Emerging Scholars Talk with Seonghyun Choi, UNC Dept. of Religious Studies.

How does secrecy shape a community’s identity? What makes hidden knowledge so powerful? This talk examines how the Qumran community of the Second Temple period claimed access to secret knowledge—truths hidden from outsiders and revealed only to those chosen by the deity—which reinforced their sense of election. It also explores how secrecy interacted with sensory perception in the Dead Sea Scrolls, suggesting that community members believed they could “experience” secrecy by sensing hidden truths.

Registration required: https://jewishstudies.unc.edu