“Four Kingdoms” in the Dead Sea Scrolls?: A Reconsideration

The “Four Empires” scheme appears in literature from around the ancient Near East, as well as in the biblical book of Daniel. Daniel’s scheme was adopted in subsequent Jewish literature as a basic division of world history. In addition, the book of Daniel appears to have had a prominent place in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sharon, Nadav 1978- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2020]
In: Dead Sea discoveries
Year: 2020, Volume: 27, Issue: 2, Pages: 202-233
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Vier-Reiche-Lehre / Eschatology / Vision / Azariah / 4Q554 / 4Q552 / 4Q553
IxTheo Classification:HB Old Testament
HD Early Judaism
Further subjects:B Visions
B “Four kingdoms”
B Daniel
B Eschatology
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Summary:The “Four Empires” scheme appears in literature from around the ancient Near East, as well as in the biblical book of Daniel. Daniel’s scheme was adopted in subsequent Jewish literature as a basic division of world history. In addition, the book of Daniel appears to have had a prominent place in the Qumran library. Scholars have identified, or suggested, the existence of the “Four Empires” scheme in two texts found among the Qumran scrolls, the “New Jerusalem” text (4Q554), and, especially, in the so-called “Four Kingdoms”(!) text (4Q552-553). This paper will examine these texts, will argue that the “four empires” scheme is not attested in the Qumran scrolls (apart from Daniel), and will suggest alternative understandings of those two texts.
ISSN:1568-5179
Contains:Enthalten in: Dead Sea discoveries
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685179-02702004