Torleif Elgvin

My Lips Play Flute for the Highest presents fifty-five poetic texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls and other early Jewish writings: hymns, psalms, liturgies, petitions, visions, and end-time scenarios. In psalms and prayers we may come close to the souls of ancient Judeans, who pour out their sufferings, laments, hopes, and praises to their God. We encounter a plurality of end-time hopes, with or without messianic actors on earth. Jewish piety from the last two centuries before the turn of the era emerges vibrant and powerful, but also sensitive and full of hope. Introductions to the various scrolls and writings inform readers about how scholars understand these texts and where scholarship locates them in time and space. This book provides a moving and vital entry into early Judaism, before the emergence of the Jesus movement and rabbinic Judaism.

An exegetical and diachronic survey of messianic texts from the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition up through the first millennium CE. Jewish messianism can be traced back to the emerging Kingdom of Judah in the tenth century BCE, when it was represented by the Davidic tradition and the promise of a future heir to David's throne. From that point, it remained an important facet of Israelite faith, as evidenced by its frequent recurrence in the Hebrew Bible and other early Jewish texts. In preexilic texts, the expectation is for an earthly king--a son of David with certain ethical qualities--whereas from the exile onward there is a transition to a pluriform messianism, often with utopic traits. Warrior, King, Servant, Savior is an exegetical and diachronic study of messianism in these texts that maintains close dialogue with relevant historical research and archaeological insights. Internationally respected biblical scholar Torleif Elgvin recounts the development and impact of messianism, from ancient Israel through the Hasmonean era and the rabbinic period, with rich chapters exploring messianic expectations in the Northern Kingdom, postexilic Judah, and Qumran, among other contexts. For this multifaceted topic--of marked interest to Jews, Christians, and secular historians of religion alike--Elgvin's handbook is the essential and definitive guide.

This volume contains a collection of compositions from Cave 4 at Qumran, written during the Second Temple period and linked to biblical texts through characters, themes, or genre. Some of these, such as the Levi Aramaic Document, Testament of Naphtali, and Prayer of Nabonidus, were known previously from Greek and Aramaic manuscripts of the Apocrypha. The additional documents include PseudoDaniel, the Commentaries on Genesis, Commentary on Malachi, Apocryphon of Joshua, The Two Ways, Apocryphon of Elisha, Prayer of Mercy, and a number of small miscellaneous texts. All these documents greatly enhance our understanding of the phenomenon of psuedepigraphy (written in the name of a famous biblical or religious character) and of biblical interpretation during the Second Temple period.