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 [email protected]
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