All of the key texts and documents of the Dead Sea Scrolls are examined, methods used to analyse the scrolls are discussed, and they are considered in their various contexts; political, religious, cultural, economic, and historical. The volume concludes with a look at the crucial issues and topics discussed by leading scholars.

George J. Brooke is Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester, UK.
Charlotte Hempel is a Reader in Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Abbreviations
List of Images and Figures
List of Contributors
Introduction - George J. Brooke and Charlotte Hempel
I. Background
Discoveries - Hans Debel
Archaeology of Qumran - Dennis Mizzi
Manuscript Collections: An Overview - Mladen Popovic
Publication Process - Weston Fields and son
Scholarly and Popular Reception - Matthew Collins
II. Context
Ethnicity: A Fresh Religious Context of the Scrolls - Robert Kugler
The Yahad in the Context of Hellenistic Group Formation - Benedikt Eckhardt
Regional Context of the Dead Sea - Joan E. Taylor
Qumran and the Ancient Near East - Henryk Drawnel
Scrolls and Early Judaism - George J. Brooke
Scrolls and Early Christianity - Albert Hogeterp
Scrolls and Hellenistic Jewish Literature
a. Philo - Joan E. Taylor
b. Josephus - James McLaren
c. Other Literature - Matthias Henze
Scrolls and non-Jewish Hellenistic Literature - Jutta Leonhardt Balzer
III. Methods
Physicality of Manuscripts and Material Culture - Ingo Kottsieper
Scientific Technologies - Ingo Kottsieper
Reading and Reconstructing Manuscripts - Annette Steudel
Languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek - Holger Gzella
Biblical Scholarship and Qumran Studies - Reinhard G. Kratz
Scrolls and the Study of the Ancient World - Benjamin Wright
Historiography - Philip R. Davies
Social Scientific Approaches
a. Sectarianism - David Chalcraft
b. Sociolinguistics - Trine Hasselbach
c. Identity Theory - Lloyd Pietersen
Postmodern and Poststructuralist Questions - Maxine Grossman
IV. Key Texts
Aramaic Job - David Shepherd
Aramaic Levi - Vered Hillel
Authoritative Scriptures: Torah and Related Texts - Katell Berthelot
Authoritative Scriptures: Prophets and Related Texts - Roman Vielhauer
Authoritative Scriptures: Writings and Related Texts - Ulrich Dahmen
Authoritative Scriptures: Other - Kelley Coblentz Bautch and Jack Weinbender
Barkhi Nafshi - Daniel Falk
Bar Kokhba Letters - Lutz Doering
Beatitudes - Dorothy Peters
Berakhot - Daniel Falk
Commentaries on Genesis - George J. Brooke
Copper Scroll - Jesper Høgenhaven
Damascus Document (D) - Liora Goldman
Genesis Apocryphon - Daniel Machiela
Hodayot (H) - Angela Kim Harkins
Instruction - Benjamin Wold
Messianic Apocalypse - Eric Mason
Mil?amah (M) - Brian Schultz
Miq?at Ma?ase ha-Torah (MMT) - Hanne von Weissenberg
Mysteries - Samuel Thomas
New Jerusalem - Michael Langlois
Pesharim - Shani Tzoref
Rule of Blessings (Sb) - Judith Newman
Rule of Congregation (Sa) - Corrado Martone
Serekh ha-Yahad (S) - Stephen Hultgren
Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice - Judith Newman
Son of God Text - Eric Mason
Tan?umim - Jesper Hogenhaven
Temple Scroll - Joseph Angel
Testimonia - Eva Mroczek
Wiles of Wicked Woman - Michael Lesley
Words of the Luminaries - Judith Newman
V. Types of Literature
Bible - Mika Pajunen
Parabiblical Texts /Rewritten Scripture - Molly Zahn
Exegesis and Interpretation - Michael Segal
Halakhah - Vered Noam
Rules - Charlotte Hempel
Poetry and Hymns - Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra
Liturgical Texts - Daniel Falk
Calendars - Helen Jacobus
Wisdom - Matthew Goff
Mystical Texts, Magic, and Divination - Gideon Bohak
VI. Issues and Topics
Patriarchs and Aramaic Traditions - Ariel Feldman
Revelation - Hindy Najman and Nick Hilton
God(s), Angels and Demons - Hanne von Weissenberg
Eschatologies and Messianisms - Kenneth E. Pomykala
Jerusalem and the Temple - Mila Ginsburskaya
Purity and Holiness - Cecilia Wassen
The Scribes of the Scrolls - Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar
Forms of Community - Alison Schofield
Daily Life - Cecilia Wassen
Ethics and Dualism - Marcus Tso
War and Violence -Alex Jassen
APPENDICES A-G - Drew Longacre, Michael DeVries
Index - Michael DeVries