Book excerpt: "The Aramaic Dead Sea New Jerusalem Text (NJ) survives in seven fragmentary copies: 1Q32, 2Q24, 4Q554, 4Q554a, 4Q555, 5Q15, and 11Q18. Lorenzo DiTommaso presents an edition of the 4Q NJ fragments, including a reconstruction of the text preserved in overlapping copies. He also discusses the genre of the NJ and the order of its material, its antecedents and parallels in ancient urban design, and its place among the many ancient Jewish and Christian literary expressions of the New Jerusalem. Finally, he examines the eschatological horizon of the NJ, its possible date of composition, and its relationship with other Dead Sea texts which describe the New Jerusalem or New Temple."--BOOK JACKET.