Overview

Violence is one of the key themes in the Dead Sea Scrolls. It captured the imagination of the Sectarians who wrote these scrolls, and who saw themselves as victims of persecution. Their vision for the end of days included fantasies of revenge against their enemies. In this volume, Alex P. Jassen explores the intersection of violence and power in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ancient sectarian movement which generated and preserved these texts. Bringing a multidisciplinary approach to this topic, he offers insights into the origins and function of violence for the people behind the Dead Sea Scrolls. He demonstrates how they positioned themselves in a world dominated by more powerful Jews and the overwhelming might of foreign empires. Jassen addresses the complex relationship between violence, power, and social groups by drawing on cross-cultural examples of sectarianism, millennial movements, and disempowered groups, with particular emphasis on New Religious movements such as the Branch Davidians.

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9781009609081

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Reviews

'This original and insightful book advances the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls by drawing on the sociological study of new religious movements and differentiating the different stages of the development of sectarian consciousness. It sheds new light not only on the use of violent imagery in the Scrolls but also on the history and psychology of the movement. The modern analogies are fascinating.' John J. Collins, Holmes Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Criticism and Interpretation, Yale University 'Jassen presents the reader with an excellent, thorough study of the question of violence in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Utilizing a social-scientific approach, the book lays out the diverse ways that images of violence appear in the scrolls, and how the Dead Sea sectarians portray themselves both as victims and as perpetrators of violence. The comparison with the twentieth-century Branch Davidian sect and the Serbian nationalist movement is compelling and timely, given the violent rhetoric that permeates our political and cultural discourse today.' Sidnie White Crawford, Willa Cather Professor Emerita of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 'Jassen offers a sophisticated and nuanced analysis of how discourses of violence in the Dead Sea Scrolls intersect with power, identity, and the community's experience and imagination of past, present, and end-time violence. The volume's clear scholarly prose makes this important work accessible also to a broader audience and classrooms in higher education.' Charlotte Hempel, Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism, University of Birmingham; Honorary Research Fellow, University of Pretoria 'In this incisive study, Alex P. Jassen guides readers through the complex and often contradictory portrayals of violence in the Dead Sea Scrolls. By combining close textual analysis with insights from social scientific research – including the study of New Religious Movements – he elucidates how the sectarian imagination of violence evolved in response to shifting social contexts. Jassen shows how arhetoric of violence served as a means of coping with disempowerment and perceived persecution, providing a literary space to imagine the reversal of a world gone wrong. This nuanced approach enriches our understanding of the texts and the people who produced them.' Cecilia Wassen, Professor of New Testament, Uppsala University

Author Information

Alex P. Jassen is Ethel and Irvin Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. He is the author of Mediating the Divine: Prophecy and Revelation in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism (2007), winner of the 2009 John Templeton Award for Theological Promise, and Scripture and Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls (2014).

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