The

Dead
Sea
Scrolls
 What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Remains of over 800 ancient manuscripts
• Written in Hebrew, Aramaic, some Greek
• Dating 2nd century BC to 1st century AD
• Most are fragmentary, only 20 complete
• On Vellum (animal skin) – some papyrus
• Recovered in the Western Judean Desert
from 1947 to 1956 from 11 Caves in the
vicinity of a building complex at Qumran
The Qumran Caves
Qumran and Caves
What Were the Dead Sea Scrolls?
• Only One Fourth of the DSS were Biblical
• The rest were:
– From some ancient Jewish Religious Sect
– Other Jewish Religious works, including
• Apocrypha
In the Greek Bible, not in the Hebrew –
(Tobit, Sirach, Letter of Jeremiah, Psalm 151)
• Pseudepigrapha
Books falsely ascribed to biblical figures –
(Enoch, Jubilees, Testaments of the 12 Patriarchs,
and 50 more books attributed to biblical figures
like Moses, Noah, David, Enoch, Elijah)
Dead Sea Scrolls “BEST SELLERS”
Multiple Copies of Individual Works

1) Psalms (36) 7) Leviticus (13)

2) Deuteronomy (27) 8) Numbers, 12 Prophets,
3) Isaiah (21) Daniel (8 each)
9) Jeremiah & Ezekiel (6 each)
4) ENOCH (20) Jude
10) 1-2 Sam, Job, Lamentations
5) Exodus (17) Ruth, Song of Sol (4 each)
6) JUBILEES (15-16) 11) TEMPLE SCROLL,
Judges, 1-2 Kings,
Genesis (15) Ecclesiastes (3 each)
 DSS: A Literary Time Machine
The Bible Before the Dead Sea Scrolls

Leningrad Codex 1010 AD Aleppo Codex 930 AD

Pleasant Surprises
The Great Isaiah Scroll
Not So Pleasant Surprises
Matthew 1:23 – Isaiah 7:14 Greek - Hebrew
“The Virgin Will Be With Child and Bear a Son”
Gospel of Mark at Qumran?
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
John the Baptist and the DSS
Mark 1:1-4 quoting Isaiah 40:3
Community Rule 8:13-16
“And when these have become a community in Israel,
they are to be segregated from within the dwelling of
the Men of Sin to walk in the desert in order to open
there His path. As it is written:
‘in the desert prepare the way of YHWH,
straighten in the steppe a roadway for our God.’”
Qumran Baptismal Pools?
 The
BIG
Question
 Majority Scholarly Opinion:
The Essenes
1. A strict Torah observant, Messianic, Apocalyptic,
Baptist, Wilderness, New Covenant Jewish Sect
2. Followers of the “Teacher of Righteousness”
3. Left Jerusalem to protest a “Wicked High Priest”
4. Established a Monastic Community at Qumran
5. Romans destroyed Qumran Community in 68 AD
6. DSS are the Community Library hidden in the caves
to avoid destruction by advancing Roman armies
Conspiracy Theory Anyone?
 The Minority Opinion:
Norman Golb
University of Chicago Dead Sea Scrolls Project

On Current DSS Tours.pdf

“Six decades after their discovery, the
Dead Sea Scrolls are still being treated in
many quarters as merely the writings of a
small sect that once inhabited an austere
desert location near the area where they
were discovered. Nowhere is this effort
being more ardently pursued than in the
present series of Scroll exhibitions taking
place here in the States.”
DSS Mysteries
The Copper Scroll
 The Copper Scroll:
A Treasure Map
• The text cites 64 locations where over 100
tons of gold and silver, in addition to scrolls
and priestly items, were supposedly hidden.
• Some insist that the treasure could never
have been housed in this small Qumran
community made up of ultra pious “monks.”
• What organization and location could have
commanded that amount of money?
The Scriptorium that Wasn’t
The Scriptorium Reconstructed

Based on inkwells
and "writing benches"
found in this room,
early archaeologists
have suggested that
the second story
room of this building
was the place where
scrolls were copied.
 How Many Inkwells?
Only 3 Ink Wells found in the Excavations at Qumran
 500 Scribes at Qumran?
• Variations in the handwriting found in
the 850 Manuscripts suggest the work
of over 500 individual scribes
• Could the “Scriptorium” at Qumran
have housed this many scribes?
• Could 500 scribes have produced 850
manuscripts using only 3 inkwells?
• And if not, what Organization and
Location could have?
 The Historical Framework
of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Apocalyptic
167 BC - The Maccabean Wars
70 AD – The Roman War
2008 AD – Middle East Wars
http://www.prophecysigns.com/ps6.php
The War Scroll
 The
War
Scroll
Essenes called themselves the "Sons of Light,”
their enemies were the "Sons of Darkness“
Essenes waited in the desert for the imminent
final apocalyptic war after which they were to
rule as God’s chosen elect
 167 BC - The Maccabees
• A Conservative Jewish Country Priestly
Family rebels against the Westernizing
City elite, takes control of the
Government and the Temple
• Hasidic Jews join the rebellion, but
split with the Maccabees, who made
themselves high priests and Kings
• Book of Daniel
• Book of Enoch
70 A.D. - Judaea Capta
 70 C.E. – Major Turning Point
in Western Religious History
Judaism Christianity
• Pharisees survive regroup • Peter and Paul killed by Nero;
under Rabbis in Synagogues; Priestly Hierarchy assumes
OT Canon - Jamnia (90 CE) power; Gospels written

• Jews do not adapt--suffer the • Church adapts, transforms

consequences of separatism into a Hellenized Mystery Cult

• 2nd Jewish Revolt under Bar • 325 C.E. Constantine legalizes

Kochba crushed (135 C.E.) Christianity; soon becomes
Demise of Temple State Idea state cult of Roman Empire
Why the Insistence on Qumran
as the Location of the Scrolls?

Lots of Bible Books

But NO Bibles . . .

thus raising
the important issue of the
Biblical Canon
 THE “CANON” of the
OLD TESTAMENT
From the Greek KANWN “measuring stick”
a) tool used to determine proper measurement
b) rule, model, standard, paradigm
c) List of authoritative, inspired Scriptural Books

The Collection of Books comprising the

Modern Old Testament were “canonized”
by the Pharisaic Rabbis of Jamnia in the 90’s
 The Significance of the Dead Sea
Scrolls for the Canon of the OT
a) The Dead Sea Scrolls are a time capsule,
a snapshot, of the Hebrew Scriptures in Jesus’ time
b) There was NO BIBLE - NO Authoritative Collection
only assorted biblical books - lots of Non-Canonical
c) The Canon of the Bible had not been put together yet!
The Rabbis of Jamnia finally gave us our OT ca 90 AD
d) Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Qumran or Temple Library?
1) Copper Scroll
2) Archaeology of Qumran
Roland De Vaux vs. Donceel
3) Same kinds of Scrolls found elsewhere, Masada