Acknowledgments
This project was completed through the contributions and support of many others. I would like to thank George Brooke as the series editor of Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah for accepting this manuscript for publication and for offering invaluable input on the project over the course of several years. Comments from anonymous peer reviewers were very much appreciated and enhanced the final version of this manuscript. I am grateful for the institutional support that I received from Trinity College Dublin and my colleagues, especially Linda Hogan, David Shepherd, and Daniele Pevarello. Research funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, Jerusalem made the successful completion of this monograph possible. My appreciation also goes to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which funded research periods that contributed to this project. Staff at the Israel Antiquities Authority, particularly Pnina Shor, made fragments of 4QInstruction available for consultation which has strengthened this work. Feedback received on sections of this book from Loren Stuckenbruck, Carol Newsom, Eileen Schuller, Émile Puech, Tyson Putthoff, and Matthew Goff has been invaluable, so too their moral support and encouragement. Graduate students at Trinity College Dublin, many of whom now have “Ph.D.” proudly after their names, made writing and research a joy; thank you to Michael Morris, Sarah Shier, Geoffrey Wharton, Helen Moran-Cashell, Danny Daley, and Lynn Mills for our many conversations. I am grateful to the library staff at the École biblique, Jerusalem and Israel National Library. Sincere thanks also go to Joey Silver for enriching my family’s research environment in the last year of this project.
This book is dedicated to my wife, Dr. Wenhua Shi, and our daughter, Shira Wold. The sacrifices that Wenhua has made for us both deserve the deepest recognition. Wenhua’s loving support and constant encouragement mean the world to me. Shira is the joy of our lives and much of this book was written with our little “poem,” our “song,” in my mind. Dr. Chee Pang Choong and Choon Huah have been a constant support to me, Wenhua, and Shira—thank you. To my family: my mother, my father, Rease, Teckla, and Jasara I am grateful to you for your unwavering love.