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Running Head: DEAD SEA SCROLLS 1

Dead Sea Scrolls

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DEAD SEA SCROLLS 2

Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls are essential in giving the contexts regarding the search for

the historical events that involve Jesus through the study of the information that helps in

understanding the concepts of “son of God” and “messiah” and also using illuminations of

the periods in which he lived. Therefore, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered to be the

most significant manuscripts in history. These manuscripts comprise more than 800

documents but in several tens of thousands of fragments from the modern ages of the old

settlements of the West Bank City of Jericho (George, 2013).

The common Hebrew pieces of writing seem to be a source of information

regarding the Holy Lands from the third centuries, i.e., to the second centuries, AD.,

including the beginning as well as the development of Christianity, the new faith’s religion

and the social interactions of Judaism as well (Schiffman, 1995). These scrolls have

developed to become of public importance. For this reason, more archaeologists and the

local Bedouin nomads are more interested in discovering more on this subject. The area

has since yielded several scrolls from 11 different caves, and many people still hold the

belief that this region will generate many manuscripts.

Several scholars have been able to cite the presence of the given texts to be not

beyond A.D 70 using the available finds which almost have a comprehensive Hebrew Old

Testament Bible. Nevertheless, Copper Scrolls have provided some archaeological

treasure maps that tend to act as guidance to many researchers in finding many hidden

texts. The Temple Scrolls are also known to have an elaborate construction design that

belongs to the Temple of Jerusalem. Therefore, many experts believe that the concerned

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documents pertain to the Hebrew religious sects that have existed within the first centuries

A.D.

The Scrolls have often been a source of controversy among many researchers since

their discoveries. For this reason, a small group of scholars belonging to the Israel

Antiquities Authorities and Jordan Departments of Antiquities has been in control of these

Scrolls which has made their access quite hard. In recent times, the Huntington Library in

San Marino, California has granted access to the complete collection of manuscripts

pictures (Schifman & VanderKam, 2000). This action, thus, inaugurates the precious

manuscripts to further studies by the large communities of eager researchers.

There was a time when the study involving the biblical stories was at the forefront

of these earliest copies and the application of the methods. The history and the discovery

of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a story that is complex as it involves many people. The initial

development of the scrolls was by a Bedouin teenage boy known as Muhammed Al-Dhib

who was in search of his lost flock of sheep. During his search, he heard the sound of

breaking pottery when he threw a stone into a cave. This cave came to be known as Cave

1. The Scrolls in Cave 1 discovered include the War Scroll, the Community Rule (or

Manual of Discipline), the Isaiah Scroll, Thanksgiving Hymns, the Genesis Apocryphon,

and the Habbakuk pesher (Schifman & VanderKam, 2000).

Several of these scrolls were taken by Kando who was a known antiquities dealer

in Bethlehem. Kando traded four of the scrolls to Mar Samuel, a prelate of the Syrian

Orthodox Church. He placed these scrolls in the care of the American School of Oriental

Research staff (Trevor, Burrows, and Brownlee). After receiving these scrolls, ASOR

contacted William Alright who is a prominent archaeologist at Johns Hopkins University

DEAD SEA SCROLLS 4

in Baltimore. William’s determined the scrolls be of ancient Jewish manuscripts of the

Maccabean period (Collins, 1995). Eleazar Sukenik of the Hebrew University then bought

three of these scrolls. Eleazar Sukenik concluded that the scrolls were from the ancient

Essenes. Cave 1 was excavated together with Khirbet by Father Roland de Vaux and

Lankester Harding who were granted permission by the Jordanian Antiquities Authority.

De Vaux determined that the scrolls were products of the Essenes (Davies, 1987).

Essenes is a monastic-like group of ultra-orthodox Jewish celibates that resided in

Qumran. De Vaux has suggested the existence of a scriptorium at Qumran due to the

presence of inkwells and the apparent writing tables. By 1956, about eleven caves had

been uncovered and a team assembled and headed by de Vaux was tasked with

recollecting and translating the scroll fragments that were present in those caves

(Eisenman & Wise, 1992). These scrolls and fragments were kept in the Rockefeller

Museum under the control of Jordan and remained under Jordanian jurisdiction until the

1967 War when Israeli took over the region.

De Vaux’s team continued with their slow work on the scrolls and fragments even

after the Israeli had taken control of the area and the museum as well. When the Israeli

bought the manuscripts excavated from cave 1, they quickly translated these pieces.

However, several fragments remained untranslated until the late 1980’s, and 1990’s when

John Strugnell (Leader of the Scroll Team at the time) lost his leadership position due to a

considerable amount of pressure that was mounted by the public (Hershel Shanks, the

editor of the Biblical Archeology being the leader of this move ). This lead to the creation

of a larger and more diverse scroll team. During the 1990’s, all these scrolls remained

open to any interested party for further studies.

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The Contents of the Library

The Dead Sea Scrolls Library comprises of Jewish documents written in Greek,

Aramaic, and Hebrew between 200 BCE and 68 CE. The finds of caves 7 were of Greek

manuscripts but very small in number. These scrolls comprise several parts of the biblical

books (All the Hebrew Bible books excluding Nehemiah; none of the Maccabean

literature, might have been looked upon by the Essenes. Maybe Esther is not included in

the library because of the less than orthodox conduct of Esther and the association with the

present festival Purim), apocryphal and Pseudepigraphical books (Jubilee, Enoch, Tobit,

etc.), and sectarian books written by the community (These include the Damascus

document, Community Rule, the War Scroll, etc.). Contra Norman Golb supposes that as

the Romans were approaching, the library was brought to the caves from the Temple in

Jerusalem.

The Essenes, who were the occupants of Qumran could have been in the original

owners of the library. Although the library portrays a certain level of diversity, there still

lacks a thing that is outside the interests of the Essenes due to their sectarian character.

