The episode of 'Bragg' to which I am refering gives little additional spectacular detail to what we already knew concerning the Qumran manuscripts. Indeed, with regard to Cave7, the mss in which are in Greek, I would welcome up to date facts. If that Cave really did contain a piece of the Gospel according to S Mark, this is of no little interest.
A fact I did not know is that Luke 1:32-35 employs terminology which we have now found at Qumran. I am convinced that there are things to be discovered about the 'Third' Gospel which 'Modern Biblical Studies' have concealed from us. But of broader, and broad, interest is the extent to which the Dead Sea Scrolls illustrate the very considerable diversity ("richness") in the Judaism of before AD 70; and, in illustrating this, give our biblical texts a fascinating contextuality. For example: there were beliefs recorded at Qumran concerning the replacement of the Temple cult ... and suggestions that in the last Days God would build a New, a Third, Temple.
And it is certainly thought-provoking to hear that the parts of the Old Scriptures which massively interested the Qumran sectaries ... the Psalms ... Isaiah ... Genesis and the rest of the Pentateuch ... were those also which meant a lot to Christians.
Think of that, Fathers, as you open your breviaries and wonder (if you do!) whether the day's pensum of psalms is rather a heavy burden!
Among the liturgical fragments found at Qumran is an expanded version of the Priestly Blessing of Numbers 6:24-26. As translated by an Israeli rabbi, it reads as follows:
ReplyDeleteMay the Lord bless you with all good
and keep you from all evil.
May the Lord illumine your heart with insight
into the things of life
and grace you with knowledge of things eternal.
May the Lord look kindly on you
and grant you peace everlasting.
Following up a comment on the first post on this subject, I managed to track down the sources of a patristic interpretation of the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal son as the post-Christian Jews:
ReplyDelete"Tertullian saw in the image of the elder brother the Jews who envied the Christians for their “reconciliation” with “God the Father,” thus winning for the New Israel the promise originally made to the “Chosen People” (“De pudicitia” [On Modesty], chap. 8). Similarly, St. Ambrose of Milan, in his Exposition on the Holy Gospel According to St. Luke, which contains this parable, speaks of the envy of the elder brother for the wayward son, also drawing a parallel between the former and the Jews (Book VII, §§239-243)"
(https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/02/brother-of-prodigal-son.html)
Was the discussion about 7Q5? Some people claim it is a fragment of Mark 6:52-53 copied about AD 50. Others say it is no such thing. Brent Nongbri recounts the long-running dispute here:
ReplyDeletehttps://brentnongbri.com/2022/03/19/the-strange-nu-story-of-7q5/