Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
8-2016
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
L. Curt Niccum
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Jeff W. Childers
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Adela Yarbro Collins
Abstract
The War Scroll (1QM) from Qumran is a composite document and is the result of a complex redactional process. It is the goal of this thesis to provide a historical proposal for the redaction of 1QM based on conflicting eschatological combat theology found within. Beginning with the earliest roots of ancient Israelite combat mythmaking and its continued evolution into the late Second Temple Period, writers appropriated and adapted the Israelite Battlefield Myth to envision theologies of resistance against oppression. Looking at the various adaptations and the social milieu in which each was written, it is possible to identify different trajectories of the myth and therefore identify each of these within 1QM. The War Scroll contains multiple differing appropriations of Battlefield Myth that reveal the work of multiple writers/redactors, each of whom envisioned the final war with varying levels of human and divine participation. This can be corroborated through an examination of the external material evidence and internal linguistic and style evidence.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Prather, James, "(En)visioning Resistance: Applications of the Battlefield Myth in the War Scroll as a Window into the Theological Development of the Community" (2016). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 39.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/39