Out of the Cave: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Dead Sea Scrolls Research.

Ullmann-Margalit, Edna:

ISBN 10: 0674022238 / ISBN 13: 9780674022232

Published by Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press, 2006

About this Item

167 p. Eine handschriftliche Druckfehlerkorrektur im Buch, sonst ein gutes Exemplar / one handwritten annotation in the book, otherwise a good copy. - Contents Preface Introduction Chapter One Writings and Ruins: The Essene Connection Overview Setting the Stage Discovery Reception and Expectations Scholarship Popular Interest The Problem of Identification The Emergence of the Qumran-Essene Hypothesis Yadin De Vaux The Linkage Argument The Weak Version De Vauxs Strong Version The Strength of the Linkage Argument The Links Resilience and Consilience Elasticity and Co-optation Who Were the Essenes? The Composition of the Qumran Library Chapter Two A Hard Look at Hard Facts: The Archaeology of Qumran The Fantasy The Chain of Events The Fantasy in Detail Formation and Confirmation The Method Leaving Traces Reasoning about the Traces Background Expectations Prior Probabilities, Posterior Probabilities, and Interpretation The Task A Two-Way Split Examples Negating Findings Affirming Findings: Ritual Baths Affirming Findings: Scriptorium Affirming Findings: The Yahad Ostracon Threshold Effects Assessment Test or Presumption? Confirmation Bias Framing Finds as Facts Artifacts The Case of the Bone Deposits Facts under Description Uniqueness The Scrolls Jars, the Glass Assemblage, and the Hatchet The Copper Scroll Chapter Three Sects and Scholars The Scrolls Sect Why Sect? To Be a Sect Traits Shared by Sects Sectarian Traits of the Dead Sea Group Celibacy and Geographic Center Which sect? Heterodoxy and Orthodoxy Political Power and Religious Power Protest Against Whom? Sadducees or Pharisees? The Calendar A Deviant Calendar What Difference does a Different Calendar Make? Ideology or Practice? Christian Agendas The Spiritual Picture Changed Circumstances, Different Picture Examples and Further Observations Scholarly Anxieties and Motivated Agendas Bibliography Index. ISBN 9780674022232 Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 383.

Seller Inventory # 1208036

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Out of the Cave: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Dead Sea Scrolls Research.
• Publisher: Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674022238
• ISBN 13: 9780674022232
• Binding: Hardcover with dust jacket.
• Condition: Wie neu
• Weight: 383 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Religion / Theologie

About this title

Synopsis

More than fifty years ago the discovery of scrolls in eleven caves beside the Dead Sea ignited the imagination of the world--and launched a vast academic field. Expectations abounded that the scrolls would reveal actual contemporaneous accounts of the birth of Christianity, perhaps even of the life of Jesus. The research that followed--its inner logic, and what its impassioned and often highly controversial theories reveal about the framing of facts and the interpreting of texts--is what interests philosopher Edna Ullmann-Margalit in this thoroughly absorbing book.

Since the inception of Dead Sea Scrolls research, a central theory has emerged. Known as the Qumran-Essene Hypothesis, it asserts that the scrolls belonged to the Essenes, a sect whose center was at the nearby site of Qumran. In Out of the Cave, Ullmann-Margalit focuses on this theory and the vicissitudes of its career. Looking at the Essene connection, the archaeology of Qumran, and the sectarian nature of the scrolls community, she explores the different arenas, and ways, in which contesting theories of the scrolls do battle. In this context she finds fascinating examples of issues that exercise philosophers of science as well as the general public--issues that only amplify the already intrinsic interest of the Dead Sea scrolls.

About the Author

Edna Ullmann-Margalit is Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.