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[German Version] I. Religious Studies Words for wisdom display a great range of meanings, which need to be taken into account in discussing Wisdom literature. Etymologically the words wise and wisdom ¶ (also Ger. Wissen, “knowledge”) derive from the Proto-Indo-European root * weid- (cf. Sanskrit vid- with its derivatives veda, “[religious] knowledge,” and vidya, “knowledge”; also Lat. videre, “see”). Gk γνῶσις/ gnṓsis, “knowledge” (including the technical term Gnosis), Sanskrit jñāna-, “knowledge,” and Eng. know have a common verbal root * jen( ə)-. Equivalents to the Heb. verb םכ…

[German Version] The term Dead Sea Scrolls (Ger. somewhat misleadingly Qumrantexte; modern Heb. megilot midbar yehudah) is a collective term for the manuscripts discovered near the Dead Sea at Ketef Jericho, Qumran, Khirbet Mird, ¶ Wadi en-Nar, Wadi Ghweir, Wadi Murabbaʿat, Wadi Sdeir, Na ḥal Ḥever, Na ḥal Mishmar, Na ḥal Ṣeʿelim, Masada, and in the Wadi ed-Daliyeh between Samaria and Jericho. A complete list of all the texts can be found in E. Tov et al., eds., The Texts from the Judaean Desert (DJD 39, 2002). This article deals with the individual sites and their manusc…

[German Version] I. Manuscripts and Influence at Qumran Three manuscripts of the Temple Scroll have survived: 4QT (4Q524), 11QTa, b (11Q19 and 11Q20). The assignment of 11Q21 (11QTc) to the Temple Scroll is uncertain. Paleography and damage patterns link 4Q365a (4QT?) to the manuscript 4Q365 (4QRPc). The manuscript 11QTa, with remnants of 66 columns (8.148 meters out of what was originally about 9 meters), is the best preserved. The earliest surviving manuscript, 4QT, can be dated paleographically to the period between 150 and 125 bce (Puech, 87f.). With minor variations, the t…

[German Version] I. Genre The title Sectarian Rule or Community Rule ( serek) has been given to works of various types that deal with the religious regulation of actual communities (e.g. the Essenes [see also Qumran], e.g. S and D) or eschatological communities (the army of the Sons of Light, e.g. SM). The term serek is taken from the title of manuscript 1QS; only recently has it been applied to a broad spectrum of different religious rules. The Essenes also referred to such rules as midrash (4QSb 5 1; 4QSd 1 I 1; 4QDe 11 II 15; [4QDa 18 V 20]), making clear the “exegetical” character of t…