Religious Experience and Divinization in the Sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls : Living in the Liminal / Rebecca L. Harris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harris, Rebecca L., author.

Series:

Biblical Studies, Ancient Near East and Early Christianity E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism.

Biblical Studies, Ancient Near East and Early Christianity E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reformation texts with translation (1350-1650). Biblical studies.

Reformation texts with translation (1350-1650).

Ancient Judaism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (277 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Living in the Liminal

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2026.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For members of the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls movement, participation in the group would have granted an individual special privileges, including present, unmediated access to otherworldly realities. This understanding of the present as a type of liminal space is rooted in the group’s constructions of time and space. Drawing on theories of liminality and anthropological research on religious consciousness, this study seeks to demonstrate how sectarian identity and ritual and liturgical practice might have cultivated an experience of present communion with divine beings that was also aspirational and aimed to achieve the human worshiper’s permanent incorporation into the heavenly realm.

Contents:

Acknowledgements

Abbreviations

Translations

Key to Symbols

1 Introduction

1.1 Accessing Religious Experience in Antiquity

1.2 Religious Experience and the Dead Sea Scrolls: a Brief Survey of Scholarship

1.3 Tanya Luhrmann and the Dead Sea Scrolls

1.4 The Horizons and Limits of Liminality

1.5 (Re)Constructing a Sectarian Paracosm: Terms and Considerations

1.6 An Outline of the Study

Part 1: Constructing a Liminal Present

Introduction to Part 1

2 The Last Days

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Rethinking the Two-Age Scheme

2.3 Locating the Last Days Period

2.4 The Nature of the Last Days

2.5 Beyond the Limit

2.6 Conclusion

3 Sacred Time

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Synchronizing Sacred Times

3.3 Sacralizing the Mundane

3.4 Conclusion

Part 2: Social, Geographical, and Transcendent Spaces

Introduction to Part 2

4 Becoming Eternal (Social Space)

4.1 Introduction

4.2 The Formation and Development of a Sectarian Paracosm

4.3 Training Devotion

4.4 Those Who Know

4.5 Conclusion

5 The Pure Life (Physical and Geographical Space)

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Embodied Space

5.3 Geographical Space: Khirbet Qumran as a Sacred Site

5.4 Conceptual Geographical Space: the Wilderness and Damascus

5.5 Conclusion

6 Limitless (Transcendent Space)

6.1 Introduction

6.2 On Earth as It Is in Heaven

6.3 Living as a Sacrifice

6.4 Destined to an Eternal Lot

6.5 Conclusion

Part 3: Transformative Liturgies: Liturgies That Do Things

Introduction to Part 3

7 Divinization: a Participatory Approach to 1QH a

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Performing the Hodayot as a Liturgical Progression

7.3 The Spirit You Placed in Me

7.4 Liminality

7.5 Divinization

7.6 Conclusion

8 Joining the Angels

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Converging Communions: Lifting Limits Liturgically

8.3 Waging War Liturgically

8.4 Joining the Angels: Liturgical Progression in the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice

8.5 Conclusion

9 Conclusions

9.1 Summary

9.2 Limitations and Outlook

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-74804-0

9789004748040

OCLC:

1551395230

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004748040 DOI