Dead Sea Scrolls

-return to blog- • -return to wiki-

A treasure trove of scrolls discovered in the 1940s-50s in caves near Wadi Qumran by Bedouin herders and later archaeologists like G. Lankester Harding and Roland G. de Vaux. They contain biblical, apocryphal, and secular scrolls and fragments.

At the time, Bible scholars relied on 7th-10th century Masoretic texts, so the discovery of 3rd-1st century A.D. manuscripts was groundbreaking. Miraculously, the texts match well and speak to the accuracy of the Bible's text we study today. In a few instances, the spelling and grammar differ, and no differences warrant major changes in the substance. The oldest text before the Dead Sea Scrolls was not the Masoretic Texts but the Nash Papyrus, but it barely preserved any of the Bible.

The sectarian scrolls provide insight into pre-Christian Judaism and some gaps in Intertestamental history.

Biblical Manuscript

(B.C. 200-200 A.D., discovered in the 1940s and 1950s)

The 950 manuscripts are approximately 2000 years old, dating from the B.C. 3rd-1st century. They are dated to 300 years after the close of the Old Testament canon, 1000 years earlier than the previously known Hebrew Bible witnesses. They match Masoretic texts well, despite being ~1000 years older.

The texts were all completed before the Roman conquest of Palestine in A.D. 70, and many are even earlier.

Most are written in Hebrew with some in Aramaic or Greek. Most are written on parchment, with a few on papyrus. The vast majority are fragments, though some are intact. The dry, dusty conditions of the wadi preserved them.

(https://www.imj.org.il/en/wings/shrine-book/dead-sea-scrolls; The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 160; Origin of the Bible handout by my small group leader, March 22, 2023. Page 2.)

Contents

11 caves have yielded almost 600 manuscripts, 200 of which are biblical, and between 50-60 thousand fragments. 85% of the fragments are leather, and the rest are papyrus. The most important caves are 1Q (the first found) and 4Q (held 40,000 fragments of 400 manuscripts, 100 of which are biblical and include every book but Esther).

The scrolls contain biblical, apocryphal, and sectarian manuscripts. The most frequently represented Old Testament books are Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah. The oldest text is a fragment of Exodus from 250 B.C.

Among the biblical manuscripts are a complete copy of Isaiah, a paraphrase of Genesis, and 200 copies of Bible books. At least fragments of all Hebrew Bible books are included, except for Esther.

Among the apocryphal texts are first-time discoveries of unknown works and works known only in translation.

The sectarian manuscripts include biblical commentary, religious-legal writings, liturgical texts, and apocalyptic compositions. Some Targums were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Mishnaic Hebrew documents were found with the Dead Sea Scrolls.

(https://www.imj.org.il/en/wings/shrine-book/dead-sea-scrolls, Origin of the Bible handout by my small group leader, March 22, 2023. Page 2., The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Biblical Languages by Larry Walker. Page 227-229, The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 163-165)

The Qumran discoveries show the apocalyptic pseudepigrapha to have been cherished and perhaps reckoned canonical by the Essenes.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. The Canon of the Old Testament by R. T. Beckwith. Pages 62.)

Dating

Critics claimed the scrolls were medieval, but most scholars believe the manuscripts were placed in the caves by members of the Qumran community when Roman legions were besieging Jewish strongholds shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 176)

Discovery

Ancient manuscripts discovered between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves near Khirbet Qumran (Wadi Qumran) on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea. Before the Qumran find, few manuscripts had been discovered in the Holy Land. Origen mentioned using Hebrew and Greek manuscripts that had been stored in jars in caves near Jericho. Also, In the 9th century A.D., Timothy I wrote a letter to Sergius, Metropolitan of Elam, referencing a large number of Hebrew manuscripts found in a cave near Jericho. For more than 1000 years since then, no other significant manuscript discoveries were forthcoming from caves in that region near the Dead Sea.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 161)

During the winter of 1946-1947, three Bedouins were tending their sheep and goats near a spring in the vicinity of Wadi Qumran. One of the herdsmen threw a rock through a small opening in the cliff and heard an earthenware jar shatter. Another Bedouin later lowered himself into the cave and found 10 tall jars lining the walls. 3 manuscripts (one of them in 4 pieces) stored in 2 of the jars were removed from the cave and offered to an antiquities dealer in Bethlehem. Several months later, the Bedouins secured 4 more scrolls (one of them in 2 pieces) from the cave and sold them to another Bethlehem dealer.

