Week 1: Introduction: General Background.
The Report of Josephus: Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees
Josephus, War 2.119-166; Antiquities 13.171-73; 18.11-25. (PDF)
Wise Sages
Proverbs 1-8 (in any Bible)
Ben Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) (In Bibles with “apocrypha”)
The Wisdom of Solomon (In Bibles with “apocrypha”)
Pseudo-Phokylides (PDF)
Week 2: Visionaries and Mystics
1 (Ethiopian) Enoch 1-34, 71-105
1 Enoch (PDF)
Text: http://www.bookofenoch.org/ENOCH-McCracken2020.pdf (Trans. Knibb)
or: http://www.futurerevealed.com/enoch/The-Book-of-Enoch-the-Ethiopian-Enoch.pdf (trans. Laurence)
or in print: James H. Charlesworth, Old Testament Pseudepigrapha (New York: Doubleday, 1983).
Additional Enochic Literature
2 Enoch
Text: https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/slavonicenoch.html
Week 3: A Special Group: The Yahad of the Dead Sea Scrolls
In general
Texts: There are several useful editions of the Qumran texts.
1. Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London: Penguin, 2011), available as an e-book from Kindle, or:
https://archive.org/details/completedeadseas00verm (trans. Vermes.)
2. Florentino Garcia Martinez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English (Leiden: Brill; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992).
3. Florentino Garcia Martinez and Eibert J. C. Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Study Edition (2 vols.; Leiden: Brill; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), provides both the Hebrew text and an English translation.
Resources: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-dead-sea-scrolls
*The Scroll of the Rule
Text: Vermes 97-117
or Garcia Martinez, 3-19; Garcia Martinez and Tischgelaar, 1.69-108.
or. http://www.ericlevy.com/Revel/DeadSeaScrolls/Vermes%20-%20CDDSE%20p97-117%20Community%20Rule.PDF
*The Damascus Document
Text: Vermes 146-154
or Garcia Martinez, 33-71; Garcia Martinez and Tischgelaar, 1.551-627.
Resources:
i. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-book-of-covenant-of-damascus
ii. https://deadseascrolls.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/abstracts-lectures/the-damascus-document-and-the-community-rule/
iii. https://deadseascrolls.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/abstracts-lectures/the-damascus-document-and-the-community-rule/
Week 4: Poets and Lawyers from the Scrolls
*The Hodayoth
Text: Vermes 249-305
or Garcia Martinez, 317-70; Garcia Martinez and Tischgelaar, 1.147-205
Resources:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-thanksgiving-psalms http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/cave/megila4.shtml
*The Songs for the Holocaust of the Sabbath (Or Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice):
Text: Vermes 327-339;
or Garcia Martinez, 419-30; Garcia Martinez and Tischgelaar, 2.807-837
*Some Matters of Torah Observance – 4QMMT
Text: Vermes 221-29;
or Garcia Martinez, 77-85; Garcia Martinez and Tischgelaar, 2.790-805.
Resources:
http://biblical-studies.ca/dss/introductions/4QMMT.html
http://bibledashboard.com/open/web/MUESRR/4qmmt.html
Week 5: Philosophers and Ascetics
Philo of Alexandria
(All of Philo’s works are available in the on-line version of the Loeb Classical Library, which provides both Greek text and English translation.)
*Life of Moses
Text: https://www.loebclassics.com/view/philo_judaeus-moses_i_ii/1935/pb_LCL289.275.xml
or http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book24.html
or:
*On the Contemplative Life – The Therapeutae
Text: https://www.loebclassics.com/view/philo-judaeus-contemplative_life_suppliants/1941/pb_LCL363.105.xml
Or: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/yonge/book34.html