The Purity Texts (Companion to the Qumran Scrolls) - Hardcover

Hannah Harrington is Professor of Old Testament at Patten University in Oakland, CA. She is the author of 'Impurity Systems of Qumran and the Rabbis' (1993) and 'Holiness: Rabbinic Judaism and the Graeco-Roman World' (2001).

Dr Hannah Harrington, a talented exponent of the Milgrom school of fundamental research into biblical ritual, presents a most lucid exposition of the intricacies of Qumran and rabbinic purity laws. In the Second Temple period these laws emerged for a time as a pivotal expression of religious piety. (Joseph M Baumgarten, Professor Emeritus, Baltimore Hebrew University)

'Harrington has published a sophisticated handbook on purity texts and the role of purity among Qumran scrolls. Her discussion covers a cross-section of purity issues and puts them in historical relief through comparisons with biblical, ancient Jewish and early Christian literature.'A.L.A. Hogeterp, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses (A.L.A. Hogeterp, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 81/4 (2005))

"No doubt, Harrington is to be commended for not only carefully and clearly summarizing the legal nitty-gritty but also for decisively moving the discussion into questions of religious meaning. Building on the firm foundation of Harrington's meticulous and creative work, scholars will now need to think cautiously about if and how the picture of purity at Qumran changes when one considers the possibly varied and complicated relationships among the manifold documents discovered there." —Jonathan Klawans, The Journal of Religion, January 2008 (Jonathan Klawans)

Dr Hannah Harrington, a talented exponent of the Milgrom school of fundamental research into biblical ritual, presents a most lucid exposition of the intricacies of Qumran and rabbinic purity laws. In the Second Temple period these laws emerged for a time as a pivotal expression of religious piety. (Sanford Lakoff)

'Harrington has published a sophisticated handbook on purity texts and the role of purity among Qumran scrolls. Her discussion covers a cross-section of purity issues and puts them in historical relief through comparisons with biblical, ancient Jewish and early Christian literature.'A.L.A. Hogeterp, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses (Sanford Lakoff)

"No doubt, Harrington is to be commended for not only carefully and clearly summarizing the legal nitty-gritty but also for decisively moving the discussion into questions of religious meaning. Building on the firm foundation of Harrington's meticulous and creative work, scholars will now need to think cautiously about if and how the picture of purity at Qumran changes when one considers the possibly varied and complicated relationships among the manifold documents discovered there." —Jonathan Klawans, The Journal of Religion, January 2008 (Sanford Lakoff)