Overview

Starting from a careful definition of mysticism, this volume argues that there is clear evidence for the practice of mysticism in the Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It offers a close reading of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, the Self-Glorification Hymn, and related texts, which constitute the Qumran mystical corpus. It discusses the nature of the mystical experience at Qumran, which was centred on union with the angels in offering praise to God in the celestial temple, and the means by which this union was achieved, through the communal chanting of highly-charged numinous hymns. It also argues that that the presence of mysticism at Qumran has important implications for the history of western mysticism. It means that Jewish mysticism began in priestly circles in Second Temple times, several centuries before the commonly accepted date. And the important form of Christian mysticism involving speculation on the angelic hierarchies, classically associated with Dionysius the Areopagite, had a pre-Christian Jewish forebear. Consequently Qumran mysticism belongs to the genealogy of Christian as well as of Jewish mysticism. This volume synthesizes and makes accessible a mass of technical research widely scattered in monographs and articles, and offers the reader a clear guide to the most recent scholarly work in the field.

Full Product Details

Author:   Philip Alexander
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   T.& T.Clark Ltd
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.20cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.410kg
ISBN:  

9780567040824

ISBN 10:   0567040828
Pages:   192
Publication Date:   27 February 2006
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

1.Mysticism at Qumran: the State of the Question 2.The Qumran Mystical Corpus 2.1.The Celestial Temple and its Liturgy Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice 2.1.1 The Manuscripts 2.1.2 Contents, Song by Song 2.1.3 Themes and Issues 2.1.4 Related Dead Sea Texts 2.2Ascent to the Celestial Temple 2.2.1Introduction 2.2.2The Ascent of Enoch 2.2.3The Ascent of Levi 2.2.4The 'Ascent' of the Maskil 2.3Preliminary Conclusions 3.Mystical Praxis at Qumran 3.1Introduction 3.2The nature of the Unio Mystica at Qumran 3.3 How was the Unio Mystica achieved at Qumran 4.Qumran and the genealogy of Western Mysticism 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Heikhalot Mysticism: Definition 4.3 Heikhalot Mysticism: Comparisons and Contrasts with Qumran Mysticism 4.4 Possible historical links between Qumran and Heikhalot Mysticism 4.5 Qumran and Scholem's Paradigm of Jewish Mysticism 4.6 Qumran and the Genealogy of Christian Mysticism.

Reviews

this colume is a very welcome and learned addition to the Companions to the Qumran Scrolls series. It is written clearly and accesibly while at the same time offering much more than an introductory text that is essential reading for students and scholars of the scrolls and Jewish mysticism from the Journal of Jewish Studies--Charlotte Hempel

Author Information

Philip Alexander is Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Literature and Co-Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies in the University of Manchester.

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