Article In the words of Jonathan Silk (1994: 183), the Buddha ‘is essentially historically unknowable’, there being ‘no certain evidence even that such a man lived … there is no actual “fact” or set of “facts” to which any picture of the Buddha might correspond.’ Bernard Faure (2016) allows the Buddha a little more leeway…

Article David Drewes argues compellingly in the JIABS that “no basis for treating the Buddha as a historical figure has yet been identified” The position of David Drewes is simple but quite profound: we know nothing about a “historical Buddha” and reading sūtras or the vinaya as reflective of a historical reality (which is common…

Article Largely understood, ritual settings in the Dead Sea Scrolls not only include explicit communication with the divine (prayers, hymns, laments, worship, revelation, secret knowledge, visions, prophecy, study sessions, meditation) but also ritual practices as commanded, expected or appreciated by the divine (such as Sabbath observance, oaths, purification). Ritualization of action may take place in…

Martin Goodman, “Rome and Jerusalem” (2009)“All Jewish sources of this period suggest that Jews took the ownership of slaves as entirely normal, apart from the Essenes who, according to Philo (“Prob.” or “That Every Good Man Is Free,” 79), ‘condemn slave owners as unjust in that they offend against equality, but still more as ungodly,…

There are at least parts of 86 copies of different scrolls of individual books in the Torah (plus 4 that are too fragmentary to identify for sure) at Qumran. They don’t all agree with each in every particular. In general, they mostly agree with what became the Masoretic text, but sometimes they agree with what…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCqsWyvOHfw&pp=ygUeZGVhZCBzZWEgc2Nyb2xscyBoaXN0b3J5dmFsbGV5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icXF4GgirTA&pp=ygUeZGVhZCBzZWEgc2Nyb2xscyBoaXN0b3J5dmFsbGV5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Pkwr_1ZsM&pp=ygUeZGVhZCBzZWEgc2Nyb2xscyBoaXN0b3J5dmFsbGV5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xgC3IdKmOI&pp=ygUeZGVhZCBzZWEgc2Nyb2xscyBoaXN0b3J5dmFsbGV5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI4_vIDk3LE&pp=ygUeZGVhZCBzZWEgc2Nyb2xscyBoaXN0b3J5dmFsbGV5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gt85GU0R4l4&pp=ygUeZGVhZCBzZWEgc2Nyb2xscyBoaXN0b3J5dmFsbGV5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ZJrNsLa9I&pp=ygUeZGVhZCBzZWEgc2Nyb2xscyBoaXN0b3J5dmFsbGV5https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCs6m_PGu5Y&pp=ygUeZGVhZCBzZWEgc2Nyb2xscyBoaXN0b3J5dmFsbGV5

2nd century BCE to 1st century CE.4Q76:Russell Fuller says: “The script of 4QXIIᵃ is a semicursive hand of the early Hasmonean period. Paleographically the script of 4QXIIᵃ may be dated in the second century before the common era to approximately 150-125” (“Text-Critical Problems in Malachi 2:10-16”, p. 47; JBL, 1991).The name Dead Sea Scrolls refers…

For the biblical scrolls, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible” (1999) by Abegg, Flint, and Ulrich, is the book form. There is also dssenglishbible.com. online. At least parts of all of the books included in the MT, except Esther, have been found. In all, 206 manuscripts have been identified, along with 7 which are uncertain. The…

Eisenman’s late dating is at variance with the broad consensus of the entire field of Qumran studies. Radiocarbon dating alone points to Hasmonean and Herodian dates for much of the material, such as 1QpHab (88-2 BCE 1σ probability). The scrolls contain historical references that belong to the second and first centuries BCE; see Hanan Eshel’s…