The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of about 850 documents
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of about 850 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, which were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near Qumran, a fortress northwest of the Dead Sea in Israel (in historical times part of Judea). They were written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, sometime between the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD. The texts are important as being practically the only Jewish Biblical documents from that period, and because of what they can tell about the political and religious context.
Importance of Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls contains a vast collection of Jewish documents written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and encompassing many subjects and literary styles.This is significant for archaeology. They include manuscripts or fragments of every book in the Hebrew Bible except the Book of Esther, all of them formed nearly one thousand years earlier than any previously known biblical manuscripts. The scrolls also contain the earliest existing biblical observations, on the Book of Habakkuk, and many other writings, among them religious works pertaining to Jewish sects of the time.
- A copy or portion of nearly every Old Testament book was found in Qumran.
- There were extra-biblical and apocryphal books found as well, but again, the vast bulk of the scrolls were copies of the Hebrew Old Testament.
- The Dead Sea Scrolls were such a remarkable discovery of (archaeology) in that the scrolls were in excellent condition and had remained hidden for so long (over 2000 years).
- The Dead Sea Scrolls can also give us assurance in the consistency of the Old Testament manuscripts since there were minimal differences between the manuscripts that had previously been discovered and those that were found in Qumran.
- Clearly this is a testament to the way God has preserved His Word down through the centuries, protecting it from extinction and guarding it against major error.
Groups of Dead Sea Scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are usually divided into three groups namely:
- Biblical
- Apocryphal
- Sectarian
"Biblical" Manuscripts (copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 40% of the recognized scrolls
Apocryphal
Apocryphal"or "Pseudepigraphical" documents (known papers from the Second Temple Period like Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit, Sirach, non-canonical psalms, etc., that were not eventually canonized in the Hebrew Bible), which contains approximately 30% of the traditional scrolls.
Sectarian
"Sectarian" documents (previously unknown documents that speak to the rules and idea of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism) like the Community Rule, War Scroll, Pesher (Hebrew pesher = "Commentary") on Habakkuk, and the Rule of the Blessing, which encompass approximately 30% of the recognized scrolls.
Discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls
The resolution of Qumran is 1 km inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. The scrolls were found in eleven caves nearby, between 125m (Cave 4) and 1 km (Cave 1) away. None were found within the decision, unless it initially encompassed the caves. In the winter of 1946-47, Palestinian Muhammed edh-Dhib and his cousin discovered the caves, and soon afterwards the scrolls.
John C. Trever rebuilds the story of the scrolls from several interviews with the Bedouin. edh-Dhib's cousin noticed the caves, but edh-Dhib himself was the first to really fall into one. He recovered a handful of scrolls, which Trever recognized as the Isaiah Scroll, Habakkuk Commentary, and the Community Rule (originally known as "Manual of Discipline"), and took them back to the camp to show to his family. None of the scrolls were destroyed in this process, despite popular story. The Bedouin kept the scrolls hanging on a tent pole while they figured out what to do with them, periodically taking them out to show people. At some point during this time, the Community Rule was split in two.
Description of the Scrolls
As soon as the declaration of the scrolls' discovery was made, the academic debates about their origin and importance began. The debates increased when the amazing contents of the scrolls were consecutively exposed. The seven original scrolls, from what came to be called "Cave One" comprised the following:
- A well-preserved copy of the entire prediction of Isaiah-the oldest copy of an Old Testament book ever to be discovered.
- A aother fragmentary scroll of Isaiah
- A observations on the first two chapters of Habakkuk-the commentator explained the book allegorically interims of the Qumran brotherhood
- The "Manual of Discipline" or "Community Rule"-the most important source of information about the religious sect at Qumran-it described the requirements for those hopeful to join the brotherhood
- The "Thanksgiving Hymns," a collection of devotional "psalms" of thanksgiving and praise to God
- An Aramaic summarize of the Book of Genesis
- The "Rule of War" which compact with the battle between the "Sons of Light (the men of Qumran) and the “Sons of Darkness” (the Romans?) yet to take place in the “last days,” which days the men of Qumran invented were about to arrive.
