The eminent status of Jeremiah’s prophecies is well reflected in late biblical books of the Second Temple era, focused as they are on the Jeremianic prophecy forecasting seventy years of Israel’s servitude to Babylon (Jer 25:11–12; 29:10). They proposed various interpretations (see Zach 1:12; 7:5; 2 Chr 36:20–21; Dan 9) and the interest in this prediction continued well into the last centuries of the Second Temple period (e.g., 1 En 10–12; 89:59–90; 93:1–10; 91:11–17). The owners of the Qumran library shared this interest. Beside five copies of Jeremiah prophetic compositions, surfaced among the Scrolls, the Qumran texts contain various allusions and quotations from Jeremiah's biblical prophecies, including some concealed pesharim. This chapter surveys them in its first section. In its second part the chapter reviews and analyzes the references to the prophet’s personality and life, elaborated in the Damascus Document 8:20 and in the Apocryphon of Jeremiah C.

This handsome volume is the work of one of the foremost scholars of the biblical scrolls discovered in the Qumran caves. Eugene Ulrich was one of the chief editors of the Oxford series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, the official organ for the publication of the Scrolls. Ulrich edited many of the biblical manuscripts published in these volumes, thus placing him in a perfect position to write the book presented under the above title. It is both a survey of the most important biblical manuscripts found at Qumran and a state-of-the-art summary of the impact of the Qumran biblical scrolls on our understanding of the text of the Hebrew Bible and its development. It also affords the author an opportunity to express his own views on these topics by summarizing many of his previous pertinent articles, also by dialoguing with other scholars in the field. In this way, the volume offers a lucid summary of three decades of research into the Qumran biblical scrolls, and is an excellent guide for the new discoveries and insights gained into the biblical books through the discoveries of these scrolls. One of the great merits of the volume is the straightforward, clear style that is free from technicalities and specialized terminology, rendering it accessible to a wider readership without losing its relevance for specialists. It is only possible to sketch some of the major highlights of this rich compendium in such a short presentation as the present review.

The studies by Devorah Dimant collected in this volume survey and analyze Jewish works composed in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek during the Second Temple period, and discuss their contents, ideas and connections to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Together they offer a broad and fresh perspective of the Jewish literary scene at this period, developed in the land of Israel in the last centuries BCE and the first century CE.

Devorah Dimant deals with major themes developed in the Dead Sea Scrolls, such as the nature and contents of the Scrolls collection, the specific community that owned it, its history and its literature. She also discusses the Aramaic texts and the apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works found among the Scrolls, as well as the present state of research on the Scrolls.

The variety of contacts between the Qumran library and the later apocalyptic works composed in Hebrew, 4Ezra , and 2Baruch , suggests an ongoing Hebrew literary tradition of apocalyptic writing, apparently at home in the land of Israel, during the centuries before and immediately after destruction of Second Temple, from 200bce to around 100ce. In addition, it points to numerous contacts between the Qumran documents and later apocalyptic compositions. Especially significant are the links uncovered regarding the common notion of time adopted by 4Ezra and 2Baruch and various Qumran texts. This chapter examines 4Ezra and 2Baruch in light of Qumran's rich depository of apocalyptic and other traditions. It shows that much is to be gained from a careful and thorough perusal of 4Ezra and 2Baruch in light of the Qumran library. Much remains in treasures of Qumran scrolls to illuminate a host of details in 4Ezra and 2Baruch , and awaits further research. Keywords: 2Baruch ; 4Ezra ; apocalyptic works; destruction of Second Temple; Hebrew literary tradition; Qumran library

Israeli research into the Qumran Scrolls starts with the discovery itself, so in a way its history and development reflect the general quest to understand these unique documents and the community that owned them. Israeli scholars investigated chiefly the Scrolls in the possession of the State of Israel or those whose photographs were published. Two of Sukenik's followers, his son Yigael Yadin and his assistant Jacob Licht, published editions and detailed commentaries on two of these Scrolls in Hebrew. Two other prominent scholars played a key role in early Israeli scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls, namely Shemaryahu Talmon (1920-2010) and David Flusser (1917-2000). The most significant achievement of Israeli scholarship on the Qumran Scrolls is its major contribution to the new picture of the Qumran group and library as a central component for the understanding of Second Temple Judaism. Keywords:Dead Sea Scrolls; Israeli scholarship; Qumran; Sukenik's; Temple Judaism

Abstract This work was given its title after the sojourn in Damascus of the community described therein and the new covenant its members concluded there (CD VI, 5, 19; VIII,21 [= XIX, 33]).