The Concept of Time in The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Book excerpt: The book is concerned with the concept of time in the Bible and in later literature, primarily that of the Judaean Desert sect. By the term “concept of time” the author refers to the entire complex of issues relating to time, as follows from our involvement in the writings of the corpus. The work discusses issues of terminology, substance and ideology that arise from the totality of texts dealing with the subject of time. The conjoining of the eight groups of chapters of the book provides a comprehensive picture of the approach to time in ancient Hebrew literature, beginning with the Bible and concluding with the first century CE, the latest possible time frame for the Scrolls.