Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls, or Qumran manuscripts, are a group of ancient Jewish texts from eleven caves near the archaeological site of Khirbet Qumran in the West Bank. From 1947 to 1956, the caves were discovered, mostly by Bedouins. The manuscripts were acquired partly from the antiquities trade and partly found during archaeological investigations of the caves. About 15 scrolls are still recognizable as such. The rest, an estimated 900 to 1000 scrolls, have disintegrated into more than 15,000 fragments. Based on the letterforms, the manuscripts are dated (paleographically) to the period from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. Radiocarbon dating has been used to verify and confirm this dating in some cases. Most of the texts are written in Hebrew; almost all are literary and have a religious content. There are hardly any everyday texts such as letters. The literary character distinguishes the Qumran manuscripts from other ancient textual finds in the region (with the exception of Masada) and, despite the diversity of content, makes them appear to many experts to belong together.

For the textual history of the Hebrew Bible (the Jewish Tanakh or the Christian Old Testament), the Dead Sea Scrolls are of outstanding importance. The Masoretic Text, which later became canonical in Judaism, is very close to a type of Qumran manuscripts, which underlines the age and quality of the Jewish scribal tradition. This proto-Masoretic text, however, does not have a monopoly. There is an equal coexistence of different text types among the biblical Qumran manuscripts.

Until the Qumran finds, Hellenistic and early Roman Judea was known almost exclusively through writings that had been handed down in a centuries-long, mostly Christian-directed selection process. The Qumran manuscripts, by contrast, contain a spectrum of ancient Jewish literature uncensored by medieval copyists. The focus is on the Torah: some Qumran manuscripts place a major or minor figure of the Torah at the center. There are free retellings of Torah material. Other authors brought the legal texts of the Torah into a new order and developed them further.

In the Qumran scripture, a group of texts stands out that were written in a Jewish community with a special character. This community called itself Jachad and is often identified in research with the Essenes. Members of the Jachad followed the commandments of the Torah with great radicalism and, in addition, commandments of their own that were not known outside the Jachad. The Jachad rejected the Jerusalem Temple and believed that liturgy within their own group could replace the Jerusalem sacrificial cult. Many writers were convinced they were living in the end times. This was compatible with an interest in wisdom literature, which is well represented in the range of Qumran writings. What is missing among the extant extra-biblical Dead Sea Scrolls, on the other hand, are historical works.

Persons of early Christianity are not mentioned in the Qumran texts, which are on average 100 years older. For Jewish studies, the Dead Sea manuscripts open up new insights into the development of the halakhah.

Sites of ancient texts on the western shore of the Dead Sea

The following article deals with the texts from the caves at Khirbet Qumran. But ancient and early medieval texts have also been found at other archaeological sites on the western shore of the Dead Sea and in the lower Jordan Valley, which in a broader sense can be called "Dead Sea Scrolls":

• Wadi Daliyeh: Aramaic documents of the Samaritan upper class, focusing on the slave trade (4th century BC);
• Masada: Biblical and other literary texts probably brought to Masada by refugees during the Jewish War;
• Nachal Chever, Wadi Murabbaʿat, Wadi el-Mafjar (Ketef Jericho): Literary texts, letters, and documents from caves of refuge used at various times, especially during the Bar Kochba uprising;
• Khirbet Mird: Byzantine and Arabic texts from the monastery of Kastellion, founded in 492 AD;
• Smaller sites: Wadi en-Nar, Wadi Ghuweir, Wadi Sdeir, Nachal Mischmar, Nachal Ze'elim, Nachal Arugot.

In individual cases, it is possible that fragments acquired in the antiquities trade claimed an origin from Qumran, but that these texts originated from another regional site. Since 2017, the Israel Antiquities Authority, together with the Archaeology Department of the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, has been conducting rescue excavations in the area of the above-mentioned sites in order to prevent looters. In March 2021, textual finds were reported for the first time in about 60 years, namely new fragments of the Greek Twelve Prophets Scroll from the Nachal Chever with the text of Zech 8:16-17 EU and Nah 1:5-6 EU. This scroll was already known through fragments that appeared in the antiquities trade in the 1950s, and then through the archaeological investigation of the so-called Cave of Horrors led by Yohanan Aharoni in 1961.

Bible texts in other form

Tefillin and mesusot

The Torah commandments to put on tefillin and attach them to doors mesusot were also followed at Qumran. A total of about 45 fragmentary parchment strips with Torah texts in microprint and about 25 remains of tefillin capsules are assigned to this group of finds; in five specimens the parchment strips were still in the capsules. The objects often originate from the antiquities trade; the indication of origin "Qumran" is uncertain in these cases.

The tefillin capsules, which are more cube-shaped today, are leather containers worn with straps on the head and upper arm. A Qumran tefillin capsule looked like a flat, small leather bag when closed. It had one or more bulges into which the texts were inserted; then it was folded up and sewn shut. Yigael Yadin acquired an intact example in 1968 (XQPhyl A-D = XQ1-4). Measuring 13 × 20 mm, it contained four compartments containing folded strips of closely written parchment (27 × 40-44 mm). Three of them were still in place. The selection and arrangement of the Torah texts differed from later rabbinic regulations. It is probable that the rules in this regard had not yet been established. It is conceivable that the Qumran tefillin were not worn exclusively during prayer, but throughout the day or (like an amulet) in special situations, such as illness.

Fragments of Mesusot texts (4Q149-155) come from Cave 4Q, another specimen from Cave 8Q. Containers of mesusot are not known from Qumran. It is possible that the wrapped-up text strips were deposited directly in cracks on the door frame at that time.

Reworked Pentateuch

Reworked Pentateuch, "Torah revisions" are five fragments that defy categorization as biblical or non-biblical texts: 4Q158; 4Q364-367. For the most part, they contain the familiar biblical text in a version close to the Samaritan Pentateuch, but more often change the order or insert new material. When DJD was first published, Emanuel Tov and Sidnie White Crawford classified these texts as non-biblical and non-authoritative. For Eugene Ulrich, James VanderKam, and Michael Segal, on the other hand, Reworked Pentateuch texts were biblical, namely, witnesses to the biblical text in process of development. This position was later echoed by Tov. If 4Q365 comprised the entire Pentateuch, this scroll would have been an impressive size, with an estimated length of 22.5-27.5m.