Institutionalized Routine Prayers at Qumran: Fact or Assumption?

Paul Heger, Bernard M. Levinson, Armin Lange, Vered Noam, Bernard M. Levinson

• Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783647571317
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

This book examines the development of institutionalized prayer in ancient Israel at a crucial time in the history of Western civilization: from the period of the Qumran writings, in the last three centuries BCE, through to the rabbinic period, after 70 CE. It explores the shift from sacrificial worship by priests to abstract, unmediated, direct approaches to the deity by laypeople. It demonstrates the transition from voluntary, freely composed prayers to obligatory prayers with fixed texts. The study shows how Qumran and Samaritan prayer contrast with rabbinic prayer, shedding light on Jewish customs before the rabbinic reform.Posthumously edited by Bernard M. Levinson.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Editor’s Note
• Author’s Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 The Distinction between Prayer/Supplication and Blessings/Praise and Thanks
• Chapter 2 Contesting Scholarly Assumptions of Communal Prayer at Qumran
• Chapter 3 1QS X and the Recital of the Shema
• Chapter 4 Contesting the Scholarly Assumption that Prayer was Instituted as a Substitute for Sacrifices
• Chapter 5 The Development of Rabbinic Prayer: Introduction of Prayers with Fixed Texts
• Chapter 6 Samaritan Prayer
• Chapter 7 Some Reflections on Shared and Distinct Ideologies and Practices of Qumran and the Rabbis Concerning Oral Approaches to God
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Author Index
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Subject Index
• Body