My publications and papers
“Is Josephus’s John the Baptist Passage a Chronologically Dislocated Story of the Death of Hyrcanus II?” (2020). Pp. 119-137 in: E. Pfoh and L. Niesiolowski-Spano, eds., Biblical Narratives, Archaeology, and Historicity: Essays in Honour of Thomas L. Thompson. London: Bloomsbury/T & T Clark, 2020.
This article proposes that Josephus’s John the Baptist passage of Ant. 18.117-119 is a chronologically dislocated story of the execution of the 1st century BCE high priest Hyrcanus II by Herod the Great. The passage is to be understood as in the class of additional material from Jewish stories inserted by Josephus into the preexisting narrative of War in the composition process of Antiquities, comparable to other doublets, in this case mistakenly attached to the wrong Herod. The baptizing of Josephus’s John the Baptist is identified as purification by immersion reflected in the mikvehs of Jewish practice in Judea and Galilee of the 1st century BCE, “household Judaism” in which Hyrcanus II played a leading role as high priest and ethnarch of Jews throughout the Roman empire.
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“The Case of the Purloined Apostle: Was the Beloved Disciple of the Fourth Gospel the Apostle Andrew?” (2022). Journal of the Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical Studies (JOCABS) 12/1 (2022): 1-12.
This is a publication of a 1991 student paper I wrote at Cornell in the first semester of a graduate studies program in Near Eastern studies, condensed and edited, but otherwise faithful representation of the argument of the student paper of 1991. The paper argues for an identification of the mysterious “disciple Jesus loved” of the Fourth Gospel that has been overlooked, cited as an illustration of a larger phenomenon of invisibility in public view (hence the evocation of the famous short story by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Purloined Letter”). The published version can be seen at this link: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52498bd2e4b0240948a7a448/t/63713f2cfd425c41037145a0/1668366125615/vol+12+no+1_doudna_03_10_2022.pdf.
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“The Sect of the Qumran Texts and its Leading Role in the Temple in Jerusalem During Much of the First Century BCE: Toward a New Framework for Understanding” (2013). Pp 75-124 in: David Stacey and Gregory Doudna, with a contribution from Gideon Avni, Qumran Revisited: A Reassessment of the Archaeology of the Site and its Texts. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013.
This study argues that traditional reasons for supposing a programmatically adversarial relationship between the sect of the Qumran texts and the Hasmonean high priests are insubstantial, and that the sect of the Qumran texts controlled the temple during some of the Hasmonean era. The study argues that the Teacher vs. wicked high priest conflict alluded to in the sectarian Qumran texts reflects the end, not the beginning, of the era of the Hasmonean high priests, when there was a dispute between rival Hasmonean claimants familiar from history.
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“Dating the Scroll Deposits of the Qumran Caves: a Question of Evidence” (2017). Pp. 238-246 in: M. Fidanzio, ed., The Caves of Qumran: Proceedings of the International Conference, Lugano 2014. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
This paper, presented at a Caves of Qumran international conference held at Lugano, Switzerland, in February 2014, and published in the conference proceedings Brill volume in 2017, is my strongest published argument that the scroll deposits in the caves of Qumran ended by the end of the first century BCE, not at the later First Jewish Revolt (66-70 CE) as commonly supposed. The scrolls of Qumran are the remains of a lost textual world ending in the late first century BCE.
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“Deconstructing the Continuity of Qumran Ib and II with Implications for Stabilizing the Biblical Texts” (2016). Pp. 130-154 in: I. Hjelm and T.L. Thompson (eds.), Biblical Interpretation Beyond Historicity. Changing Perspectives 7. New York: Routledge, 2016.
This article surveys issues bearing on the assumption of continuity between what Qumran excavator Father Roland de Vaux called Qumran’s “Period Ib” and “Period II”, with discussions of pottery, language, presence of women, dining, animal bone deposits, site ownership, scroll deposits dating, and stabilization of the biblical text. These considerations suggest that it is misleading to speak of a “single main period of habitation” of a single group or community at Qumran which ended at the time of the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 CE) according to traditional scholarly notions. A less-inaccurate picture is that the true “main period” of Qumran is simply the revised “Period Ib” of Bar-Nathan and Magness of the 1st century BCE ending mid- or end of the reign of Herod (37-4 BCE).
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“Allusions to the End of the Hasmonean Dynasty in Pesher Nahum (4Q169)” (2011). Pp. 259-278 in: G. Brooke & J. Høgenhaven, eds. The Mermaid and the Partridge: Essays from the Copenhagen Conference on Revising Texts from Cave Four. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
This article introduced a proposal that the “Wicked Priest” figure of the Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab) alludes to Antigonus Mattathias, the final Hasmonean king of 40-37 BCE, an identification not previously proposed in the history of scholarship. The article revisits textual issues with several new readings in 4Q169, the Nahum Commentary.
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“Ostraca KhQ1 and KhQ2 from the Cemetery of Qumran: A New Edition” (2007). Pp. 59-116 in: Perspectives on Hebrew Scriptures II. Vol. 5. Ed. by E. Ben-Zvi. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2007.
This article, first published in the peer-reviewed online Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 5/5 (2004), now memorialized in print by the journal editors in this volume, presents original readings and analysis of an ostracon found outside the eastern wall of Qumran in 1996 that occasioned much controversy, called KhQ1, and a companion smaller piece, KhQ2.
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“4Q Pesher Hosea B: Reconstruction of Fragments 4, 5, 18, and 24” (2003). Dead Sea Discoveries 10 (2003): 338-358.
This was a text reconstruction I did as a Research Associate on the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project at the University of Copenhagen (1997-1999).
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“Who is the Lion of Wrath of Pesher Nahum? A Brief Analysis” (2005). In: M. Mueller and T. L. Thompson, eds. Historie og konstruktion: Festskrift til Niels Peter Lemche i anledgning af 60 aars foedselsdagen. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanums Forlag, 2005.
This study discussed possible identifications of this figure of the text, weighing strengths and weaknesses of the arguments. My analysis favored interpretation of the figure as an evocation of a Roman and gentile conqueror.
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“Dating the Scrolls on the Basis of Radiocarbon Analysis” (1998). Pp. 430-471 in: P. Flint and J. VanderKam, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls after Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment, Vol. 1. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
This has been the most cited of my publications. “The best non-technical explanation of C-14 is probably by G. Doudna, ‘Dating the Scrolls on the Basis of Radiocarbon Analysis’ ” — Emanuel Tov, editor-in-chief of the Dead Scrolls* (*E. Tov, “The Sciences and the Reconstruction of the Ancient Scrolls”, in A. Lange et al, eds, The Dead Sea Scrolls in Context, I [Leiden: Brill, 2011], p. 6).
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(Book, co-author) Qumran Revisited A Reassessment of the Archaeology of the Site and its Texts. By David Stacey and Gregory Doudna, with a contribution from Gideon Avni. Oxford, Archaeopress, 2013.
(Bryn Mawr Classical Review) “Stacey and Doudna challenge, bravely one should add, two deep-seated modern assumptions regarding the relations between the dwellers of Qumran and the central Temple establishment in Jerusalem, and the nature of the site and its ancient dwellers. Both scholars have published extensively on scrolls and site. Stacey produces his ‘reassessment’ in a section entitled ‘reassessing of the stratigraphy of Qumran’. Doudna contributes a section on the sect and ‘its leading role in the Jerusalem Temple’, a title that already defies the widespread notion of fierce hostility between the sect and its leader on the one hand and the Hasmonean Temple elite on the other. The last chapter is written by Gideon Avni and deals with ethnic identities and the archaeology of death and burial…Doudna in his section questions all the major scholarly assumptions that have accompanied the burgeoning industry that grew around the Qumran texts…”–Bryn Mawr Classical Review (2014) (My contribution in this volume, “The Sect of the Qumran Texts and its Leading Role in the Temple in Jerusalem During Much of the First Century BCE: Toward a New Framework for Understanding”, is posted separately above. Combined bibliography for all three contributions is at the end of the print volume. The volume is available from BAR Publishing, Oxford, at https://www.barpublishing.com/qumran-revisited-a-reassessment-of-the-archaeology-of-the-site-and-its-texts.html.)
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(Book) 4Q Pesher Nahum: A Critical Edition (2001). JSP Supplements 35; London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001.
“Stimulating and provocative … a virtual encyclopedia of information on 4QpNah, Qumran studies, and archaeology…” — Journal of Biblical Literature, 2003. This was my disputats (Danish doctorate, equivalent to the German Habilitation) done at the University of Copenhagen. The download is excerpts from Chapter One. The book is available from Bloomsbury, UK, at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/4q-pesher-nahum-9781841271569/.
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(Monograph) Redating the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran (1999). Qumran Chronicle 8/4 (1999), Special Issue.
“Magisterial”–the late Alan D. Crown, emeritus professor of Semitic Studies, University of Sydney, of this monograph. Although this little-known early monograph of mine made mistakes–notably a blunder in following a mistaken date of Laperrousaz for the end of Qumran’s archaeological Period Ib that was too early, corrected in my subsequent publications–at the same time this monograph pioneered several points of analysis of Qumran’s archaeology subsequently adopted and mainstreamed. The download consists of excerpts which highlight the strengths of this monograph. The original Special Issue can be obtained from the publisher, Zdzislaw Kapera, Enigma Press, Cracow, at http://enigmapress.pl/chronicle.php, or alternatively Archaeopress, Cracow, at https://www.archeobooks.com/collections/the-qumran-chronicle.
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“The Legacy of an Error in Archaeological Interpretation: the Dating of the Qumran Cave Scroll Deposits” (2006). In: K. Galor, J.-B. Humbert, and J. Zangenberg (eds), The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations and Debates. Proceedings of a Conference held at Brown University, November 17-19, 2002. Leiden: Brill, 2006
This was an early presentation of my argument for the “early dating” (ca. late 1st century BCE) of the Qumran scroll deposits.
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(Co-author) The constituents of the ink from a Qumran inkwell: new prospects for provenancing the ink on the Dead Sea Scrolls (2012). By Kaare Lund Rasmussen, Anna Lluveras Tenorio, Ilaria Bonaduce, Maria Perla Colombini, Leila Birolo, Eugenio Galano, Angela Amoresano, Greg Doudna, Andrew D. Bond, Vincenzo Palleschi, Giulia Lorenzetti, Stefano Legnaioli, Johannes van der Plicht, Jan Gunneweg. Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012): 2956-2968.
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(Co-author) “Possible source of Qumran gypsum: The Lisan Formation north of Qumran” (2012). By K. Rasmussen, A. Frumkin, A. Bond, D. Stacey, and G. Doudna. In: Proceedings of the joint Hebrew University and COST Action D42 Cultural Heritage Workshop held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in May 25-26, 2010. J. Gunneweg and C. Greenblatt, eds. Jerusalem: Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2012
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(Co-author) “On the Age and Content of Jar-35–a Sealed and Intact Storage Jar Found on the Southern Plateau of Qumran” (2011) By K. Rasmussen, J. Gunneweg, J. van der Plicht, I. Kralj, A. Bond, B. Svensmark, M. Balla, M. Strlic, and G. Doudna. Archaeometry 53/4 (2011): 791-808.
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(Co-author) “Analyses of a sample of ‘masse de fer’ from Qumran locus 104 excavated by R. de Vaux” (2010). By K. Rasmussen, A. Bond, G. Doudna, and J. Gunneweg. In: J. Gunneweg et al., eds. Holistic Qumran: Trans-Disciplinary Research of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Proceedings of the NIAS-Lorentz Center Qumran Workshop, 21-25 April 2008. Leiden: Brill, 2010
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(Co-author) “The Effects of Possible Contamination on the Radiocarbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls II: Empirical Methods to Remove Castor Oil and Suggestions for Redatings” (2009). By K. Rasmussen, J. van der Plicht, G. Doudna, F. Nielsen, P. Hoejrup, E. Stenby, and C. Pedersen. Radiocarbon 51/3 (2009): 1005-1022.
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(Co-author) “Cleaning and Radiocarbon Dating of Material from Khirbet Qumran” (2006). By K. Rasmussen, J. Gunneweg, J. van der Plicht, G. Doudna, J. Taylor, M. Belis, H. Egsgaard, and J.-B. Humbert. Pages 139-163 in: J. Gunneweg, C. Greenblatt, and A. Adriaens, eds., Bio- and Material Cultures at Qumran. Papers from a COST Acta G8 working group meeting held in Jerusalem, Israel on 22-23 May 2005. 2006.
This study reported eight new high-precision radiocarbon dates for linen from the Qumran caves associated with scroll deposits undertaken by a scientific team in Denmark of which I was a part–one new linen date from Cave 1Q, one from 4Q, three from 8Q, and two from 11Q–which become added to the two Qumran cave linen dates which had been published in history prior to this publication. With our eight new dates that made 10 published radiocarbon dates total of linen wrappings associated with the scroll deposits. Our team also radiocarbon dated for the first time (published in this article) an item of linen from the buildings of Qumran, a charred linen from Locus 96, with both its charring and its radiocarbon date suggesting it was burnt in the fire which destroyed the buildings of Qumran in 68 CE. All 10 of 10 of the caves linen date measured older than the age of the Locus 96 linen. All of the Qumran cave linen radiocarbon dates are associated with scroll deposit activity in the caves. The caves’ linen radiocarbon dates are suggestive of and consistent with the thesis I argued prior to this radiocarbon data that all of the Qumran cave scroll deposits occurred and ended within the first century BCE.
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(Co-author) “Qumran Textiles in the Palestine Exploration Fund, London” (2005). By Joan E. Taylor, Kaare L. Rasmussen, Gregory Doudna, Johannes van der Plicht, and Helge Egsgaard. Palestinian Exploration Quarterly 137/2 (2005): 159-16
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(Co-author) “Reply to Israel Carmi: ‘Are the 14C Dates of the Dead Sea Scrolls Affected by Castor Oil Contamination?'” (2003). By K. Rasmussen, H. van der Plicht, G. Doudna, F.M. Cross, and J. Strugnell. Radiocarbon 45/3 (2003): 497-499.
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(Co-author) “The Effects of Possible Contamination on the Radiocarbon Dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls I: Castor Oil” (2001). By K. Rasmussen, H. van der Plicht, F. Cryer, G. Doudna, F.M. Cross, J. Strugnell. Radiocarbon 43/1 (2001): 127-132.
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“A Case for Apollonius of Tyana = Paul. A prologemenon for a more in-depth research development.” (Conference presentation, OCABS annual symposium, Saint Paul, Minnesota, Sept 10, 2022).
Apollonius of Tyana was a wandering miracle worker/philosopher of the first century CE active in the eastern Mediterranean world who interacted with Roman emperors, was opposed to temples and animal sacrifices, and died ca. 100 CE. There is a 3rd CE “romance biography” written by Philostratus, The Life of Apollonius, which was influential in shaping ancient perceptions of Apollonius, but that text is highly fictionalized. The analysis to follow assumes existing critical scholarship on Apollonius of Tyana as a starting point. In conventional understanding Paul the apostle of the letters of the New Testament and active in Asia Minor and Greece left no trace historically outside of Christian texts and traditions. The proposal here is that the Christian Paul and Apollonius reflect independent tradition trajectories from a single original figure, i.e. that Paul was Apollonius of Tyana.
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“A comment on the palaeographic dating of the Copper Scroll” (2014) (unpublished)
This was part of the circulated copy of my delivered paper to fellow participants at the 2014 Lugano Caves of Qumran conference, cut by me in publication due to space constraints in the 2017 conference proceedings volume.