Violence, Power, and Society in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Alex P. Jassen is Ethel and Irvin Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. He is the author of Mediating the Divine: Prophecy and Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism (2007), winner of the 2009 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and Scripture and Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls (2014).

• 1. Introduction; 2. From contextless accounts to holistic portraits of violence; 3. The beginnings of violent conflict; 4. Sectarian identity, intensified conflict, and the turn to violence; 5. Persecution, victimhood, and storytelling in sectarian portraits of present-time violence; 6. Reversal, reciprocity, and revenge in sectarian fantasies of eschatological violence; 7. Violent imaginaries and practical violence in the war scroll; 8. Conclusion; Bibliography.

'This original and insightful book advances the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls by drawing on the sociological study of new religious movements and differentiating the different stages of the development of sectarian consciousness. It sheds new light not only on the use of violent imagery in the Scrolls but also on the history and psychology of the movement. The modern analogies are fascinating.' John J. Collins, Holmes Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation, Yale University