The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1946 the first of the Dead Sea Scroll discoveries was made near the site of Qumran, at the northern end of the Dead Sea. Despite the much publicized delays in the publication and editing of the Scrolls, practically all of them had been made public by the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the first discovery. That occasion was marked by a spate of major publications that attempted to sum up the state of scholarship at the end of the twentieth century, including The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls (OUP 2000). These publications produced an authoritative synthesis to which the majority of scholars in the field subscribed, granted disagreements in detail.
A decade or so later, The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls has a different objective and character. It seeks to probe the main disputed issues in the study of the Scrolls. Lively debate continues over the archaeology and history of the site, the nature and identity of the sect, and its relation to the broader world of Second Temple Judaism and to later Jewish and Christian tradition. It is the Handbook's intention here to reflect on diverse opinions and viewpoints, highlight the points of disagreement, and point to promising directions for future research.

Preface
Introduction: Current Issues in Dead Sea Scrolls Research
I: Archaeology of Khirbet Qumran and the Judaean Wilderness
1. Khirbet Qumran and its Environs, Eric Meyers
2. The Qumran Cemetery Reassessed, Rachel Hachlili
II: The Scrolls and Jewish History
3. Constructing Ancient Judaism from the Scrolls, Martin D. Goodman
4. The Origins and History of the Teacher's Movement, Michael O. Wise
5. Women in Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Tal Ilan
III: The Scrolls and Sectarianism
6. Sectarian Communities in the Dead Sea Scrolls, John J. Collins
7. The Classical Sources on the Essenes and the Scrolls Communities, Joan E. Taylor
8. Sociological Approaches to Qumran Sectarianism, Jutta Jokiranta
9. Qumran Calendars and Sectarianism, Sacha Stern
10. The Book of Enoch and the Qumran Scrolls, James C. VanderKam
IV: The Biblical Texts, Interpretation and Languages of the
11. Assessing the Text-Critical theories of the Hebrew Bible after Qumran, Ronald S. Hendel
12. Authoritative Scriptures and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Timothy H. Lim
13. The Rewritten Scriptures, Molly Zahn
14. The Continuity of Biblical Interpretation in the Qumran Scrolls and Rabbinic Literature, Bilha Nitzan
15. Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek in the Qumran Scrolls, Jan Joosten
Religious Themes in the Scrolls
16. Purity in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jonathan Klawans
17. Apocalypticism and Messianism, Michael Knibb
18. Exploring the Mystical Background fo the Dead Sea Scrolls, James R. Davila
19. Wisdom Literature and Thought in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Armin Lange
20. Iranian Connections in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Albert de Jong
21. Was the Dead Sea Sect a Pentitential Movement?, David Lambert
VI: The Scrolls and Early Christianity
22. Critical Issues in the Investigation of the Scrolls and the New Testament, Jorg Frey
23. Monotheism, Principal Angels, and the Background of Christology, Larry Hurtado
24. Shared Exegetical Traditions between the Scrolls and the New Testament, George J. Brooke
The Scrolls and Later Judaism
25. Halakha between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbinic Literature, Aharon Shemesh
26. The Contribution of the Qumran Scrolls to the STudy of ANcient Jewish Liturgy, Daniel Falk
27. Reviewing the Links between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Cairo Genizah, Stefan Reif
VIII: New Approaches to the Scrolls
28. Rhetorical Criticism and the Reading of the Qumran Scrolls, Carol Newsom
29. Roland Barthes and the Teacher of Righteousness, Maxine Grossman
30. The Scrolls and the Legal Definition of Authorship, Hector L. MacQueen