Using Comparative Sociology to Explore the Relationship between the Qumran Community and the Early Christian Communities of the New Testament.

Abstract

The similarities that have been noticed over the years between the communities of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament certainly have a foundation in their common Jewish heritage and historical contexts. I will show, however, that the similarities are also due to general sociological or anthropological forces. These arise from the communities’ shared context as “introversionist sects” – to use the words of Eyal Regev – and are best thought of as a common and limited set of strategies for maintaining social cohesion and order among groups that live outside or on the margins of a larger culture for sectarian reasons of purity or to separate themselves from worldly influences. Then I will demonstrate that because these sects share common social patterns and strategies, which transcend any given historical period, it is useful and informative to make comparisons from more modern communities to Qumran. This will reinforce the general consensus noted by VanderKam, that the connections between Qumran and the early Christians are indirect and in the realm of ideas and practices.test