Description:
In this study of the Aramaic materials at Qumran, Andrew B. Perrin examines the Aramaic Levi Document, Words of Qahat, and Visions of Amram, showing how they exhibit a concentration of priestly concerns/knowledge and exploring new models for evaluating their potential textual or traditional connections. The Aramaic texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls are among the most understudied items in the Qumran collection, and with open questions posed around their origins, transmission, and reception in and beyond the Second Temple period, these writings provide both new materials and fresh insight into the thought, identity, and practice of ancient Judaism.
Perrin's analysis includes a new transcription, critical notes, and translation of the Aramaic Levi, Qahat, and Amram fragments based upon the latest digital images. He pairs them with a comprehensive commentary on the conceptual elements, codicological features, and cultural contexts of the materials, and he concludes with a fresh synthesis regarding the textual formation of these Aramaic, priestly pseudepigrapha as a "constellation" of texts within a larger world or scribal-priestly activity and traditions.Brief description: Andrew B. Perrin is Associate Vice President, Research at Athabasca University, Canada.
Review Quotes: "This commentary is an important piece of scholarship and will be an invaluable resource ... That this commentary is both comprehensive and concise is perhaps its greatest strength. It can essentially serve as an introduction and starting point for graduate students and scholars looking to incorporate these three texts and the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls more broadly into their scholarship on ancient Judaism and early Christianity." --Review of Biblical Literature