Dead Sea Scrolls

Dead Sea Scrolls
The Great Psalms Scroll (11Q5), one of the 981 texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls
MaterialParchment, papyrus, and copper
WritingMostly Hebrew, but also Aramaic and Greek
Createdc. 3rd century BCE – 1st century CE
Discovered1946/1947–1956
PlaceQumran Caves near Ein Feshkha
Present locationIsrael Museum, Jerusalem
Jordan Museum, Amman
PeriodSecond Temple period
CultureJewish
Part of a series on
Jewish culture

Hebrew

Judeo-Aramaic

Judeo-Arabic

Other Jewish diaspora languages

Jewish folklore

Jewish poetry

  • Other aspects
Part of a series on the
Bible
The Malmesbury Bible
Biblical studies
Biblical criticism
Interpretation
Perspectives
Outline of Bible-related topics
Bible portal

The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period. They were discovered over a period of 10 years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Caves near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE,[1] the Dead Sea Scrolls include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the biblical canons, including deuterocanonical manuscripts from late Second Temple Judaism and extrabiblical books. At the same time, they cast new light on the emergence of Christianity and of Rabbinic Judaism.[2] Almost all of the 15,000 scrolls and scroll fragments are held in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum located in Jerusalem. The Israeli government's custody of the Dead Sea Scrolls is disputed by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority on territorial, legal, and humanitarian grounds—they were mostly discovered following the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank and were acquired by Israel after Jordan lost the 1967 Arab–Israeli War[3]—whilst Israel's claims are primarily based on historical and religious grounds, given their significance in Jewish history and in the heritage of Judaism.[4]

Many thousands of written fragments have been discovered in the Dead Sea area. They represent the remnants of larger manuscripts damaged by natural causes or through human interference, with the vast majority holding only small scraps of text. However, a small number of well-preserved and nearly intact manuscripts have survived—fewer than a dozen among those from the Qumran Caves.[1] Researchers have assembled a collection of 981 different manuscripts (discovered in 1946/1947 and in 1956) from 11 caves,[5] which lie in the immediate vicinity of the Hellenistic Jewish settlement at the site of Khirbet Qumran in the eastern Judaean Desert in the West Bank.[6] The caves are located about 1.5 kilometres (1 mi) west of the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, whence the scrolls derive their name. Archaeologists have long associated the scrolls with the ancient Jewish sect known as the Essenes, although some recent interpretations have challenged this connection and argue that priests in Jerusalem or other unknown Jewish groups wrote the scrolls.[7][8]

Most of the manuscripts are written in Hebrew, with some written in Aramaic (for example the Son of God Text; in different regional dialects, including Nabataean) and a few in Greek.[9] Discoveries from the Judaean Desert add Latin (from Masada) and Arabic (from Khirbet al-Mird).[10] Most of the texts are written on parchment, some on papyrus, and one on copper.[11] Though scholarly consensus dates the Dead Sea Scrolls to between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE,[12] there are manuscripts from associated Judaean Desert sites that are dated between the 8th and 11th century BCE.[12] Bronze coins found at the same sites form a series beginning with John Hyrcanus, a ruler of the Hasmonean Kingdom (in office 135–104 BCE), and continuing until the period of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), supporting the paleography and radiocarbon dating of the scrolls.[13]

Owing to the poor condition of some of the scrolls, scholars have not identified all of their texts. The identified texts fall into three general groups:

  1. About 40% are copies of texts from Hebrew scriptures.
  2. Approximately 30% are texts from the Second Temple period that ultimately were not canonized in the Hebrew Bible, like the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Tobit, the Wisdom of Sirach, Psalms 152–155, etc.
  3. The remainder (roughly 30%) are sectarian manuscripts of previously unknown documents that shed light on the rules and beliefs of a particular sect or groups within greater Judaism, like the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Pesher on Habakkuk, and The Rule of the Blessing.[14]
  1. ^ a b "The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls: Nature and Significance". Israel Museum Jerusalem. Retrieved 4 November 2023.
  2. ^ "Dead Sea Scrolls | Definition, Discovery, History, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  3. ^ Lash, Mordechay; Goldstein, Yossi; Shai, Itzhaq (2020). "Underground-Archaeological Research in the West Bank, 1947–1968: Management, Complexity, and Israeli Involvement". Bulletin of the History of Archaeology. 30. doi:10.5334/bha-650. ISSN 1062-4740. S2CID 229403120.
  4. ^ Duhaime, Bernard; Labadie, Camille (2020). "Intersections and Cultural Exchange: Archaeology, Culture, International Law and the Legal Travels of the Dead Sea Scrolls". Canada's Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy. Cham: Springer International Publishing. p. 146. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-62015-2_6. ISBN 978-3-319-62014-5. ISSN 2731-3883. S2CID 236757632. Thus, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan base their claims on territorial aspects (places of discovery of the scrolls), humanitarian (illegal deprivation following the occupation of East Jerusalem by Israel) and legal (they claim to have proof of purchase of several scrolls) while, for its part, Israel's claims are primarily based in religious notions, invoking the sacred history of the Jewish people and recalling that the scrolls discovered in Qumran are, for the majority, the oldest known copies of biblical texts and are therefore of fundamental importance for the historical and religious heritage of Judaism.
  5. ^ "Hebrew University Archaeologists Find 12th Dead Sea Scrolls Cave". The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  6. ^ Donahue, Michelle Z. (10 February 2017). "New Dead Sea Scroll Find May Help Detect Forgeries". nationalgeographic.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  7. ^ Ofri, Ilani (13 March 2009). "Scholar: The Essenes, Dead Sea Scroll 'authors,' never existed". Ha'aretz. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2017.
  8. ^ Golb, Norman (5 June 2009). "On the Jerusalem Origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls" (PDF). University of Chicago Oriental Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 June 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  9. ^ Vermes, Geza (1977). The Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran in Perspective. London: Collins. p. 15. ISBN 978-0002161428.
  10. ^ "Languages and Scripts". Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  11. ^ McCarthy, Rory (27 August 2008). "From papyrus to cyberspace". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  12. ^ a b "The Digital Library: Introduction". Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  13. ^ Leaney, A.R.C. From Judaean Caves: The Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls. p. 27, Religious Education Press, 1961. [ISBN missing]
  14. ^ Abegg, Jr., Martin; Flint, Peter; Ulrich, Eugene (2002). The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time into English. San Francisco: Harper. pp. xiv–xvii. ISBN 0060600640. Retrieved 24 November 2023.