Search for other papers by Nadav Sharon in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
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.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Alexander, Phillip S. “The Evil Empire: The Qumran Eschatological War Cycle and the Origins of Jewish Opposition to Rome.” Pages 17–31 in Emanuel: Studies in Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, and Dead Sea Scrolls in Honor of Emanuel Tov. Edited by Shalom M. Paul et al. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
-
Angel, Joseph L. “Reading the Book of Giants in Literary and Historical Context.” DSD 21 (2014): 313–46.
-
Collins, John J. Daniel. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993.
-
Collins, John J. “Apocalypticism and Literary Genre in the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Pages 403–30 in The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years, vol. 2. Edited by Peter W. Flint and James C. Vanderkam. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
-
Collins, John J. “The Book of Daniel and the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Pages 203–17 in The Hebrew Bible in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Edited by Nóra Dávid et al. Göttingen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012.
-
Cook, Edward M. Dictionary of Qumran Aramaic. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2015.
-
Dimant, Devorah. “The Four Empires of Daniel, Chapter 2, in the Light of Texts from Qumran.” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 12 (1996): 22–41.
-
Dimant, Devorah. “Criteria for the Identification of Qumran Sectarian Texts.” Pages 49–86 in The Qumran Scrolls and Their World, vol. 1. Edited by Menahem Kister. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2009.
-
Dimant, Devorah. Connected Vessels: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Literature of the Second Temple Period. Jerusalem: Bialik, 2010 [in Hebrew].
-
DiTommaso, Lorenzo. The Dead Sea New Jerusalem Text: Contents and Contexts. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005.
-
Eshel, Esther. “The Dream Visions in the Noah Story of the Genesis Apocryphon and Related Texts.” Pages 41–61 in Northern Lights on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Edited by Anders Klostergaard Petersen et al. STDJ 80. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
-
Flint, Peter W. “The Daniel Tradition at Qumran.” Pages 329–67 in The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception. Edited by John J. Collins and Peter W. Flint. Leiden: Brill, 2001.
-
Flusser, David. “The Four Empires in the Fourth Sibyl and in the Book of Daniel.” Israel Oriental Studies 2 (1972): 148–75.
-
Flusser, David. “Apocalyptic Elements in the War Scroll.” Pages 140–58 in idem, Judaism of the Second Temple Period, Volume 1: Qumran and Apocalypticism. Translated by Azzan Yadin. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Jerusalem: Magnes, 2007.
-
Frey, Jörg. “The New Jerusalem Text in Its Historical and Traditio-Historical Context.” Pages 800–816 in The Dead Sea Scrolls Fifty Years after Their Discovery. Edited by Lawrence H. Schiffman et al. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 2000.
-
Frisch, Alexandria. The Danielic Discourse on Empire in Second Temple Literature. JSJSup 176. Leiden: Brill, 2016.
-
García Martínez, Florentino, and Eibert J.C. Tigchelaar, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
-
Hartmann, Louis F., and Alexander A. Di Lella. The Book of Daniel. AB. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978.
-
Hasel, Gerhard F. “The Four World Empires of Daniel 2 against Its Near Eastern Environment.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 12 (1979): 17–30.
-
Hogeterp, Albert L.A. “Daniel and the Qumran Daniel Cycle: Observations on 4QFour Kingdoms A–B (4Q552–553).” Pages 173–91 in Authoritative Scriptures in Ancient Judaism. Edited by Mladen Popović. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
-
Kister, Menahem. “Some Further Thoughts on Identifying Sectarian Writings at Qumran.” Pages 87–90 in The Qumran Scrolls and Their World, vol. 1. Edited by Menahem Kister. Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 2009.
-
Kosmin, Paul J. “Alexander the Great and the Seleucids in Iran.” Pages 671–89 in The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Iran. Edited by D.T. Potts. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
-
Kosmin, Paul J. “Seeing Double in Seleucid Babylonia: Rereading the Borsippa Cylinder of Antiochus I.” Pages 173–98 in Patterns of the Past: Epitēdeumata in the Greek Tradition. Edited by Alfonso Moreno and Rosalind Thomas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
-
Machiela, Daniel A. The Dead Sea Genesis Apocryphon. STDJ 79. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
-
Machiela, Daniel A. “The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls and the Historical Development of Jewish Apocalyptic Literature.” Pages 147–56 in The Seleucid and Hasmonean Periods and the Apocalyptic Worldview. Edited by Lester L. Grabbe and Gabriele Boccaccinni. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
-
Mendels, Doron. “The Five Empires: A Note on a Propagandistic Topos.” The American Journal of Philology 102 (1981): 330–37.
