Many thanks for what you wrote below! Jeffrey
On 7/9/2010 3:01 AM, Søren Holst wrote:
Depending exactly what you define as petitionary, the core group of texts, so to speak, would be some daily prayers ("Daily Prayers", 4QprQuot/4Q503, and "The Words of the Luminaries", 4QDibHam/4Q504+506) and prayers for festivals (1Q34+34bis, 4Q505, 4Q507-09) -- they are unanimously considered "liturgical" texts, meaning they probably were used in a sort of early "synagogue service" (the expression is perhaps wildly anachronistic, but reasonably illustrative I'd say) The Berakot (4QBer/4Q286-90) presumablay were used in an annual covenant renewal ritual; the same may be true of The Rule of Blessings (1QSb), and the Community Rule may contain details of that ritual (1QSa 2,19-3,12, I think) A few other odds and ends (4Q409, 4Q502, 4Q284, 4Q414, 4Q512) presumably belonged in rituals of sorts as well. Possibly the Songs for the Sabbath Sacrifice (4QShirShabb/4Q400-407 and 11QShirShab/11Q17 were (as the name implies) used in a weekly prayer service, although some count them as "mystical" rather than liturgical texts, because they are actually not prayers directed *at* God, but rather descriptions of the angfelic service of God in the celestial temple. And of course you have prayers cropping up within other texts, e.g. plenty of the War Scroll is prayers to be recited by the priests during battle, but whether they were ever used, or are more a literary way for that scroll to make its point, remains disputed. The most recent treatment I can think of is pp. 219-34 of Lawrence Schiffman's "Qumran and Jerusalem", Eerdmans 2010 (although I guess it's based on a 1987 article, but duly updated). There's also a chapter in Eileen Schuller's "The Dead Sea scrolls, what have we learned 50 years on?" I probably left something out :-) all the best Søren
-- Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon) 1500 W. Pratt Blvd. Chicago, Illinois e-mail jgibson...@comcast.net _______________________________________________ g-Megillot mailing list g-megil...@mailman.mcmaster.ca http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot