Dead Sea Scrolls

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[b]I INTRODUCTION[/b]

Dead Sea Scrolls, collection of Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts, successive discoveries of which were made starting in 1947 in a series of caves in Jordan, at the north-western end of the Dead Sea in the area of Khirbet Qumran. The manuscripts, originally written on leather or papyrus, number more than 600 in various states of preservation. They have been attributed to members of a previously unknown Jewish brotherhood. The scrolls include manuals of discipline, hymn-books, biblical commentaries, and apocalyptic writings; two of the oldest-known copies of the Book of Isaiah, almost wholly intact; and fragments of every book in the Old Testament except that of Esther. Among the latter is a fanciful paraphrase of the Book of Genesis. Also found were texts, in the original languages, of several books of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. These texts, none of which was included in the Hebrew canon of the Bible, are Tobit, Sirach, Jubilees, portions of Enoch, and the Testament of Levi, hitherto known only in early Greek, Syriac, Latin, and Ethiopic versions.

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[b]II DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION[/b]

The seven principal scrolls were discovered by Bedouins and were purchased partly by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and partly by the Syrian monastery of St Mark in Jerusalem. The scrolls in the possession of the Syrian monastery were later purchased by the government of Israel.

The initial discovery of the scrolls was followed by scientific exploration of the neighbouring caves under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, the Dominican École Biblique et Archéologique of Jerusalem, and the Palestine Archaeological Museum (now the Rockefeller Museum). These explorations, and further purchases from the Bedouins, yielded tens of thousands of additional fragments, as well as a record of buried treasure punched out in Hebrew characters on strips of copper. The last discovery relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls was made in 1956 and the area has since been extensively surveyed and excavated. Nevertheless, in December 1995, in a location that was kept secret for fear of looting, excavations of four newly discovered caves began in the Qumran area, only some 180 m (200 yd) from the caves in which the original discovery was made in 1947.

The manuscripts appear to have been part of the Jewish brotherhood's library in what is now Khirbet Qumran, near the place of their discovery. Palaeographic evidence indicates that most of the documents were written at various dates between approximately 200 bc and ad 68. Archaeological evidence further supports the latter date, for excavations at the site establish that it was sacked in ad 68. An army under the command of the Roman general Vespasian may have plundered the community while en route to suppress a Jewish rebellion begun in ad 66. Presumably, the documents were hidden at some time between ad 66 and 68.

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[b]III CONTENTS OF THE SCROLLS[/b]

The Qumran brotherhood is portrayed in the manuals of discipline as a kind of model House of Israel, designed to prepare the way for the imminent coming of the kingdom of God and the day of judgment. The brotherhood was constituted along communistic lines and in imitation of the organization of Israel under Moses. Members underwent a two- or three-year probation and were graded in ascending degrees of purity. Promotions and demotions were voted at an annual review. The spiritual direction was vested in 3 priests, aided by 12 lay presbyters (elders), and each of several “chapters” was administered by an overseer whose position resembled that of a bishop. The overseers were subject in turn to an “archbishop”, or “prince”, of the entire order. Study of the Law, the first section of the Hebrew Bible, was obligatory, and it was claimed that the correct interpretation of it had been handed down by a series of spiritual monitors, known as “correct expositors”, or “teachers of righteousness”. The era in which the brotherhood lived was expected to end with the appearance of a new expositor and prophet (Deuteronomy 18:18). Details of a final war between the “sons of light” and the “sons of darkness” are contained in one of the scrolls.

Similarities between the beliefs and practices described in the scrolls and those credited to the Essenes by the Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo Judaeus and by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus have suggested to many scholars that the Qumran brotherhood is related to that sect. Further evidence for this identification may be found in the works of the Roman writer Pliny the Elder, who reported that the Essenes in his day lived in the Khirbet Qumran area. Other scholars, however, stress the difference between the Qumran brotherhood and the Essenes, implying a general affinity rather than a specific identity.

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[b]IV HISTORICAL IMPORT[/b]

Allusions have been found in the scrolls to people and events of the Hellenistic and early Roman periods of Jewish history. Thus, a commentary on the Book of Nahum mentions a certain Demetrius and seems to refer to an incident, recorded by Josephus, that took place in 88 bc. It involved Demetrius III, King of Syria, and Alexander Jannaeus, the Hasmonaean (Maccabean) king. Similarly, repeated allusions to a persecuted “teacher of righteousness” have variously been thought to refer to such religious figures as the last legitimate Jewish high priest, Onias III, who was deposed in 175 bc; to the Maccabean leaders Mattathias, the high priest, and his son the military leader Judas Maccabeus; and to Menahem, leader of the Zealots, in ad 66. Attempts have also been made to trace allusions, specifically those mentioning a “wicked priest” and “man of lies”, to certain notorious figures such as the sacrilegious Jewish high priest Menelaus; Antiochus IV, King of Syria; the Maccabean leader John Hyrcanus; and Alexander Jannaeus. All these identifications are tentative, however, and scholarly opinions on the subject vary sharply. See also Maccabees (family).

The various biblical manuscripts found among the scrolls offer a text several centuries older than that of the traditional Masora, and they occasionally corroborate readings preserved in the Greek Septuagint and other ancient versions. They are thus an invaluable aid in establishing the original text of the Hebrew Scriptures.

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[b]V SIGNIFICANCE FOR BIBLICAL SCHOLARS[/b]

Many ideas found in the Dead Sea Scrolls recur in the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament and in the earlier parts of the Talmud. In addition, many parallels with Iranian concepts provide evidence of the extent to which Jewish thought was indebted to that source during the intertestamental period.

The many links between the thought and idiom of the scrolls and of the New Testament are of special interest. Both emphasize the imminence of the kingdom of God, the need for immediate repentance, and the expected discomfiture of Belial, the Evil One. Similar references occur in both to baptism in the Holy Spirit, and similar characterizations are found of the faithful as “the elect” and the “children of light”; for biblical references, see, for example, Titus 1:1, 1 Peter 1:2, Ephresians 5:8. These parallels are the more arresting because the Qumran brotherhood lived at the same time and in the same area as John the Baptist, whose ideas were subsequently reflected in the teachings of Jesus. Theologians are also interested in possible similarities between fragments of text found at Qumran and the New Testament. A piece of scroll has recently been shown to contain a phrase very similar to one from the Gospel of St Mark. If such a relationship could be established, it would constitute the first link between the Essenes and the Early Christians.

As they were discovered, the manuscripts were put under the control of the Israeli Antiquities Authority by the government of Israel. The longer and more complete scrolls have been published by the American School of Oriental Research, the Hebrew University, and the Jordanian Service of Antiquities. The majority of the material is in tiny, brittle fragments, however, and the pace of publication has been exceedingly slow. In September 1991, scholars at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, announced that they had used a published concordance to create a computer-generated text of one of the unreleased scrolls. The same month, officials at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, granted unrestricted access to the library's complete set of photographs of the scrolls, and subsequently the scholars of the Israeli Antiquities Authority likewise consented to allow unrestricted access to all unpublished material. Most of the scrolls are now in the Shrine of the Book and in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem, and the Museum of the Department of Antiquities in Amman. A number of translations of the manuscripts and commentaries on them have been written since their discovery.

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