran.

The course will be conducted over Zoom in three timeslots to allow maximum participation. Weekly readings will be found in Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Seas Scrolls in English. Additional background materials will be posted in advance on Fr. Dan’s blog: (click on Dead Sea Scrolls Course tab)

Time Slots:

Wednesdays 11 am
Thursdays 10 am
Thursdays 7:30 pm
(Week of Jan. 10 through Week of Mar. 7 – No class during the Week of Feb. 14)

Required Text:

Geza Vermes, ed., The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Revised Edition (Penguin: 2011), $30.00 Canadian (please purchase ahead of time).

Recommended Secondary Texts:

Timothy H. Lim, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction, Second Edition (Oxford University Press: 2011).

James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, Revised Edition (Eerdmans: 2010).