During Holy Week in 1947, Saint Mark's Monastery in Jerusalem was informed of the 4 scrolls, and Metropolitan Athanasius Samuel offered to buy them. The sale was not completed until July 1947. They included a complete Isaiah scroll, a commentary on Habakkuk, a scroll containing a Manual of Discipline from the religious community at Qumran, and the Genesis Apocryphon (originally thought to be the apocryphal book of Lamech but is actually an Aramaic paraphrase of Genesis).

In November and December of 1947, an Armenian antiquities dealer in Jerusalem informed E. L. Sukenik, Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, of the first 3 scrolls found in the cave by the Bedouin. Sukenik secured the 3 scrolls and 2 jars from the dealer, including an incomplete scroll of Isaiah, the Hymns of Thanksgiving (containing 12 columns of original psalms), and the War Scroll (The War of the Children of Darkness).

On April 1, 1948, the first news release appeared in papers worldwide followed by another on April 26 by Sukenik about the manuscripts he had already acquired at the Hebrew University. In 1949, Athanasius Samuel brought the 4 scrolls from Saint Mark's Monastery to the United States. They toured for a while until being purchased on July 1, 1954 in New York for $250,000 by Sukenik's son for the nation of Israel and sent to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Both archaeologists and Bedouins continued searching for more manuscripts. Early in 1949, G. Lankester Harding, director of antiquities for the Kingdom of Jordan, and Roland G. de Vaux, of the Dominic Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, excavated cave one (1Q) where the initial discovery was made. Several hundred caves were explored the same year. 11 caves have yielded almost 600 manuscripts, 200 of which are biblical, and between 50-60 thousand fragments. 85% of the fragments are leather, and the rest are papyrus. 4Q held 40,000 fragments of 400 manuscripts, 100 of which are biblical and include every book but Esther.

In 1952, the copper scroll was found in cave three (3Q) and was opened by cutting it into strips in 1966. It contained an inventory of 60 locations of hidden gold, silver, and incense, but none have been found.

During the Six-Day War in June 1967, Sekenik's son, Yigael Yadin of the Hebrew University, acquired the Temple Scroll.

The Bedouins discovered more Dead Sea Scrolls in the Wadi Murabba'at in 1951, and in 1952, Harding and de Vaux excavated the caves there. They found biblical documents, letters, coins there from the time of the Second Jewish Revolt under Bar Kochba in A.D. 132-135. Documents include a Hebrew text of the Minor Prophets dating from the 2nd century A.D., fragments of the Pentateuch, and Isaiah.

(https://www.imj.org.il/en/wings/shrine-book/dead-sea-scrolls; The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 160,162-165)

History

On February 18, 1948, Butrus Sowmy, librarian and monk of Saint Mark's Syrian Orthodox Monastery in the Armenian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, called John C. Trever, acting director of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), about some scrolls in ancient Hebrew that had been in the monastery for about 40 years as he was preparing a catalogue of the monastery's collection of rare books.

Sowmy and his brother brought five scrolls to Trever the next day. Trever copied lines from the first scroll, containing writing in a clear square Hebrew script, examined three others, and declined to unroll the fifth due to how brittle it was. Trevor shared the story with ASOR fellow, William H. Brownlee, noting his transcribed double occurrence of an unusual negative construction in Hebrew and the script being more archaic than anything he had seen.

Trever visited Saint Mark's Monastery and was introduced to the Syrian Archbishop Athanasius Samuel and obtained permission to photograph the scrolls. Trever and Brownlee compared the style of the handwriting to the Nash Papyrus and concluded it was from the same period.

ASOR director Millar Burrows returned from Baghdad a few days later and joined the study. At this point, the Syrians revealed the scrolls had been purchased in 1947, the year before, and had not been in the monastery for 40 years.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 161-162)

Language

Most are written in Hebrew with some in Aramaic or Greek.

God's name in the Dead Sea Scrolls and early Christian era coins use the Phoenician or paleo-Hebrew script. Thus, the modern script known as Aramaic or square script did not entirely replace the old script.

Mothers of reading (matres lectionis) are seen in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Biblical Languages by Larry Walker. Page 221-222)

Location

They are on display in the Shrine of the Book Museum in West Jerusalem.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. Texts and Manuscripts of the Old Testament by Mark R. Norton, Page 163)