Dead Sea Scrolls

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 are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and other extra
Biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 at Qumran on the northwest shore of the
Dead Sea from which it derives its name. The Dead Sea is a large, salty (thus µdead¶) lake that
separates Israel from Jordan, east of Jerusalem.

The texts are of great mythic and historical significance, as they include the oldest known
surviving copies and extra-biblical documents. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and
Greek, mostly on parchment (perkament), but with some written on papyrus. These
manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE and 70 CE.

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1. ×  

   copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible

2. 

   (known documents from the Second Temple Period like
Enoch, non-canonical psalms, etc., that were not used in the Hebrew Bible), and
3.  


   (previously unknown documents that speak to the rules and
beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism) like the Community
Rule, War Scroll, and the Rule of the Blessing,

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In the winter of 1946±47, two shepherds discovered the caves and the scrolls not far from the
known ruins of Khirbet Qumran that had been known to European explorers since the 19th
century. Qumran is one kilometer inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. The
scrolls were found in 11 caves nearby. Later comparative analysis of pottery, discovery of ink
and two layers of ash suggest that scrolls were produced at the settlement, but any texts
present in the buildings during the Roman raid were destroyed in the ensuing fire, explaining
lack of organic material in the site.

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The rolls also shed much light upon the Jewish religion and the society. It has been suggested
that many manuscripts in these finds are texts from libraries in Jerusalem, hidden quickly
from the Roman siege during the First Jewish Revolt around 70 CE.

With this, the central texts can be considered are generic to Judaism. The manuscripts show a
flexible religion, not limited to the cults of the temple, which was the nominal regulation.
They are also a reflection of its time of theological creativity as well as tensions between
groups. Questions concerning who they were, that group living at Qumran.

Their presence at Qumran is believed to have been largely involuntary, them being effectively
driven out of Jerusalem by the priestly leaders.
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The isolated community at Qumran would develop ideas that distanced them even further.
Possibly motivated by their forced exile, they developed a dualistic world view. This was one
in which the world was clearly divided into good and evil, lightness and darkness. This group
developed regulations for extreme ritual purity.

The leadership of the Qumran group was in the hands of a messianic figure titled ³Teacher of
Righteousness´. Their similarities to the Jesus story can either be understood as an
illustration of the messianic movement of Judaism at the time. Or it may even be thought of as
part of the Jesus story, that the historical background of Jesus and that of the Teacher of
Righteousness are the very same. One more similarity is that they both claimed that the
Scripture foretold their own times. All this comes down to speculation.

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The Dead Sea Scrolls can be divided into two categories²biblical and non-biblical.
Fragments of every book of the Old Testament (Hebrew canon) have been discovered, except
for the book of Esther. Also discovered is the intact Isaiah Scroll, which contains some of the
most dramatic Messianic prophecy, is 1,000 years older than any previously known copy of
Isaiah.

In addition to the biblical manuscripts, there are commentaries on the Hebrew canon,
paraphrases that expand on the Torah, community standards and regulations, rules of war,
non-canonical psalms, hymnals and sermons. Most of the texts are written in Hebrew and
Aramaic, with a few in Greek.

The Dead Sea Scrolls appear to be the library of a Jewish sect, considered most likely the
Essenes. Near the caves are the ancient ruins of Qumran, a village excavated in the early
1950¶s that shows connections to both the Essenes and the scrolls. The Essenes were strictly
observant Jewish scribes (schriftgeleerden), who appear Messianic and apocalyptic in
thinking. The library appears to have been hidden away in caves around the outbreak of the
First Jewish Revolt (66-70 A.D.) as the Roman army advanced against the Jews.

   
  
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The significance of the scrolls relates in a large part to the field of textual criticism and how
accurately the Bible has been transcribed over time. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea
Scrolls, the oldest Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible were Masoretic texts dating to 10th
century CE such as the Aleppo Codex. The biblical manuscripts found among the Dead Sea
Scrolls push that date back a millennium to the 2nd century BCE. Before this discovery, the
earliest extant manuscripts of the Old Testament were in Greek in manuscripts such as Codex
Vaticanus Graecus 1209 and Codex Sinaiticus.

While some of the Qumran biblical manuscripts are nearly identical to the Masoretic, or
traditional, Hebrew text of the Old Testament, some manuscripts of the books of Exodus and
Samuel found in Cave Four exhibit dramatic differences in both language and content.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Old Testament scripture was extremely fluid
until its canonization (heiligverklaring) around 100 CE.

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There has been much debate about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The dominant theory
remains that the scrolls were the product of a sect of Jews living at nearby Qumran called the
Essenes, but this theory has come to be challenged by several modern scholars.

They have proposed alternative origins of the scrolls, such as:

  
*  
 Most scholars deny any connection between the Christians and the
authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There is little to suggest that the Christians at this time were
as secluded (

     )or as interested in elaborate
(  
  
 )rituals of purity and chastity as the community that produced
the Scrolls. In recent years, Robert Eisenman has advanced the theory that some scrolls
describe the early Christian community. Eisenman also attempted to relate the career of the
Apostle Paul to some of these documents.

 G 
 *  
 Some scholars have argued that the scrolls were the product of
Jews living in Jerusalem, who hid the scrolls in the caves near Qumran while fleeing from the
Romans during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. First was proposed that the Dead Sea
Scrolls originated at the library of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.Later, another scholar
suggested that the scrolls were the product of multiple libraries in Jerusalem, and not
necessarily the Jerusalem Temple library. 

 
 
Some of the documents were published early. Their translations into English soon followed.

Publication of the scrolls has taken many decades, and the delay has been a source of
academic controversy. The majority of the scrolls, however, consists of tiny, brittle (?


 ?? 
    ) fragments, which were published at a pace (snelheid)
considered by many to be excessively slow. Even more unsettling for some was the fact that
access to the unpublished documents was severely limited to the editorial committee.

The scrolls have caused many controversies. First came the question of ownership. Most
scrolls were for years in the hands of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, and only few
scholars had access to them.
The scrolls that were easiest to reconstruct, were published early. The texts that were delayed
were the smaller, more fragmented ones, which also represented the majority.

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High-resolution images of all the Dead Sea scrolls are now available online, and can easily be
found with a Web search. They can also be purchased in inexpensive multi-volumes - on disc
media or in book form - or viewed in certain college and university libraries.

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