Manufacturing History and Identity: A Study on the Teacher of Righteousness, Collective Memory, and Tradition at Qumran
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The Dead Sea Scrolls corpus presents a leadership figure presiding over the Qumran movement known only by the sobriquet "Teacher of Righteousness." This shadowy character has garnered a significant amount of scholarly attention due to its extraordinary role in the formation and maintenance of Qumran's sectarian identity. Despite exhaustive efforts to better understand the group's figurehead, the Teacher of Righteousness has remained an obscurity with the only general consensus being that it represented an historical figure in the Second Temple period. This thesis seeks to problematize this consensus and argue for an imagined leadership figure produced in order to legitimize the sectarian movement. The argument is presented through the purview of collective memory theory in order to read the historical recordings in the Dead Sea Scrolls and the experiential narratives of the Teacher as a tradition rather than objective reality. Furthermore, this thesis looks to display substantial continuity between the scrolls' presentation of the Teacher of Righteousness and biblical heroes abound the memory of the Qumran sectarians. In arguing for a fictitious Teacher figure in the Dead Sea Scrolls, this thesis seeks to discourage further research into the figure's historical persona and rather encourage future inquiry to focus on the influence of its narratives on the Qumran members.
Author: Angulo, Giancarlo P
Institution: Florida International University
Language: English
Subfield: Religious studies
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W165105181