The DeadSea

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

• 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)

What Were the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Dead Sea Scrolls “BEST SELLERS”

Multiple Copies of Individual Works

7) Leviticus (13)8) Numbers, 12 Prophets,

Daniel (8 each)9) Jeremiah & Ezekiel (6 each)10) 1-2 Sam, Job, Lamentations

Ruth, Song of Sol (4 each)

11) TEMPLE SCROLL, Judges, 1-2 Kings, Ecclesiastes (3 each)

1) Psalms (36)

2) Deuteronomy (27)3) Isaiah (21)

4) ENOCH (20) Jude

5) Exodus (17)

6) JUBILEES (15-16)

Genesis (15)

DSS: A Literary Time MachineThe Bible Before the Dead Sea Scrolls

Leningrad Codex 1010 AD Aleppo Codex 930 AD

Pleasant SurprisesThe 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 WildernessJohn 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 Wars70 AD – The Roman War2008 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 Pointin Western Religious History

Judaism • Pharisees survive regroup

under Rabbis in Synagogues; OT Canon - Jamnia (90 CE)

• Jews do not adapt--suffer the consequences of separatism

• 2nd Jewish Revolt under Bar Kochba crushed (135 C.E.) Demise of Temple State Idea

Christianity • Peter and Paul killed by Nero;

Priestly Hierarchy assumes power; Gospels written

• Church adapts, transforms into a Hellenized Mystery Cult

• 325 C.E. Constantine legalizes Christianity; soon becomes state cult of Roman Empire

Why the Insistence on Qumran as the Location of the Scrolls?

Lots of Bible BooksBut NO Bibles . . .

thus raising the important issue of the

Biblical Canon

THE “CANON” of the OLD TESTAMENT

From the Greek “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 QumranRoland De Vaux vs. Donceel

3) Same kinds of Scrolls found elsewhere, Masada