Publisher's Synopsis
The Princeton Theological Seminary Dead Sea Scrolls Project is providing the first critical edition of all the Dead Sea Scrolls which are not copies of books in the Hebrew Bible (the so-called Old Testament) in 10 projected volumes along with 2 concordances. The format of the series is unique; each manuscript is presented with Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek text on the left page with facing English translation on the right. The series intends to be a standard reference work; thus, only probable reconstructions are made and the English translations are as literal as possible avoiding idiomatic renderings. Where a document is witnessed by more than one manuscript, each manuscript is presented separately. Critical notes help the reader to understand the text, variants, philological subtleties, and the translation. An introduction with selected bibliography precedes each document. The documents are prepared by an international team of over fifty scholars with the editors and their assistants providing consistency.
Volume 7 brings together for the first time all of the manuscript witnesses to the Temple Scroll. The Temple Scroll is the longest manuscript found in the Qumran Caves and perhaps the most important halakhic composition known from the Second Temple Period. The scroll presents itself as a rewritten Torah which begins with the renewal of the Sinaitic covenant and then turns to the building of the Temple. The document discusses the architecture of the Temple and its precincts, laws of sacrifice, priestly dues and tithes, the ritual calendar, festival offerings, ritual purity and impurity, sanctity of the Temple, laws of the king and the army, prophecy, foreign worship, witnesses, laws of war, and various marriage and sex laws.
Published in North America by Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky.
