Text and Studies on Ancient Judaism (3 vols.)

The origin of the legendary Book of Giants has eluded scholars and paleographers for centuries. Did it originate with the Manichaeans in the sixth century? Or do its origins reach back to an age before Christ?

Loren T. Stuckenbruck explores the manuscripts found at Qumran, which attributes this mythical book to independent Jewish sources around the time of the Second Temple period. Stuckenbruck brings his expertise on 1 Enoch to the fragments of the Book of Giants, studying both the published and unpublished fragments, giving this study a wide scope. Hoping to shed light on the Book of Giants as an early Jewish document, Stuckenbruck demonstrates that this writing is to be taken seriously in its own right.

The main thrust of the book is an examination of the settlement of Qumran to discover its connection with the Essenes and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In her investigation, Cansdale uses archaeological evidence, the writings of ancient authors (including the writers of the scrolls), the reports of nineteenth-century explorers, and researches in many disciplines up to the present day. She reexamines the concept of Qumran as an Essene monastery where the Dead Sea Scrolls were written and proposes alternative functions for Qumran and possible authors of the scrolls. Her examination of Qumran extends over the whole Dead Sea region with particular emphasis on its climate, agricultural activity, and mineral wealth. The ancient trade routes by land and sea are traced and their importance to Qumran is considered.

The book starts with an overview of Qumran scholarship and archaeology and the change in emphasis in Dead Sea Scrolls studies, triggered by the recent availability of the closely guarded fragments. A detailed study is made of the internal evidence of the scrolls in comparison with the Essene belief, the position of women, the practices of various Jewish sects, and early Christian origins. Cansdale challenges some of the well-entrenched theories about Qumran, the Essenes, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Alan D. Crown provides a guide to the techniques used by the Samaritan scribes in copying manuscripts. He describes Samaritan works by their literary history and shows the more important manuscripts of each type of literature. In addition, he lists the Samaritan scribes and the manuscripts for which they were responsible. The work shows that the Samaritan scribes were innovative but their scribal techniques derived from an ancient pool of scribal habits and ideas, and they had what can best be described as a masoretic tradition of their own. Samaritan Scribes and Manuscripts is a codicology of Samaritan manuscripts and an analysis of their transmission.