The Dead Sea Scrolls

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  • Premiered: Jan 2010
  • Episodes: 24
  • Followers: 0
  • Ended
  • The Great Courses
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  • Documentary Mini-series

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Season 1
1x1
The Discoveries and Their Significance
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Learn what the Dead Sea Scrolls are, the story of their unlikely discovery, and the state of scholarship about ancient Judaism and early Christianity prior to the scrolls' surfacing. The .. show full overview
1x2
The First Seven Scrolls
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Plunge into a tale of excitement and adventure and discover more about how scholars gained access to the first seven scrolls discovered at Qumran—and what they found when they began to translate these extraordinary initial discoveries.
1x3
Opening and Reading the First Scroll
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
This lecture begins your immersion into the text of the scrolls themselves, starting with the scroll known as the Community Rule or Manual of Discipline—the important text that gives us .. show full overview
1x4
The Historical Backdrop of Ancient Judaism
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Consider history prior to the scrolls, beginning with the biblical period and moving forward to focus on the Maccabean revolt, the arrival of the Romans, the reign of King Herod, the .. show full overview
1x5
The Rise of the Jewish Sects
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Gain insight into the appearance of Jewish sectarianism in late antiquity—focusing primarily on the Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots—through the Jewish historian Josephus, .. show full overview
1x6
The Dear Sea Site of the Qumran Sect
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Journey to the isolated region of Qumran's caves and learn how archaeological excavations of a nearby ruin helped scholars form the most accepted hypothesis of who wrote the scrolls and why the scrolls were deposited in the caves.
1x7
The Emergence of the Rabbinic System
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Step forward in time to examine some later rabbinic texts from the 3rd century and the rise of the rabbinical tradition itself, both of which provide vital perspectives on the composition of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
1x8
A Dead Sea Scroll from Medieval Cairo
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Focus on the famous Damascus Document, two copies of which were discovered in a Cairo synagogue in the 1890s. Although the copies were medieval, the texts themselves were believed to be .. show full overview
1x9
Pesher Interpretation - Prophecy Read Anew
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Look at a scroll known as the Pesher Habakkuk, the most prominent representative of an interpretive method whereby the true message of a biblical book is read as speaking to present-day .. show full overview
1x10
The War Scroll and Other Apocalyptic Texts
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Two key scrolls—one of which details a cataclysmic battle between the "Sons of Light" (the Qumran sect's self-designation) and the "Sons of Darkness" (all other Jews, apparently)—offer .. show full overview
1x11
Biblical Manuscripts at Qumran
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Using clarifying examples of biblical text, enter the arcane world of textual criticism, learning about the transmission of texts in antiquity, the oral reading tradition, the .. show full overview
1x12
Alternative Views of Qumran and the Scrolls
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Most scholars believe the Dead Sea Scrolls were authored by a Jewish sect identified with the Essenes, who then hid the documents from the advancing Roman army in 68 C.E. This is not the .. show full overview
1x13
Stops and Starts En Route to Publication
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
The story of the Dead Sea Scrolls involves much more than just archaeology and analysis. This lecture takes you into the intrigue, scholarly rivalry, and sometimes astonishing delays .. show full overview
1x14
The Qumran Vision for a New Temple
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Explore in detail the Temple Scroll, which reworked the Torah's laws, using the book of Deuteronomy as a base. Also, learn how a key shift in the text's narrative voice—to that of God .. show full overview
1x15
Daily Life at Qumran
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
How did the Qumran community go about its daily life? This lecture integrates both textual and archaeological data to examine the sect's social structure, economy, farming, food production, and the question of women at Qumran.
1x16
The Halakhic Letter - Rituals Define the Sect
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
This treatise on 20 points of Jewish law, written by the Qumran sect's leader, was published in modern form 40 years after its discovery. Follow the twists and turns of that story before .. show full overview
1x17
The Qumran Biblical Canon
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
When the Qumran community existed, the biblical canon was not yet fixed, with different Jewish groups seeing as canonical some texts that others did not. Examine some texts shedding .. show full overview
1x18
The Qumran Calendar
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Look at the ways in which the arrangement of the yearly calendar influenced the practice of faith, and how the Qumran community used a different calendar from other Jews of the time.
1x19
Jewish Scholars and Qumran Ritual Practices
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Return to the process by which the scrolls were published, learning how several key events in 1991 ultimately shattered the scholarly monopoly and paved the way for close examination of .. show full overview
1x20
Prayers, Hymns, and the Synagogue
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Continue your focus on Jewish ritual at Qumran, with special attention to prayer and the role of the synagogue, before turning to the last of the original seven documents to be examined .. show full overview
1x21
Qumran Hebrew as an Anti-Language
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Turn to the dialect used in the Dead Sea Scrolls known to scholars as "Qumran Hebrew"—an example of the sociolinguistic phenomenon of "anti-language"—and investigate how it could be used by the sect to set itself apart.
1x22
The Enigma of the Copper Scroll
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Learn how the Qumran community's most remarkable and puzzling text—the corroded metal sheets of which needed to be cut apart into strips to permit reading—proved to contain obscure hints .. show full overview
1x23
Connections to Cristianity
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
There are many links between the Dead Sea Scrolls sect and the Jesus movement. This lecture gathers connections already mentioned in earlier lectures and further explores beliefs and practices shared by the Qumran sect and earliest Christianity.
1x24 Show finale
Scroll Fragments and a New View of Judaism
Episode overview
Air date
Jan 01, 2010
Even quite fragmentary scrolls offer new insights. This lecture samples three such fragments, turns to the ultimate fates of the different sects, and then concludes with a look at lessons the scrolls offer us today.

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