The Mystical Texts

Description

Starting from a careful definition of mysticism, this volume argues that there is clear evidence for the practice of mysticism in the Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It offers a close reading of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, the Self-Glorification Hymn, and related texts, which constitute the Qumran mystical corpus. It discusses the nature of the mystical experience at Qumran, which was centred on union with the angels in offering praise to God in the celestial temple, and the means by which this union was achieved, through the communal chanting of highly-charged numinous hymns. It also argues that that the presence of mysticism at Qumran has important implications for the history of western mysticism. It means that Jewish mysticism began in priestly circles in Second Temple times, several centuries before the commonly accepted date. And the important form of Christian mysticism involving speculation on the angelic hierarchies, classically associated with Dionysius the Areopagite, had a pre-Christian Jewish forebear. Consequently Qumran mysticism belongs to the genealogy of Christian as well as of Jewish mysticism. This volume synthesizes and makes accessible a mass of technical research widely scattered in monographs and articles, and offers the reader a clear guide to the most recent scholarly work in the field.

Philip Alexander is Professor of Post-Biblical Jewish Literature and Co-Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies in the University of Manchester.

mentioned in Chronicle of Higher Education June 2006 Reference & Research Book News/ August 2006 -- mention "The prose is clear and accessible." -- Theological Book Review " this colume is a very welcome and learned addition to the Companions to the Qumran Scrolls series. It is written clearly and accesibly while at the same time offering much more than an introductory text that is essential reading for students and scholars of the scrolls and Jewish mysticism" from the Journal of Jewish Studies -- Charlotte Hempel "This important and insightful commentary is based on the premise that there was mysticism at Qumram." Reviewed in International Review of Biblical Studies, 2007. 'A very thorough and clearly written presentation of the famous 'Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice' from Qumran. Philip Alexander puts the hymns into the larger context of the religious history of ancient Judaism, boldly claiming that they represent an early manifestation of Jewish mysticism that originated in priestly circles in Jerusalem. A small book, written by a first-rate scholar, which most certainly will provoke a fruitful controversy.' Peter Schaefer, Perelman Professor of Jewish Studies at Princeton and author of 'Mirror of His Beauty'. * Blurb from reviewer *