The Damascus Document

The Damascus Document

Professor Steven Fraade’s new volume on the Damascus Document includes a substantial introduction, new translation with notes, and detailed commentary based on both the ancient manuscripts from the
caves of Qumran and medieval manuscripts from the Cairo Geniza.

The volume considers the text’s laws, scriptural interpretations, hortatory orations, dualistic views of the world and ancient Israel, understanding of the Jerusalem Temple and its sacrificial worship from which the community is in self-imposed exile, attitudes to women, sex, and marriage, and apocalyptic perspective on the “end of time.”

The book is available through Oxford University Press.

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Steven Fraade is the Mark Taper Professor of the History of Judaism at Yale University in the Department of Religious Studies and the Program in Judaic Studies.