Wisdom Literature (Eerdmans Comentaries on the Dead Sea Scrolls)

Incredible piece of work and utterly fascinating. This is a heavily annotated work of translation and commentary on the Dead Sea Scrolls (of course) Wisdom literature. Keep in mind that the scrolls exist in parts, larger or smaller, sometimes just scraps.Each of the ten primary chapters, some broken into many sub-chapters, offers an introduction, translation, line by line notes, extensive footnotes, commentary and bibliography. This is more of a reference books. Some readers might want to tackle it from beginning to end, but I'd guess most would focus on a particular area of interest.There is an index of Bible verses, Old and New Testament to the relevant pages in the text and I suspect that for many people who are interested in better understanding the meaning of any passage in a contemporary translation, this will be the most useful way to access the text. There are not references for all verses and in some cases, such as the New Testament book of John, there are no references. In this context it is useful to remember that this book is one in an Eerdmans (publisher) series.There are a lot of frustrations reading this, because the original material is so fragmented. At the same time it really is interesting, challenging and makes you wonder what kind of life and times produces this literature.

Excellent in all particulars, Higgerunt