Wisdom Literature is the first comprehensive commentary on the wisdom texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls. John Kampen provides original translations of these works, most of which are drawn from an extensive collection of fragments that only became widely accessible for study in 1991.
Augmenting the text and translation with scholarly notes, discussions of key terms, and detailed commentary this commentary is is a very important first step to understanding the meaning of the DSS in both the ancient world and for all who seek to understand ancient texts.
Kampen relates the body of wisdom literature discovered at Qumranto the larger wisdom tradition, to apocalyptic literature, to the Hebrew Scriptures, and to the New Testament, and he shows how these texts fit into--and enhance our understanding of--the complex social and intellectual history of Second Temple Judaism.
About the Eerdmans Commentaries on the Dead Sea Scrolls Series:
The Eerdmans Commentaries on the Dead Sea Scrolls Series marks a milestone in Scroll Studies. The sixteen volumes in the ECDSS series, each one written by a world-renowned Scrolls scholar, bring together for the first time expert translations, critical notes, and line-by-line commentary for every translatable manuscript found at Qumran.
Produced with scholarly rigor yet accessible to nonspecialists and students, these volumes are essential to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and also provide crucial background for research into both the New Testament and rabbinical Judaism.
