The Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran The Qumran Scrolls have provided manuscripts of portions of the Old Testament as much as one thousand years older than any previously known biblical manuscripts. By Elmer L. Gray The Wolf was hunting a lost goat when he discovered a cave in the cliffs above the Dead Sea in Palestine. In this case the Wolf is the name of a young Bedouin herdsman. Some people think he was seeking shelter from a thunderstorm when he found the cave. Others insist he was hiding from authorities while smuggling contraband through the area. But the most often repeated version pictures him throwing a rock through an opening while seeking a lost goat. Surprisingly, he heard the sound of breaking pottery and, with a friend, entered the cave to investigate. This occurred early in the year 1947. Inside they found jars averaging about two feet in height and less than a foot in diameter. They broke the jars and discovered some old leather scrolls wrapped in cloth. Little did they imagine that they were making one of the most important discoveries of biblical manuscripts of the century. From various caves in the vicinity, portions or the whole of the Old Testament books except Esther were found. Some of the manuscripts ware the oldest now known of these books. There were also numerous other scrolls of varying importance. In due time five of the scrolls were sold for about one hundred dollars to the director of St. Mark s Syrian Orthodox Monastery in Jerusalem. A second group of three scrolls was bought by a representative of the Hebrew University. Without official permission to do so, Metropolitan Samuel (of the Syrian Orthodox Monastery in Jerusalem) sent his scrolls out of the country to Beirut. Later he took them to America where he offered them for sale through a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal. Con- ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ DEPT. OF ANTIQUITIES IN JORDAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, AMMAN, JORDAN (8/24/17)
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ/ DEPT. OF ANTIQUITIES IN JORDAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, AMMAN, JORDAN (8/24/9) ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (9/4/8) tacts and negotiations followed which were as interesting as those in cloak-and-dagger fiction. Samuel sold his scrolls for $250,000 to a buyer who returned them to Israel. Now the scrolls from the first cave are together in Jerusalem and are viewed by approximately one thousand persons a day. These scrolls consist of long leather (sheepskin) most of which are written in Hebrew. They vary in size from about five to twelve inches in width and from two to twenty-four feet in length. Some are complete, but others are fragmented. Competition developed between the Bedouins and the archaeologists in the search for additional scrolls in other caves. The increasing value of the scrolls and fragments encouraged the Bedouins to scale the cliffs seeking other caves which might lead to discovery of more valuable scrolls. About a dozen caves were discovered that had scrolls in them. Some scrolls were discovered in caves farther away. Most of the scrolls found are leather, but a few are papyrus and two are copper. The first cave is in a cliff which drops from a high plateau deep into a ravine that runs down toward the Dead Sea. This gorge is called the Wadi Qumran. Within one mile of this cave are the ruins of an ancient community, the original name of which is not known. Because the word for ruin is Khirbet, the settlement is referred to now as Khirbet Qumran. The community was more than likely a monastery than a town. It consisted of several low buildings joined together by a tower equivalent to a four-story building. During the time of Roman occupation, this isolated community ten miles south of Jericho was an island of independence and resistance. Tension mounted between Jews and Romans to the point of armed conflict from A.D. 66 to 70. Jewish forces were successful in driving the Roman army Above: Cave four at Qumran, which dates to the late Hellenistic to early Roman period. Over 15,000 fragments have come from cave four; 122 were biblical scrolls or fragments. At Qumran, workers have found fragments in 11 caves. Far left: The Book of Ecclesiastes from the Dead Sea Scrolls. This book was found in cave A at Qumran and dates from the 1st cent. B.C. Left: A pottery jar found at Qumran. Inside the jar was a scroll, wrapped in a linen. The jar dates from the 1st cent. B.C.
