Scribes, Scrolls, and Stars in the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls

This chapter reassess our knowledge of Jews and Judaism in the Hellenistic age in light of the Dead Sea Scrolls, focusing especially on sources in Aramaic that shed light on Jews and Judaism prior to the Maccabean Revolt. It suggests that the radical expansion of our evidentiary basis affords an opportunity to revisit what Hellenization meant for Judaea, Jews, and Judaism in the third century B.C.E. Among the results is to highlight Jewish engagement in broader trends across the Hellenistic Near East, including a return to the deep past, an intensification of literary interest in astronomy, and a renewed appeal to demonological realms of expertise like exorcism to defend the enduring importance of Jewish and other Near Eastern scribes even in a new Hellenistic world.