New Perspectives on Old Texts: Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, 9-11 January, 2005

This volume presents new perspectives on the ancient texts discovered at Qumran. The essays offer fresh insights into particular texts and genres, by applying methods and constructs drawn from other disciplines to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and by exploring new as well as long-standing issues raised by these works. The topics and approaches engaged include group identity, memory, ritual theory, sectarian sociology, philosophy of education, liturgical anthropology, Jewish law, history of religion, and mysticism. The articles in this volume were originally presented at the Tenth Annual International Orion Symposium sponsored in 2005 by the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Esther G. Chazon is Head of the Academic Committee of the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Hebrew Literature, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has published extensively on liturgy and Qumran.

Betsy Halpern-Amaru is Professor of Religion, Emeritus at Vassar College. She has authored Rewriting the Bible: Land and Covenant in Postbiblical Jewish Literature and The Empowerment of Women in the Book of Jubilees, and is currently completing a book on Exodus and the Book of Jubilees.

Ruth A. Clements is Chief of Publications for the Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls, co-author of The Orion Center Bibliography (2000–2006), and co-editor of Text,Thought, and Practice in Qumran and Early Christianity.