Joseph M. Baumgarten

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Joseph M. Baumgarten (Vienna, September 7, 1928 – December 4, 2008) was a Semitic scholar known for his knowledge in the field of Jewish legal texts from biblical law to Mishnaic law and including the legal texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Baumgarten immigrated to the United States with his family in 1939 as a result of the Anschluss, Germany's occupation of Austria in 1938. In 1950, he was ordained a rabbi at Mesifta Torah Vodaath, a prominent Brooklyn yeshiva. He married Naomi Rosenberg in 1953.

Baumgarten started his studies in the field of mathematics with a B.A. cum laude from Brooklyn College. It was a chance meeting at Johns Hopkins with William Foxwell Albright that caused him to change direction, eventually being awarded a Ph.D. in Semitic studies in 1954. His dissertation was entitled “The Covenant Sect and the Essenes.” From 1952 to 1957 he remained at Johns Hopkins teaching Aramaic. In 1953 he began his long association with Baltimore Hebrew College. He also took on the role of rabbi to the Bnai Jacob Congregation in 1959. Throughout his life he was a member of the Rabbinical Council of America, a major organization of Orthodox rabbis.

Prof. Baumgarten served as visiting professor at Towson State College, University of Maryland, and the University of the Negev (now Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) in Israel. He was also in residence at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1990 and again in 2001. He was a fellow at the Annenberg Institute (now the Center for Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania) in Philadelphia in 1992-93.

1953 saw the first of his publications on the Dead Sea Scrolls. Essays from the early period of his study were collected in 1977, Studies in Qumran Law (Leiden: Brill, 1977). His knowledge of Qumran legal matters was probably the reason why John Strugnell gave him the task of publishing the Cave 4 fragments of the Damascus Document. His work on the Damascus Document not only brought its manuscripts to publication but provided the basis for understanding it within the framework of the history of Judaism.

A festschrift was presented to him in 1995: Legal Texts and Legal Issues, Proceedings of the Second Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Cambridge 1995, Published in Honour of Joseph M. Baumgarten, edited by M. Bernstein, F. García Martínez, J. Kampen (Leiden: Brill, 1997).

Publications

His publications include:

Law in the Dead Sea Scrolls, (Routledge - an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd, July 2005) ISBN 0-415-19651-5
Qumran Cave 4 Vol. XIII : The Damascus Document (4Q266-273), editor with Jozef T. Milik, Stephen Pfann, Ada Yardeni (Oxford: OUP, 1997) ISBN 0-19-826396-1
Qumran Cave 4 Vol. XXXV : Halakhic Texts, editor with Torleif Elgvin, Esther Eshel, Erik Larson, Manfred R. Lehmann (Oxford: OUP, 2000) ISBN 0-19-827006-2

External links

"The Laws of the Damascus Document - Between Bible and Mishnah" - an article by Baumgarten hosted at the Orion Center.
Lawrence Schiffman's obituary for Joseph M. Baumgarten

v t e Dead Sea Scrolls topics

Texts	4Q106 4Q107 4Q108 4Q175 4Q240 4Q246 4Q252 4Q400-407 Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice 4Q448 4Q510-511 Songs of the Sage 4Q521 4QMMT 4QInstruction 6Q6 7Q5 11Q13 Melchizedek The Book of Giants The Book of Mysteries (1Q27 and 4Q299-301) Community Rule (1QS) Copper Scroll (3Q15) Damascus Document (CD) Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGen ar) Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab) Isaiah scroll (1QIsa^a) Nahum Commentary (4QpNah) The Rule of the Blessing (1QSb) The Rule of the Congregation (1QSa) The Secret of the Way Things Are Temple Scroll (11Q19) Thanksgiving Hymns (1QH) War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness (1QM)

Places	Qumran Qumran Caves Qumran cemetery Ein Feshkha Kohlit Secacah Wadi Murabba'at

Issues	Essenes Sadducees Carbon dating Yahad Ostracon Pesher Dual messiahs Teacher of Righteousness Wicked Priest Calendrical texts

Scholars	John Marco Allegro Joseph M. Baumgarten Pierre Benoit John J. Collins Frank Moore Cross Philip R. Davies André Dupont-Sommer Robert Eisenman Hanan Eshel Joseph Fitzmyer Katharina Galor Jean-Baptiste Humbert Florentino García Martínez Norman Golb Jonas C. Greenfield Gerald Lankester Harding Yizhar Hirschfeld Ernest-Marie Laperrousaz Jodi Magness Józef Milik Bargil Pixner Elisha Qimron Lawrence Schiffman Solomon H. Steckoll Hartmut Stegemann John Strugnell Eleazar Sukenik Carsten Peter Thiede Emanuel Tov John C. Trever Eugene Ulrich Roland de Vaux Géza Vermes Yigael Yadin

Other	Shrine of the Book The Orion Center École Biblique Discoveries in the Judaean Desert Mar Samuel Muhammed edh-Dhib Najib Albina

Authority control	WorldCat VIAF: 37043424 LCCN: n78003924 ISNI: 0000 0001 1621 4861 BNF: cb12785271k

Persondata
Name	Baumgarten, Joseph M.
Alternative names
Short description	American Biblical scholar
Date of birth	September 7, 1928
Place of birth
Date of death	December 4, 2008
Place of death

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