The presence of several sectarian documents dispersed throughout the cave demonstrates

this theory. Moreover, the contents of the library don’t contradict the teachings of the

Essenes popularly known from the classical sources such as Josephus, Philo, and Pliny,

but more specifically Josephus’ witness which were both marrying and non-marrying

Essenes. The Essenes are not inevitably the writers of the scribes of all of the documents

despite the claim that the library could have been an Essene Library. The community

could have acquired some of the documents from elsewhere.

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Dating Methods and Results

There exist three methods employed in the dating process of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

These include Radio Carbon Dating (including AMS), Palaeography, and archaeology

(Magness, 2003). Radio Carbon Dating and AMS have fundamentally affirmed the

paleographic dating of the scrolls (Borani, Ivy, Wolfli, Broshi, Carmi, & Strugnell, 1992).

Frank Cross did the earliest paleographic work of the scrolls after which he determined the

scrolls to be from between the Roman and the Maccabean periods. These scrolls are dated

to specific periods within these time frames. People like Ronald de Vaux and Jodi

Magness have done archaeological work at Qumran and established that all of the radio-

carbon dates and paleographic dates are credible dates for the yielding and collection of

the scrolls by the Qumran occupants. Significant documents such as IQS and CD can be

dated back to around 100 CE. Nevertheless, the theories associated with the Qumran

community and their scrolls (Barbara Thiering, Robert Eisenman) don’t agree with the

radio-carbon/AMS, paleographic, and archaeological findings regarding the dating of

these documents.

Impact of the Text of the Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew bible dated back to the medieval period (Masoretic Text) before the

discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Following the development of the Dead Sea Scrolls,

there are manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible that date to about one thousand years older than

what was previously perceived. In the Dead Sea Scrolls library, there is proof of influence

by Septuagint texts, Samaritan Pentateuch texts, and proto-Masoretic texts of the Hebrew

Bible. Moreover, the discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls has also uncovered additional texts

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and variant readings that are older than the Masoretic texts like the addition of Dead Sea

Scrolls to the end of Samuel 10 (Collins,1995).

Furthermore, there was very little paleographic evidence from the second Temple

period before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (This period did not include the Nash

Papyri). The Dead Sea Scrolls have mainly facilitated the study of the documents from this

period. The Dead Sea Scrolls also indicate that the concept of “canon” was prevalent

among the Qumran communities during this Second Temple period. This concept was a to

a lesser extent an established standard text. This was ascribed to the fact that the

community was more inclined to reading various versions of biblical texts that are

different from one another.

All the classical sources of Pliny, Josephus, and Philo explore a faction of Jews

named Essenes. Josephus and Philo's sources entail detailed descriptions of the practices

and thoughts of the Essenes while the Pliny sources trace the location of the Essenes-

Western shores of Dead Sea (Verme & Goodman, 1989). All the three classical sources

laud the Essenes for their adoration and piousness. Both Philo and Pliny sources describe

the Essenes as a celibate faction that resided in the desert contrary to Josephus source that

cites some Essenes living in Palestine cities, and some were married. The Essenes also

abdicated wealth and pleasure apart from marriage and would adopt children into their

ways of life. Due to their stance regarding Sexual relationships, Philo and Josephus both

cite the population of Essence to be about four thousand only. Philo sources imply that the

Essenes were opposed to war, but as per the Josephus sources there is evidence in the First

Revolt that suggest Essenes had great courage and bravery.

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Using these three classical sources in interpreting the DSS, 1QS appear to

reference a particular group of people who not only disdained marriage but also had

common property ownership belief. The 1QS seems to even acknowledge the possibility

of celibacy practice within the particular group. Jodi Magness’ archaeological work and

Joseph Zias works attempt to explain the evidence of the minimal presence of women at

Qumran as the result of women who died at Qumran while attending the annual Renewal

of the Covenant Service or the result of later Bedouin burials respectively. This works to

counter the school of thought of some scholars who argue that the evidence in Qumran

cemetery of buried women opposes the Essenes Hypothesis (Verme & Goodman, 1989).

The difference between the Essenes described by Philo and Josephus sources and

the Qumran people who are highly apocalyptic is explained by the fact that the authors

would understate the particular apocalyptic element in their schools of thought due to

several reasons. For instance, Josephus had fought the Zealots in the First Revolt and was

still under the Roman Emperor while writing.

DEAD SEA SCROLLS 9

References

Bonani, G., Ivy, S., Wölfli, W., Broshi, M., Carmi, I., & Strugnell, J. (1992). Radiocarbon

dating of fourteen Dead Sea scrolls. Radiocarbon, 34(3), 843-849.

Collins, J. J., & Collins, J. J. (1995). The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea

Scrolls and Other Ancient Literature. Anchor Bible.

Davies, P. R. (1987). Behind the Essenes: History and Ideology in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Vol.

94). Scholars Press.

Eisenman, R., & Wise, M. (1992). The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered (Vol. 242). Rockport^

eMA MA: Element.

George, J. B. (2013). Reading the Dead Sea Scrolls. (A. W. Rodney, Ed.) Atlanta: Society of

Biblical Literature.

Magness, J. (2003). The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing.

Megan, G. (2014, March 3). LiveScience. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from New Texts in 'Dead

Sea Scroll' Caves: http://www.livescience.com/43798-new-texts-dead-sea-scroll-

caves.html

Schiffman, L. H. (1995). Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls: The History of Judaism, the

Background of Christianity, and Lost Library of Qumran.

Schiffman, L. H., & VanderKam, J. (2000). Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

DEAD SEA SCROLLS 10

Vermes, G., & Goodman, M. (1989). The Essenes: according to the classical sources (Vol.

1). Sheffield Academic Press.

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