The Purity Texts

(Paperback)

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Description

Purity Texts is a handbook that gathers the data of the Dead Sea Scrolls on ritual purity and analyzes it systematically as part of a coherent ideology. After a general introduction and an examination of individual texts for the contribution of each to the subject of purity, the book devotes a chapter to each of the impurities discussed in the Scrolls: death, leprosy, bodily discharges and outsiders. In each of these chapters, emphasis is placed on the large amount of congruence of the Qumran texts with each other on the subject of purity and the similarities and differences between the Qumran texts and other sources of ancient Judaism. The contributors to the Companion to the Qumran Scrolls series take account of all relevant and recently published texts and provide extensive bibliographies. The books in the series are authoritatively written in accessible language and are ideal for students and non-specialist scholars. Companion to the Qumran Scrolls, volume 5

Reviews

Dr Hannah Harrington, a talented exponent of the Milgrom school of fundamental research into biblical ritual, presents a most lucid exposition of the intricacies of Qumran and rabbinic purity laws. In the Second Temple period these laws emerged for a time as a pivotal expression of religious piety. -- Joseph M Baumgarten, Professor Emeritus, Baltimore Hebrew University
Mentioned in Svensk Exegetisk rsbok (Swedish Exegetical Yearbook), vol. 74 (2009)

Author Bio

Hannah Harrington is Professor of Old Testament at Patten University in Oakland, CA. She is the author of 'Impurity Systems of Qumran and the Rabbis' (1993) and 'Holiness: Rabbinic Judaism and the Graeco-Roman World' (2001).