An Online Tool for the Study of Biblical Quotations and Allusions in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Quotations from the Hebrew Bible embedded in ancient sources have always been of interest for the biblical scholars. Much has been written about the use of the Hebrew Scriptures in the New Testament. Several studies collected and analyzed some of the biblical citations found in the Rabbinic literature. Attempts have been made to catalogue and study scriptural quotations and allusions in the Second Temple Jewish writings composed or preserved in the non-Semitic languages. Yet, once the Dead Sea scrolls came to light, an immensely rich collection of previously unknown ancient works citing from and alluding to the Hebrew Bible became available. To facilitate the search for the scriptural citations in the scrolls, catalogues of quotations have been prepared. While these are useful, a more sophisticated tool that will provide the students of the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea scrolls with various types of searchable data is urgently needed. To produce another inventory would be only a partial cure. A computerized tool is required. Such a tool has been developed by Mrs. Faina Feldman. With the help of this tool a small team of collaborators is working on creating a database of biblical quotations and allusions in the Qumran scrolls.
Some of the data we have collected and analyzed is available on http://bibledeadseascrolls.com/.