AN INTRODUCTION TO PRAYER AT QUMRAN

The Qumran writings, more popularly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, have, over the past half century, considerably expanded our knowledge of Jewish life and literature during the Second Temple era. The story of the initial discovery of Cave 1 in 1947 and the subsequent discovery of ten more caves containing written documents has frequently been told (see Bibliography). This trove of scrolls covers the gamut of ancient Jewish literature, from the Bible to the common Jewish literature of the Second Temple period to the uniquely Qumranic sectarian works. The subset of texts which can be classified as prayer constitutes a daunting quantity of material in its own right.