4QMMT and / as Hellenistic Literature

Doering Lutz

Research article (book contribution)

Abstract

This article compares 4QMMT with, and understands it in the context of, Hellenistic literature. It first deals with the use of calendars for politics and then probes the genre of 4QMMT between epistle and treatise, comparing it with official and other corporate letters as well as epistolary treatises, and drawing on structural features of Hellenistic letter closings and epistolary phrases to illuminate 4QMMT. In these respects, MMT shows numerous intriguing similarities with (other) Hellenistic literature. The article is part of a recent trend in scholarship to see Qumran texts enmeshed in the Hellenistic culture of their time rather than to speak of an “influence” of Hellenism on Qumran.

Details zur Publikation

Publisher: Kratz Reinhard G.
Book title: Interpreting and Living God's Law at Qumran: Miqṣat Ma῾aśe Ha-Torah, Some of the Works of the Torah (4QMMT)
Release year: 2020
Publishing company: Mohr Siebeck
Language in which the publication is written: English
Event: Tübingen