Wisdom Literature

“This is an excellent guide to the Qumran wisdom literature, providing updated introductions, new translations, and judicious commentaries on all the texts. John Kampen has succeeded in presenting this vast body of literature as a research tool for the advanced scholar and the beginning student alike, and has done so in an attractive way.”
— Emanuel Tov
Hebrew University, Jerusalem

“This volume provides an accessible collection of ten of the major wisdom documents found at Qumran. Based on his many years of work on this genre, Kampen has judiciously chosen key issues to focus on in the introductions to each work and in the commentaries. Concisely, yet with depth, he demonstrates what these wisdom texts can contribute to our understanding of Second Temple Judaism and the New Testament, and he alerts us to many questions that await further study and reflection.”
— Eileen Schuller
McMaster University

“John Kampen, celebrated for his focus on wisdom in the Dead Sea Scrolls, has written, in an exciting and lucid manner, the first focused commentary on the Qumran wisdom texts. While the Cave 1 manuscripts rarely concern ‘wisdom,’ the scrolls Kampen translates are devoted to it. Studying a corpus of texts and not a definition is the beginning of wisdom. I find Kampen’s book exciting and perspicacious.”
— James H. Charlesworth
Princeton University

“The Qumran wisdom texts, most of which only became known in the last wave of access to the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1990s, are of enormous significance for our understanding of the Jewish wisdom tradition. . . . Kampen effortlessly opens up this new treasure trove of texts and puts their study on a firm footing. Essential reading.”
— Charlotte Hempel
University of Birmingham