2007 marked the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the first Dead Sea Scrolls. The 11th International Orion
Symposium, "New Approaches to the Study of Biblical Interpretation in the Second Temple Period and in Early
Christianity," provided a measure of the ways in which the discovery of the scrolls has altered the paradigms for
textual and historical studies in the intervening six decades.
This symposium was once again jointly sponsored by the Orion Center and the Hebrew University Center for the Study
of Christianity. Seventeen scholars from Israel and abroad convened in Jerusalem to address such issues as the
connections and distinctions between Jewish interpretation within the Land of Israel and outside of it; between
Jewish and Christian exegesis in earlier and later periods; between biblical interpretation in literature and in
art; between interpretation and the formation of the biblical canon. In a departure from the past, the Symposium
program featured three additional smaller workshops for invited lecturers only, to give symposium presenters the
opportunity to bring their wide range of viewpoints to bear upon specific questions of method and meaning related
to the interpretation of ancient texts.