to the north. General Vespasian soon gathered Roman legions together in Caesarea to crush and punish the rebels. Qumran, in the path, was destroyed by the Romans in the second year of the great Jewish war with Rome. The ruins of crude walls and charred timbers still mark the post. The residents of this settlement and the nearby caves heard of the approaching forces. They wrapped their treasured scrolls carefully in linen, placed them in jars, and hid them in nearby caves. As time grew short, they took less pains and carried other scrolls to the caves and piled them on the floor. These people were probably the Essenes. Descended from fugitives who fled Jerusalem, they protested what seemed to them to be a corrupt administration of the Temple worship. The priestly administration of the Temple had been taken over by the Hasmoneans. The Hasmonean family is usually called the Maccabees. The name Maccabee, the Hammer, was given to Judas, the oldest son of the family. He led a revolt about 166 B.C. against the Syrian forces then occupying Judah. The revolt was successful, and for about one hundred years this family ruled Judah. The Jewish rulers from the Hasmonean family combined the offices of high priest and political leader. This involved the Temple priesthood in political and military efforts. Several decades before the Maccabean revolt, a movement developed which emphasized the old Jewish law and criticized the alignment of the Jewish priesthood with the Greco-Syrian culture and morality. When the Maccabees combined the offices of high priest and political leader, the movement increased and became an identifiable religious social party. This group came to be known as the Essenes. A number of them withdrew to the Dead Se area and set up a monastic social order. Life in the Qumran settlement was communal. Included in the buildings was a large room for dining which probably also served as an assembly hall. This room, approximately 100 by 122 feet, could have accommodated several hundred people. Another room has been identified as the scriptorium, used for the copying of manuscripts. In the debris two ink wells were found, one of bronze and the other of clay. The ruins contain several large storage vats for water. The size of the storage vats along with steps into them indicates that the residents probably practiced baptismal rite and ceremonial washings. The buildings there were occupied for about seventy or eighty years until abandoned about the time of a severe earthquake in 31 B.C. They were restored and enlarged about thirty years later and occupied until the final destruction by the Romans in A.D. 68. After that time the Romans used the area from time to time as a military outpost. Finally the site was occupied for about three years during the second Jewish revolt, A.D. 132-135. A prominent figure in the development of the community was called the Teacher of Righteousness. This person has been thought by some scholars to have been the founder of the Qumran community, but he probably came to the community after its founding. His name is not known but he was referred to as a priest. He was looked on as an interpreter of the prophets and as a a seeker of the law. He was opposed by an enemy called the Wicked Priest who brought about his arrest, trial, and death. Some have argued that he was crucified but there is no indication of this in the scrolls themselves. This Teacher of Righteousness was a strong-willed leader with contagious religious conviction; he spoke against sin and magnified the purpose of God as he interpreted its Above: From Qumran, Dead Sea Scroll fragment of the Septuagint. The text is Exodus 12:9-12. Far right: Shrine of the scrolls. in Jerusalem This building houses the Qumran scrolls. revelation by the prophets. Many comparisons which cannot be substantiated in the scrolls were made between the teacher and Christ. The Qumran sect differed at points with the Essenes. They permitted marriage, included young children in their ranks, used oaths, used oil for anointing, seated members by rank rather than by age, and practiced other ways that varied slightly from the Essenes. This may mean only that the people at Qumran were a group of Essenes that varied from the others at some points. The Dead Sea Scrolls include portions of all of the books of the Old Testament except Ester, commentaries on these books, interpretations of the Scripture applying to its teachings to their circumstances, writings setting forth their ethical teachings and their eschatological and messianic hopes, and ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/BOB SCHATZ/COURTESY FERRINI AND BIONDI (29/21/11)
ILLUSTRATOR PHOTO/ BOB SCHATZ (9/41/18) then guidelines for their daily living. Cave IV provided the largest number of scrolls. Over one forth of all the scrolls are portions of the Old Testament. A major scroll from Cave I is a copy of Isaiah which is one of the oldest now in existence. Other scrolls include The Manual of Discipline, the rules of order for the community, and The War of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, a forecast of the final struggle between the forces of light and the forces of darkness. Also included among the scrolls was a copy of selections from the Thanksgiving psalms. Two copper scrolls were found in anther cave which recorded the hiding place of Temple treasures. Controversy has grown about the meaning and significance of these scrolls. An early writer in a popular magazine claimed that Christian scholars were boycotting these scrolls out of fear that their content threatened traditional Christian beliefs. His claim was false since about one hundred articles and books by Christian writers had already been published at that time. The scrolls reveal the religious and secular thinking of a community of people who were probably Essenes. They had high ethical standards, believed that an armed conflict between forces of light and darkness was at hand, and prepared to participate in it. The Old Testament prophets were a primary source both for their ideas and also to reinforce their ideas even when those ideas did not come from the Old Testament. These people spoke of God s intervention in history through the Messiah. Some scholars feel that they looked for more than one messiah. Both Christian and non-christian scholars have been inclined to look back from the vantage point of Christianity at these scrolls. Some argue that these scrolls confirm Christianity, some that they contradict Christianity. Some argue that Christians copied greatly from the ideas of the Qumran community in their preaching of Christ and also in their development of the church. Others have magnified the differences between the Qumran ideas and the teachings of the Christians. The Qumran scrolls have pro- vided manuscripts of portions of the Old Testament as much as one thousand years older than any previously known biblical manuscripts. These are a great help in textual study, and no major differences have been found that would contradict the teachings set forth in the other existing manuscripts. The study of these materials may help our understanding of the day in which Christ lived. We may see even more clearly how the fullness of time had come for the Messiah. The people were expecting and longing for him to come. May we also see how the people applied the Old Testament to their lives and how they needed the specific guidance of Jesus. At any rate, the Wolf s search for his lost goat has had far-reaching results for contemporary biblical scholarship. Elmer L. Gray is editor of the California Southern Baptist. This article, which first appeared in the Spring 1975 issue of Biblical Illustrator, offers information still pertinent to the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls.