The Dead Sea Scrolls are Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek manuscripts discovered (1947-56) in caves near Wadi QUMRAN, in what is now the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on the north-western shore of the Dead Sea. They were left there by a Jewish community that lived in the area around the time of Christ. The scrolls contain several types of Jewish religious literature, including many parts of the Old Testament in Hebrew, Greek translation, and Aramaic paraphrase (Targum).
Biblical material was also rewritten, imitated, and expanded in stories, thematic collections of biblical texts, commentaries, hymns, psalms, blessings, prayers, exhortations to wisdom, and elaborations of biblical law. Also found were non-biblical Jewish literature and scrolls that testify to the worldview and theology of the Qumran community.
Although they had been preserved in dry caves for almost 2,000 years, all the scrolls show some damage--frayed edges, deterioration, and discolouration. Infrared photography and a variety of other scientific techniques were used to decipher the writing. The largest and best preserved scrolls were quickly photographed, translated, and made available to the scholarly world. However, many of the manuscripts had broken into hundreds of small parts that had to pieced together, identified, and interpreted.
An international team of scholars divided up the work, but more than 40 years later many of the texts still had not been published. Widespread protests about their unavailability to other researchers led the Huntington Library of San Marino, California, to make photographs of the unpublished texts available to the public in September 1991. A month later Israeli authorities agreed to remove restrictions on access to the scrolls.
The original publication of the scrolls caused an immediate sensation. They were quickly dated from the 2nd century BC through the 1st century AD by the script in which they were written and by archaeological investigations of the settlement near the Qumran caves. Thus they give first hand evidence for Jewish thought and religion in the New Testament period.
The scrolls have had three major effects on historical and religious knowledge. The copies of biblical books, older than any others in existence, have illuminated many previously unclear passages of the standard Hebrew Bible, and have shown that the ancient Greek translations often reflect authentic Hebrew variations that had hitherto been lost.
Second, the diversity of the literature has revealed the rich variety of Jewish tradition in antiquity, thus providing a context for understanding the development of early Judaism and Christianity. Third, knowledge about the Qumran community has been greatly increased. It has most often been identified as a type of ESSENE group, although some scholars are not convinced by this identification.
The prevailing view is that the group moved to Qumran c.150-100 BC after a conflict with the ruling Hasmonean high priests in Jerusalem. If the events alluded to in the biblical commentaries are historical, the community and an early leader, the Teacher of Righteousness, experienced external oppression and also internal divisions.
The community considered itself to be the true Israel, zealously obeying biblical law as interpreted by its leaders and awaiting the coming of God to destroy all evil and purify Jerusalem. They were governed at various times by priests, overseers, and councils, and met in regular communal assemblies. Property was held in common, celibacy was probably practiced, and ritual purity and tithing rules were strictly observed. The members, who lived in caves within several miles of the main administrative center, kept apart from outsiders. Initiation was carried out in several stages. Behavior was governed by detailed instructions supported by penalties for disobedience, including expulsion.
