Pesharim

The biblical commentaries from Qumran (the Pesharim) are well known, but students and interested readers often find the voluminous scholarship on the subject daunting and a grasp of their exegeses challenging. In this user-friendly textbook, the reader is introduced to basic and less obvious features of Qumran exegeses. Illustrated with examples in English, this book systematically discusses the textual characteristics of the quoted biblical verses; the literary genre of pesher and its comparison to rabbinic midrash; features of sectarian exegesis; the nature of its historical allusions; and the commonalities, whether real or imagined, that it shares with the New Testament. It takes account of relevant and recently published texts (such as 4Q252) and includes an annotated bibliography.