TY - BOOK ID - 137114843 TI - A star from Jacob, a sceptre from Israel : Balaam's oracle as rewritten scripture in the Dead Sea Scrolls PY - 2020 SN - 9781910928745 1910928747 PB - Sheffield Sheffield Phoenix Press DB - UniCat KW - Balaam KW - Dead Sea scrolls KW - Bible. KW - Criticism, Textual UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:137114843 AB - "The fourth Balaam oracle (Numbers 24.17-19) appears in four separate Dead Sea Scrolls. But how it is used and understood remains puzzling and challenging. All four scrolls agree that the biblical text is a living artifact and endorse its authority. But they disagree on what it may mean to the audience of their own day. They adjust, rephrase, and rework the biblical text according to their own needs and for the benefit of their audience. Following the twists and turns in this process of interpretation and rewriting has two benefits: first, we become more sensitized to the complexity of the processes by which the scriptural text came into being and to the fact that this process did not have a clear-cut end in mind. Rather, it is thanks to a constant reworking of the scriptural text that it remains alive for its readers. Second, in following closely the process of reinterpretation of this particular text we gain a better understanding of the world of Qumran, of the communication strategy of the Scrolls, and of some of their key theological concepts. In particular, Qumran beliefs about a messiah become more vividly tangible." --back cover ER -