Liturgical Works

Among the manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are numerousfragments of liturgical texts: daily and festival prayers, songs and praises, and other fascinating documents. This inaugural volume in the Eerdmans Commentaries on the Dead Sea Scrolls series explores these important ancient texts, throwing new light on the ritual life of Jews at the turn of the common era. Beginning with a general introduction to the Qumran library and Jewish liturgical traditions, James Davila situates the liturgical texts found at Qumran in their historical context in translation of these Hewbrew texts and provides detailed line-by-line explanations of each document. Throughout his book Davila shows how the Qumran liturgical texts draw on and develop traditions from the Hebrew Bible, and he explores their significance as background to Jewish liturgy, Jewish mysticism, and Christian origins. This volume and the complete commentary project will become the standard reference work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.