Physical Represenation and Disability in the Dead Sea Scrolls

FAIN: FT-62058-14

Rebecca Raphael
Texas State University - San Marcos (San Marcos, TX 78666-4684)

The project examines varieties of embodiment in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The bodies studied include culturally normal humans, persons with disabilities, angelic and heavenly bodies, monsters and giants, and resurrected or reconstituted bodies. The study builds on previous historical-critical work, but is not itself an investigation of sources and parallels. Rather, disability criticism and monster theory are employed within an historicist framework in order to show how images of embodiment encode beliefs about identity and eschatology in Second Temple Judaism. The material on the Dead Sea Scrolls provides one chapter of a monograph on embodiment in Second Temple apocalypses. Concepts of embodiment in texts of this period had great influence on formative Judaism and nascent Christianity. Study shall be conducted primarily at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem, which has been a major engine of Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. The scholar will seek Associate Fellow status at Albright.