Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran: Fact or Assumption?
Posthumously edited by Bernard M. Levinson. Journal of Ancient Judaism, Supplements, Volume 32. Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Reprecht, 2019.
Posted: 28 May 2020
Date Written: 2019
Abstract
This book examines the development of institutionalized prayer in ancient Israel at a crucial time in the history of Western civilization: from the period of the Qumran writings, in the last three centuries BCE, through to the rabbinic period, after 70 CE. It explores the shift from sacrificial worship by priests to abstract, unmediated, direct approaches to the deity by laypeople. It demonstrates the transition from voluntary, freely composed prayers to obligatory prayers with fixed texts. The study shows how Qumran and Samaritan prayer contrast with rabbinic prayer, shedding light on Jewish customs before the rabbinic reform.
Paul Heger (1924-2018; PhD, University of Toronto) has published extensively on Jewish law of the Second Temple period. His research examines how the vibrant religious sectarian scene of late antiquity give way to a much smaller range of possibilities by the time of the Second Temple’s destruction and its aftermath.
Bernard M. Levinson ist Professor für Klassische Altertumswissenschaft sowie für Rechtswissenschaften an der Universität von Minnesota und ist Inhaber des Berman Family Lehrstuhls für Judaistik und Hebräisch.Bernard M. Levinson serves as Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies and of Law at the University of Minnesota, where he holds the Berman Family Chair in Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible.
Keywords: Jewish Studies, Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish History, Prayer, Second Temple Judaism, Rabbinic Literature, Second Temple Period, Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Prayer, Rabbinic Judaism, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Second Templ Judaism and Early Christianity
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation