Michael DeVries

Michael DeVries

Department of Theology and Religion
Doctoral Researcher

Contact details

PhD title: Purity and Defilement in the Qumran War Tradition and Eschatological Imagination
Supervisor: Professor Charlotte Hempel
PhD Theology and Religion

Qualifications

  • B.A. in Religion (Magna Cum Laude), Azusa Pacific University
  • M.A. in Biblical Studies, Azusa Pacific Graduate School of Theology

Teaching

Senior Adjunct Professor at Azusa Pacific University teaching courses in biblical literature, Second Temple history and literature, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Hebrew (Biblical and Qumran Hebrew).

Research

This project focuses on the War Scroll (1QM) and related Qumran war traditions at Qumran and explores the unique cultic and ritualized features within the imagined eschatological war and how their intersection with issues of purity and defilement influences the eschatological imagination of the Qumran movement.

Other activities

Papers and presentations

  • “Purity and Defilement in Qumran War Tradition,” European Association of Biblical Studies 2021 Graduate Symposium, Mainz, Germany, 27 May 2021
  • “Ritual as Rhetoric: The Textualization of Ritual in the Qumran War Scroll,” Categories and Boundaries in Second Temple Jewish Literature Conference 2021, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, 5 March 2021
  • “The Concept of Ḥerem in Ezra and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Ezra-Nehemiah and the Dead Sea Scrolls Conference, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK, 8 December 2019
  • “Purity and Cult in the Qumran War Texts: A Reconsideration,” Purity in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: 10th Schwerte Qumran Meeting, Katholische Akademie Schwerte, Schwerte, Germany, 11 February 2019
  • “The Priesthood in Times of War: Sacerdotal and Militaristic Functions,” Western Jewish Studies Association 2017 Annual Conference, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, 26 March 2017
  • “Cult and Warfare: The Role of the Priesthood in 1QM,” Society of Biblical Literature Pacific Coast Regional Meeting, Hope International University, Fullerton, CA, 12 March 2017

Publications

Books

  • Charlotte Hempel and Michael DeVries, eds., Ezra-Nehemiah and the Dead Sea Scrolls: New Perspectives, EJL (Atlanta: SBL Press, forthcoming)

Chapters in edited volumes

  • “The Concept of Ḥerem in Ezra and the Dead Sea Scrolls” in Ezra-Nehemiah and the Dead Sea Scrolls: New Perspectives, eds. Charlotte Hempel and Michael DeVries, EJL (Atlanta: SBL Press, forthcoming)
  • “Ritual and the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Review” (co-authored with Jutta Jokiranta) in The Dead Sea Scrolls and Ancient Media Culture, eds. Travis B. Williams, Chris Keith, and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, STDJ (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming)
  • “Purity and Cult in the Qumran War Texts: A Reconsideration” in Purity in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: Proceedings from the 10th Schwerte Qumran Meeting, 10–12 February 2019, eds. Jörg Frey and Lutz Doering (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, forthcoming)

Book reviews

  • Amsalu Tefera and Loren T. Stuckenbruck, eds., Representations of Angelic Beings in Early Judaism and in Christian Tradition, WUNT 2/544 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2021). Reviewed for Reading Religion, forthcoming
  • Henryk Drawnel, ed., Sacred Texts and Disparate Interpretations: Qumran Manuscripts Seventy Years Later; Proceedings of the International Conference Held at the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 24-26 October 2017, STDJ 133 (Leiden: Brill, 2020). Reviewed for Catholic Biblical Quarterly, forthcoming
  • Jesper Høgenhaven, The Cave 3 Copper Scroll: A Symbolic Journey, STDJ 132 (Leiden: Brill, 2020). Reviewed for Bibliotheca Orientalis, forthcoming
  • Pieter B. Hartog, Alison Schofield, and Samuel I. Thomas, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Study of the Humanities: Method, Theory, Meaning: Proceedings of the Eighth Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies (Munich, 4–7 August, 2013), STDJ 125 (Leiden: Brill, 2018). Reviewed for Journal of Theological Studies 71 (2020): 311–13 
  • Andrew B. Perrin, Kyung S. Baek, and Daniel K. Falk, eds., Reading the Bible in Ancient Traditions and Modern Editions: Studies in Memory of Peter W. Flint, EJL 47 (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017). Reviewed for Dead Sea Discoveries 26.2 (2019): 253–55
  • Daniel Stökl Ben Ezra, Qumran: Die Texte vom Toten Meer und das antike Judentum, Jüdische Studien 4681 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016). Reviewed for Journal of Jewish Studies 70:1 (Spring 2019): 196–98 
  • Gwynned de Looijer, The Qumran Paradigm: A Critical Evaluation of Some Foundational Hypotheses in the Construction of the Qumran Sect, EJL 43 (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2015). Reviewed for The Expository Times 129:4 (2018): 180–81
  • George J. Brooke and Charlotte Hempel, eds., T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls (London/New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018). Reviewed for Journal of Jewish Studies 71:1 (Spring 2020): 193–5
  • Kipp Davis et al., eds., The War Scroll, Violence, War and Peace in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature: Essays in Honour of Martin G. Abegg on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, STDJ 115 (Leiden: Brill, 2015). Reviewed for Ancient Jew Review