-
Parry, Donald W., and Emanuel Tov, eds. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader. 6 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2003–2004. = DSSR
-
Parry, Donald W. and Emanuel Tov. The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
-
Perrin, Andrew B. The Dynamics of Dream-Vision Revelation in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls. JAJSup 19. Göttingen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015.
-
Puech, Émile. Qumrân Grotte 4 4.XXVII: Textes Araméens, Deuxième Partie: 4Q550–4Q575a, 4Q580–4Q587 et Appendices. DJD 37. Oxford: Clarendon, 2009.
-
Reynolds, Bennie H. III. Between Symbolism and Realism: The Use of Symbolic and Non-Symbolic Language in Ancient Jewish Apocalypses 333–63 B.C.E. JAJSup 8. Göttingen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012.
-
Sachs, A.J., and D.J. Wiseman. “A Babylonian King List of the Hellenistic Period.” Iraq 16 (1954): 202–212.
-
Segal, Michael. “Who is the ‘Son of God’ in 4Q246? An Overlooked Example of Early Biblical Interpretation.” DSD 21 (2014): 289–312.
-
Segal, Michael. Dreams, Riddles and Visions: Textual, Contextual and Intertextual Approaches to the Book of Daniel. BZAW 455. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016.
-
Segal, Michael. “Calculating the End: Inner-Danielic Chronological Developments.” Vetus Testamentum 68 (2018): 272–96.
-
Sharon, Nadav. “The Kittim and the Roman Conquest in the Qumran Scrolls.” Meghillot 11 (2016): 357–88 [in Hebrew].
-
Sharon, Nadav. Judea under Roman Domination: The First Generation of Statelessness and Its Legacy. Early Judaism and Its Literature 46. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2017.
-
Sokoloff, Michael. A Dictionary of Judean Aramaic. Ramat-Gan: Bar Ilan University Press, 2003.
-
Solomon, Avi. “The New Jerusalem Scroll from Qumran.” PhD diss. Bar Ilan University, 2006.
-
Stegemann, Hartmut. The Library of Qumran: On the Essenes, Qumran, John the Baptist, and Jesus. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998.
-
Stuckenbruck, Loren T. “The Formation and Re-Formation of Daniel in the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Pages 1:101–130 in The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Edited by James H. Charlesworth. 3 vols. Waco TX.: Baylor University Press, 2006.
-
Swain, Joseph W. “The Theory of the Four Monarchies: Opposition History under the Roman Empire.” Classical Philology 35 (1940): 1–21.
-
Tigchelaar, Eibert. “The Imaginal Context and the Visionary of the Aramaic New Jerusalem.” Pages 257–70 in Flores Florentino: Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Early Jewish Studies in Honour of Florentino García Martínez. Edited by Anthony Hilhorst, Émile Puech and Eibert Tigchelaar. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
-
Tigchelaar, Eibert. “The Character of the City and the Temple of the Aramaic New Jerusalem.” Pages 117–31 in Other Worlds and Their Relation to This World: Early Jewish and Ancient Christian Traditions. Edited by Tobias Nicklas et al. JSJSup 143. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
-
Werman, Cana. “A Messiah in Heaven: A Re-evaluation of Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Traditions.” Pages 281–99 in Text, Thought, and Practice in Qumran and Early Christianity: Proceedings of the Ninth International Symposium of the Orion Center for the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Associated Literature, Jointly Sponsored by the Hebrew University Center for the Study of Christianity, 11–13 January, 2004. Edited by Ruth A. Clements and Daniel R. Schwartz. STDJ 84. Leiden: Brill, 2009.
-
Wise, Michael, Martin Abegg and Edward Cook. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
-
Yadin, Yigael et al. eds. The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters: Hebrew, Aramaic and Nabatean-Aramaic Papyri. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 2002.
-
Yahalom, Yoseph. “The Transition of Kingdoms in Eretz Israel (Palestine) as Conceived by Poets and Homilists.” Shalem: Studies in the History of the Jews in Eretz Israel 6 (1992): 1–22 [in Hebrew].
-
Yardeni, Ada. Textbook of Aramaic, Hebrew and Nabataean Documentary Texts from the Judaean Desert and Related Materials. 2 vols. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University, The Ben-Zion Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, 2000.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 871 | 272 | 18 |
| Full Text Views | 158 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 272 | 11 | 0 |
Search for other papers by Nadav Sharon in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
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.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 871 | 272 | 18 |
| Full Text Views | 158 | 4 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 272 | 11 | 0 |
