Curated Communities: Refracted Realities at Qumran and on Social Media

This paper explores the intriguing interface of the presentation of the self and the collective community in a number of Dead Sea Scrolls and the question of how and whether this can be related to real life experiences of a particular community or movement. I will draw on recent research on the question of the self-presentation, audiences and interaction on Social Media sites. I chose this lens since the issue of how reality is both represented and refracted in online identities and interactions has been problematized and illuminated much more vociferously by social scientists and others working on representations of the self in online environments.

Beyond portraying potential glimpses of social reality the act of committing the Rule texts to writing itself conveys status to the anonymous scribes, the scrolls, and the communities they reflect. These inscribed communities may, in fact, only partially resemble life on the ground. The best way to conceive of the final product is of a blended textuality that draws on social realities which are skilfully curated in the texts and in turn aim to influence the social realities of the movement as well as stake a claim in the thriving literary landscape of ancient Judaism.