May: The Dead Sea Scrolls Speak Today
Sundays in May 2027 (May 2, 9, 16 and 23) at 1:00 PM Eastern
The Dead Sea Scrolls, hidden for centuries in desert caves until just before the independence of the state of Israel, still stir imaginations. Who has not heard sensational stories about the Bedouin shepherds who stumbled upon them, the Jewish sect who studied and stored them, and even the international teams of scholars still searching the Scrolls for their secrets? Less sensational, but perhaps more significant, are the roles of the Scrolls in slowly transforming our understanding of the scriptures, before there were Tanakhs and Bibles, and of the origin stories that Jews and Christians have told themselves about who they and each other are, have been, and are yet called to become. Our sessions will survey such topics as:
(1) modern discovery and study of the Scrolls,
(2) the Qumran community among Second-Temple Judaism(s),
(3) the Dead Sea Scrolls and Israel’s scriptures,
(4) new light from the Scrolls on the common and contested inheritance of Jews and Christians today.
Meet Your Instructor
Dr. Brandon Bruning
B.E. Bruning resides in Indiana and sojourns in “Olam haZoom” with synagogues, study groups, and friends across the Union. Brandon (MTS and PhD, Univ. Notre Dame) serves MJTI and the wider movement as editor of Kesher and as a teacher to future leaders of Messianic Judaism and its friends and allies. His scholarship explores how texts and communities shape one another in ancient Judaism, with a particular interest in the book of Exodus and the scribes who shaped and reshaped it. Text-and-community is also a cornerstone of his teaching, whether leading seminars for soon-to-be college students or directing a graduate student’s thesis, as well as of his ecumenical and interfaith work. He has taught seminarians from around the globe at the Tantur Ecumenical Center in Jerusalem and partnered in local community organizing among synagogues and churches of many denominations. He particularly enjoys giving presentations on such topics as the Dead Sea Scrolls to churches and synagogues.