'Biblical' Texts Older than the Bible: New Texts, New Publications, New Approaches

-

The Dead Sea Scrolls represent the most important archaeological finding of ancient texts in the last century, with significant repercussions for scholarship on the Bible, early Judaism, and Christian origins. After a long process of publication, almost a ll the material is now available. Torleif Elgvin was the only Nordic scholar included in the publication team led by Prof. Emanuel Tov from 1991 and onwards. Qumran studies have later flourished in the Nordic countries, partly as a result of the NordForsk -sponsored Nordic Network in Qumran Studies, organized by Elgvin. Recently Elgvin has received two major assignments: 1) to publish the texts and artifacts from the Dead Sea area contained in the Schøyen Collection and 2) to edit a new critical edition of a large number of manuscripts that were among the first to be published. Editing and publishing of Qumran material for the 21st century is a complex and interdisciplinary enterprise that involves application of new technology and new scholarly paradigms. It has to involve a broad range of scholars, from various fields, as well as fresh perspectives. The project will introduce so-called 'material philology' (or 'new philology') to Qumran studies in general and to the genre of critical editions in particul ar. Material philology basically suggests that copies of texts do not produce variants: they are variance. Hence, each copy is regarded a literary product per se. From the perspective of material philology, literary works do not exist independently of the ir material embodiment. Rather, the physical form of the text is an integral part of its meaning. In this approach we see an opportunity to overcome the inherently anachronistic terminology of 'Bible,' 'Scripture,' 'biblical,' 'canon,' etc. Hence it may p rovide a new and fresh view of 'biblical' texts from before the Bible.