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The Dead Sea Scrolls -
Voices From The Dust
by Robert L. Smith
One of the most exciting archaeological discoveries of
our generation was made in 1947 when two young Bedouin goat
herders found several earthen jars in a cave near the
northwestern corner of the Dead Sea. The lids of the jars were
sealed with wax to preserve the ancient scrolls which had been
sealed in these jars over 1900 years earlier. Some of the
scrolls were wrapped in fabric covered with pitch to keep them
dry to preserve them for a future generation. The Assumption of
Moses scroll describes how the books were to be sealed and
preserved until “the end of the days.” The importance of
this discovery was not understood by these desert tribesmen, but
eventually some of the scrolls fell into the hands of scholars
who recognized their priceless value. The scrolls contained the
oldest known copies of many books of the Old Testament, (over
1000 years earlier than our oldest manuscripts), and included
the writings of a secluded society which rejected the authority
of the rulers of the Temple in Jerusalem, and tried to preserve
the purity of their ancient Hebrew religious worship by
secluding themselves in a community near the caves where the
scrolls were found..
Between 1947 and 1956, hundreds of caves near the Dead
Sea were explored. Eleven caves revealed over 800 scrolls and
over 30,000 fragments of scrolls, of which over 200 were books
of the Old Testament. Most of the scrolls were made of animal
skins, some were papyrus, and one was made of copper. Most were
written in Hebrew, but some were in Aramaic, and some in Greek.
Every book of the Old Testament, except for the Book of Esther,
was discovered in its entirety or represented among the
thousands of fragments. Multiple copies of many of the Old
Testament Books were found, although most are extremely
fragmented. The Isaiah Scroll, which includes all 66 chapters of
Isaiah, was preserved in its entirety, and was 24 feet long. In
addition to the Old Testament books, many of the scrolls
described a communal society of Jews who lived near the caves in
a religious center named Qumran.
Kirbat Qumran was excavated and partially restored
between 1951 and 1956, and revealed a complex that had been
built around 150 BC and was inhabited until AD 68. An earthen
jar found at the Qumran excavation was identical to one of the
jars found in Cave #1, which conclusively tied the inhabitants
of Qumran to the scrolls found hidden in the nearby caves. What
makes this discovery so unique in the history of archaeological
excavation, is that it is extremely rare to find a complete
library do*****enting the history of a society buried next to
the ruins of their habitation. Normally archaeologists have to
interpret their findings based on pottery, artifacts, and
sometimes art or cave drawings, but rarely do they find a
written history of the ancient inhabitants of the ruins being
excavated..
Scholars believe that the inhabitants of Qumran were
members of a religious group known as the Essenes. According to
the Apocryphal Books of 1st and 2nd Macabees, the Helenization
of the Holy Lands began in the third century BC. In 172 BC,
Onias III, the legitimate High Priest, was murdered in
Jerusalem. Onias was a descendent of Zaddok, King David’s High
Priest, and all legitimate High Priests in the Temple of
Jerusalem were descendents of Zaddok. Onias was replaced by the
Syrian rulers of the region with an intensely Hellenized Jew,
not of the line of Zaddock. Jewish Rabbi’s began to apply
logic and reasoning for interpretation of the scriptures based
on Greek influence, instead of seeking revelation from God as
did the ancient prophets. They believed that “the holy spirit
departed from Israel,” after the last biblical prophets, and
began to rely on the wisdom of the Rabbi’s. Eventually, some
Jews rejected what they believed was the pollution of their
ancestral religion by illegitimate holders of the high
priesthood, and chose to seclude themselves in a desert commune,
where they could preserve their religious heritage under the
leadership of their prophet leader, known in the Dead Sea
Scrolls as the Teacher of Righteousness.
Excavation of the Kirbet Qumran complex, built of stone,
revealed a 75 ft long dining room, where the communal meal was
observed each day. The adjoining panty held over one thousand
bowls, plates, and other dishes. Water was provided to the
complex by a gravity flow aqueduct from the cliffs nearby to
fill cisterns, a ritual bath and a pool. Among the many scrolls
found in the nearby caves was the Rule of the Community, or
Manual of Discipline, which described the religious order, and
the requirements for purification by bathing in the fresh water
before entering the “Holy Temple,” or sacred area to partake
of the communal meal. One of the rooms in the Qumran complex has
been called the “scriptorium,” or writing room because of
inkwells found in desks in this room.
