6. New Testament and Material Culture

Research on the social and cultural context of the New Testament.

The study of the New Testament has to keep the entire ancient world in sight, including material and iconographic sources. Through case studies and methodological reflections the subprogramme “New Testament and Material Culture” deals with how material and textual sources can be brought into a meaningful dialogue in order to reconstruct the social and cultural context of the New Testament.
Project I: The Leiden Project on Rural Eastern Galilee (LUPoREG)
LUPoREG examines textual and archaeological sources on rural life and village culture in Hellenistic and Roman Galilee, a key region in the history of early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Part of the research project are surveys and an excavation project on Horvat Kur.   J.K. Zangenberg
Project II: Ancient Burial Culture and the New Testament
The project analyses the relation between ancient burial practices and ancient Jewish and early Christian perceptions of afterlife, resurrection and human post-mortal existence. The project aims at reconstructing an important aspect of ancient mentality.

Prof.dr. J.K. Zangenberg
Project III: The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Region
Khirbet Qumran, in whose vicinity the famous Dead Sea scrolls were found, has so far mostly been interpreted on the basis of textual sources alone and identified as secluded settlement of sectarian Essenes. The project follows a different path and interprets Qumran on the basis of the archaeology of the Dead Sea region and its material culture.

Prof.dr. J.K. Zangenberg

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