Sapiential Perspectives: Wisdom Literature in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Book excerpt: The papers in this volume were originally read at the Sixth International Orion Symposium. The primary focus of the volume is on the wisdom texts from Qumran that have been fully edited only in recent years, especially 1Q/4QMysteries and 4QInstruction. Prior to the discovery of the Scrolls, our knowledge of wisdom literature in the Second Temple period was limited to contemporary biblical books, apocryphal works, and pseudepigraphical writings. These recently published compositions now allow for a more nuanced picture of wisdom literature and its impact on and interaction with other genres. In addition to shedding light on the world of their authors, these texts illustrate how biblical wisdom was reused in new contexts, and provide a missing link between earlier and later sapiential compositions.