The inhabitants of Qumran were a communal society of
righteous Jews who believed that the Rabbinical Jews of the
Temple in Jerusalem were apostate from the teachings of the
Prophets. They were a covenant group devoted to perfect
observance of the Law of Moses, and regarded themselves as true
Israel, surrounded by spiritual traitors and corruption. After
20 years at Qumran, the Lord sent them the Teacher of
Righteousness who claimed that God revealed to him all the
mysteries of the prophets. After the passing of the Teacher of
Righteousness, the society was governed by a quorum of three
Priests, and a quorum of twelve laymen. The names or identities
of this society listed in the scrolls include: The Community,
The Council, The Congregation, Men of Essa, Assembly of God, The
Council of Truth, The Sons of the Eternal Council, The Sons of
Zadock, The Elect of God, The Seers, The Pious, the Silent Ones,
the Performers of the Law, the Physicians, the Puritans, the
Retired Ones, the Brethren, the Servants of God, the Stout Ones,
the Strong Race, the Mysterious Ones, the Holiness Sect, the
Prophesiers, the Saints, the Bathers, the Daily Baptists, the
Observers of the Laws of Purity, and the Apron Wearers.
The theology of the Qumran society included: Common
ownership of property (Consecration of all earthly goods to the
society), belief in Pre-Destination, belief in the afterlife but
not physical resurrection, ritual bathing and cleansing, a
required repentance for admission to the community, and baptism
by immersion. They emphasized belief in the Holy Spirit and
looked for the coming of Two Messiah’s (One spiritual and one
Political). Qumran was an all male celibate society who wore
white linen garments to symbolize purity, and ate ritual
Communal Meals.
Their religious beliefs were very much like Christians
150 years before birth of Christ, which caused some concerns
among modern theologians, who presumed that some of the theology
of Jesus Christ may have been copied from this earlier
civilization. Others, who believe that Jesus Christ was Jehovah
of the Old Testament, believe that the Qumran leaders received
their doctrines from the ancient Prophets and were merely trying
to preserve them until the coming of the Messiah. Although the
Qumran complex was inhabited until the destruction of the Jews
by the Romans in AD 68, there is no evidence that the
inhabitants of Qumran recognized Jesus Christ as the Messiah,
and there is no mention of Christ in the scrolls found at
Qumran.
The Scrolls have been dated from 327 BC – AD 73 based
on Carbon 14 Dating of the linen wrappings, and from 135 BC –
AD 68 based on coins found in the community center and scroll
caves. Besides the books of the Old Testament, the collection of
scrolls includes: the Temple Scroll; the War Scroll (Sons of
Light vs Sons of Darkness); Thanksgiving Hymns; and commentaries
on Books of the Old Testament, including Habakkuk, Hosea,
Isaiah, Micah, and Pslams. Also included in the collection are
some Apocrapha, or Pseudepigraphical texts including the Genesis
Apocraphon (Book of Adam and Eve), the Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs, the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Enoch, Tobit,
Sirach, and the Zadokite Text. The greatest significance of the
contents of the scrolls is the discovery of two complete copies
of the book of Isaiah, which are nearly identical to the Book of
Isaiah in our Bible today. Finding a copy of the book of Isaiah,
and his Messianic prophesies which pre-date the birth of Jesus
of Nazareth proves that these prophesies were not revised after
the ministry of Jesus to “predict” his ministry and his
sacrifice after the fact.
The translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls was painstaking
slow because only a select group of scholars were allowed access
to them, but this policy was changed in 1993 when the Israel
Antiquities Authority decided to release all official
photographs of the scrolls and scroll fragments on microfiche.
In 1992 an electronic database was developed by Brigham Young
University in conjunction with the Foundation for Ancient
Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), which became the source for
the book Discoveries in the Judean Desert published by
the Oxford Press.
The Dead Sea Scrolls provide Bible scholars with the
opportunity to compare variant readings and discover errors in
translation in the text of the Bible. The fact that many of the
Old Testament Books were found in multiple copies of scrolls
aided in studies of these variations. Numerous modern
translations of the Old Testament have been revised based on
these variant translations from the Dead Sea Scrolls. The
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was equivalent to finding a
time capsule dating almost 2000 years ago, and giving us a view
of history that would otherwise have been lost to the world
forever.
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