Study Of The Caves
The caves surrounding Qumran are numbered based upon the order of their finding and their production of scrolls and scroll fragments. Thus, caves 7-9 and 4 are very close to the decision at Qumran, while caves 1, 3, and 11 are farther away. Similarly, there are hundreds of other caves surrounding Qumran discovered both before and after the 11 scroll caves that did not create scrolls and are therefore not numbered as scroll caves. Below is a summary of each of the Qumran Caves
Cave 1
Cave 1 was discovered in the winter or spring of 1947. It was first excavate by Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux from Feb 15 to Mar 5, 1949. In addition to the unique seven scrolls, Cave 1 formed jars and bowls, whose chemical composition and shape matched vessels discovered at the settlement at Qumran, pieces of cloth, and added fragments that matched portions of the original scrolls, thereby proving that the original scrolls came from Cave 1.
Cave 2
Cave two was found in February, 1952. It yielded 300 fragments from 33 manuscripts, including Jubilees and the Book of Sirach in the original Hebrew.
Cave 3
Cave three was founded on March 14, 1952. The cave surrendered 14 manuscripts including Jubilees and the curious Copper Scroll, which lists 67 hiding places, mostly underground, throughout the ancient Roman region of Judea (now Israel and Palestine). According to the scroll, the secret caches held astonishing amounts of gold, silver, copper, aromatics, and manuscripts.
Cave 4
Cave four was discovered in August, 1952, and was excavated from September 22 to 29, 1952 by Gerald Lankester Harding, Roland de Vaux, and Józef Milik. Cave four is really two, hand-cut caves (4a and 4b), but since the fragments were mixed, they are labeled as 4Q. Cave 4 is the more well-known of Qumran caves both because of its visibility from the Qumran plateau and its productivity. It is visible from the plateau to the south of the Qumran settlement. It is by far the most creative of all Qumran caves, producing ninety percent of the Dead Sea Scrolls and scroll fragments (approx. 15,000 fragments from 500 different texts), including 9-10 copies of Jubilees, along with 21 tefillin and 7 mezuzot.
Caves 5 and 6
Caves 5 and 6 were exposed in 1952, shortly after Cave 4. Cave 5 produced around 25 manuscripts, while Cave 6 contained fragments of about 31 manuscripts.
Caves 7-9
Caves 7-9 are unique in that they are the only caves that are available only by passing through the settlement at Qumran. Carved into the southern end of the Qumran plateau, archaeologists excavated caves 7-9 in 1957, but did not find many fragments maybe due to high levels of erosion that left only the shallow bottoms of the caves.
Caves 8
Cave 8 formed five fragments: Genesis (8QGen), Psalms (8QPs), a tefillin fragment (8QPhyl), a mezuzah (8QMez), and a hymn (8QHymn). Cave 8 also formed several tefillin cases, a box of leather objects, lamps, jars, and the sole of a leather shoe.
Caves 9
Cave 9 produced only small, unidentifiable fragments.9 also submitted several date pits similar to those discovered by Magen and Peleg to the west of Locus 75 during their "Operation Scroll" excavations.
Caves 10
Cave 10 formed only a single ostracon with some writing on it.
Cave 11
Cave 11 was exposed in 1956 and yielded 21 texts, some of which were quite lengthy. The Temple Scroll, so called because more than half of it pertains to the building of the Temple of Jerusalem, was found in Cave 11, and is by far the longest scroll.
- It is now 26.7 feet (8.15m) long.
- Its original length may have been over 28 feet (8.75m).
- The Temple Scroll was observed by Yigael Yadin as "The Torah According to the Essenes.
- " On the other hand, Hartmut Stegemann, a modern and friend of Yadin, believed the scroll was not to be observed as such, but was a document without exceptional importance.
- Stegemann notes that it is not mentioned or cited in any known Essene writing.
- Also in Cave 11, an escatological fragment about the biblical figure Melchizedek (11Q13) was found. Cave 11 also formed a copy of Jubilees.
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