A guide to these historical manuscripts, the discovery, the location, Jerusalem's involvement, explanation of the essenes.
What are Dead Sea Scrolls?
The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient manuscripts found in caves and ruins near the Dead Sea about fifteen miles east of Jerusalem. What the manuscripts contain are religious and Biblical writings preserved by a Jewish monastic order called The Essenes.
In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd boy stumbled upon jars of scrolls in a cave near Qumran. He had been looking for a lost goat. That first discovery by the Bedouin uncovered seven scrolls and began a stumbling search that produced thousands of scroll fragments from eleven caves. Stumbling, because when the Bedouins realized the value of the Scrolls, they began looking for more that could be sold to antique dealers in Jerusalem. The Israeli government eventually protected the site.
These scrolls have been called the Dead Sea Scrolls ever since then. It took another ten years for the remaining caves of documents to be found. The best copies, however, were all found in the first cave, Cave 1. They may be the most important discoveries of modern archeology. Many of the scrolls are the oldest existing copies of Biblical works ever produced. Historical, paleographic, and linguistic evidence, and carbon-14 dating, indicate that the scrolls and the ruins date from the third century BC to near 70 AD.
These years are of great interest to religious scholars. Today's Bible is silent about the four hundred years of Israel's history before Christ appeared on the scene. It was hoped that the many writings from Qumran would shed light on those years and on the emergence of Christianity. Did they play an influential role on early Christianity and Jewish religious tradition? The majority of the documents were written between the years 100 BC and 100 AD. The oldest scrolls are the canonical books from the Jewish Bible.
Since their discovery, the scrolls and the role of the Essenes have been the subject of much scholarly and public interest, debate and controversy. Why were the scrolls hidden in the caves? Who placed them there? Were the Essenes who inhabited the caves responsible for the scrolls? Do they contain information that would be crucial to Judaism and Christianity? Why have the scholars been so slow to release translations? Were these scrolls the work of the Essene monks; or were they merely the custodians?
The dating of the scrolls suggests that they were hidden in anticipation of the Roman invasion, which occurred between 67 and 73 AD. Israel was devastated and the Temple flattened. The best-preserved documents are from Qumran. They include an Isaiah Scroll, the Manual of Discipline (the rulebook of the Essene community), The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, a scroll of hymns, and the Habakkuk Commentary.
The second cave contained fragments. Inside cave three was found the Copper Scroll (a list of hiding places for the treasures of the temple). A special cutting tool had to be developed to open it. The fourth cave contained the main library. Four hundred manuscripts were found there. The majority of the writings found are the writings of the Essenes, dealing with their communal life. Most were in terrible condition and were merely fragments. It has been painstaking work to try and piece together the hundreds of loose pieces of documents. All of the Old Testament (except Esther) has been found at Qumran. Many extra Biblical writings were found in Cave XI. A large scroll contained canonical books, apocrypha, and previously unknown psalms. A copy of Leviticus was found that dated from the third century BC.
Wadi Al-Murabba'ah is another site 11 miles south of Qumran. There was another failed Jewish revolt against Rome in 132 AD. Leader Bar Kokhba's retreating Israeli force had left many writings there. Two letters from Bar Kokhba, himself, as well as legal documents in Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic were discovered. As well as the secular writings, fragments of biblical works from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD were uncovered. A scroll of the 12 Minor Prophets was found to be identical to the texts we have today.
A third site was discovered by shepherds in 1952, south of 'En Gedi. Later excavations revealed more of the letters of Bar Kokhba and many Nabataean, Aramaic, and Greek documents. A Greek translation of the Minor Prophets was also found.
A fourth site, 8 miles north of Jericho, yielded 40 badly damaged documents left in a cave by the Samarians; massacred during the conquest by Alexander the Great in 331 BC. They were all written in Aramaic. Another site, at Masada, contained a manuscript of Ecclesiasticus and fragments of Psalms, Leviticus, Genesis and a Scroll of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice.
All the manuscripts were handed over to a small group of scholars. Work had been extremely slow and there were suspicions that they may have been reluctant to reveal some of what they had found. The accusation had been made that, since most of the group was Roman Catholic, they were reluctant to release anything that might clash with established orthodoxy.
These, of course, were strong accusations but many scholars grew impatient with the team after so many years! There was great suspicion. Access to the Scrolls has been severely limited throughout the years as the committee has endeavored to explain many of the contradictions in the texts. In 1991, the Monopoly was broken when the Huntington Library, in San Marino California released photographs of the scrolls.
