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The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts that were found in the Qumran Caves in the Judaean Desert, near Ein Feshkha on the northern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank. Scholarly consensus dates these scrolls from the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE. The texts have great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the second-oldest known surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with deuterocanonical and extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism. Almost all of the Dead Sea Scrolls are held by the state of Israel in the Shrine of the Book on the grounds of the Israel Museum, but ownership of the scrolls is disputed by Jordan and Palestine.
Pesher (; Hebrew: פשר, pl. pesharim, from the Hebrew root meaning "interpretation," is a group of interpretive commentaries on scripture. The Pesharim commentaries became known from the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The pesharim give a theory of scriptural interpretation of a number of biblical texts from the Old Testament, such as Habakkuk and Psalms. The authors of pesharim believe that scripture is written in two levels: the surface for ordinary readers with limited knowledge, and the concealed one for specialists with higher knowledge. This is most clearly spelled out in the Habakkuk Pesher, where the author of the text asserts that God has made known to the Teacher of Righteousness, a prominent figure in the history of the Essene community, "all the mysteries of his servants the prophets". By contrast, the prophets, and other readers of the texts, only had a partial interpretation revealed to them. The result of this pesher method creates a fixed-literary structure, which is seen most in the continuous Pesharim, with the goal of giving the plain meaning of the prophets' words.
Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, 7Q5 is the designation for a small Greek papyrus fragment discovered in Qumran Cave 7 and dated before anyone claimed to be able to identify it by its style of script as likely having been written sometime between 50 BCE and 50 CE. The significance of this fragment is derived from an argument made by Spanish papyrologist Jose O'Callaghan in his work ¿Papiros neotestamentarios en la cueva 7 de Qumrân? in 1972, later reasserted and expanded by German scholar Carsten Peter Thiede in his work The Earliest Gospel Manuscript? in 1982. The assertion is that the previously unidentified 7Q5 is actually a fragment of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6 verse 52-53. Some scholars have not been convinced by O'Callaghan's and Thiede's identification insisting it is "now virtually universally rejected". More recently, other scholars assert O'Callaghan's identification of 7Q5 is widely accepted as correct.
The Copper Scroll (3Q15) is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3 near Khirbet Qumran, but differs significantly from the others. Whereas the other scrolls are written on parchment or papyrus, this scroll is written on metal: copper mixed with about 1 percent tin. The so-called 'scrolls' of copper were, in reality, two separated sections of what was originally a single scroll about 8 feet (240 cm) in length. Unlike the others, it is not a literary work, but a list of 64 places where various items of gold and silver were buried or hidden. It differs from the other scrolls in its Hebrew, its orthography, palaeography and date.
John Marco Allegro was an English archaeologist and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar. He was a populariser of the Dead Sea Scrolls through his books and radio broadcasts. He was the editor of some of the most famous and controversial scrolls published, the pesharim. A number of Allegro's later books, including The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, brought him both popular fame and notoriety, and also destroyed his career.
Emanuel Tov is emeritus Professor in the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been intimately involved with the Dead Sea Scrolls for many decades.
The Habakkuk Commentary or Pesher Habakkuk, labelled 1QpHab was among the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 and published in 1951. Due to its early discovery and rapid publication, as well as its relatively pristine preservation, 1QpHab is one of the most frequently researched and analyzed scrolls of the several hundred now known.
4QMMT, also known as MMT, or the Halakhic Letter, is a reconstructed text from manuscripts that were part of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered at Qumran in the Judean desert. The manuscripts that were used to reconstruct 4QMMT were found in Cave 4 at Qumran between the years 1953 and 1959. They were kept at the Palestinian Archaeological Museum, now known as the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.
4Q106 is one large and three small fragments from three columns of a scroll containing portions of the Song of Songs in Hebrew. It is one of three scrolls found in Cave 4 at Qumran that have been reconstructed as copies of the Song of Songs. These, and 6Q6 from Cave 6, comprise the total witness to the Song from the Dead Sea Scrolls, known so far.
Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD) is the official 40-volume publication that serves as the editio princeps for the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is published by Oxford University Press.
Wicked Priest is a sobriquet used in the Dead Sea Scrolls pesharim, four times in the Habakkuk Commentary (1QpHab) and once in the Commentary on Psalm 37 (4QpPsa), to refer to an opponent of the "Teacher of Righteousness." It has been suggested that the phrase is a pun on "ha-kōhēn hā-rōš", as meaning "the High Priest", but this is not the proper term for the High Priest. He is generally identified with a Hasmonean (Maccabean) High Priest or Priests. However, his exact identification remains controversial, and has been called "one of the knottiest problems connected with the Dead Sea Scrolls."
4Q240 is believed to be a commentary on the Song of Songs, also known as 'Canticles'. Written in Hebrew, it was found in Cave 4 at Qumran in the West Bank and comprises part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. From its palaeography (script) it has been identified as being early-Herodian.
The Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20), also called the Tales of the Patriarchs or the Apocalypse of Lamech and labeled 1QapGen, is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1946 by Bedouin shepherds in Cave 1 near Qumran, a city in the northwest corner of the Dead Sea. Composed in Aramaic, it consists of four sheets of leather. Furthermore, it is the least well-preserved document of the original seven. The document records a pseudepigraphal conversation between the biblical figure Lamech, son of Methuselah, and his son, Noah, as well as first and third person narratives associated with Abraham. It is one of the nonbiblical texts found at Qumran. A range of compositional dates for the work have been suggested from the 3rd century BCE to 1st century CE. Palaeography and Carbon-14 dating were used to identify the age of the documents. It is 13 inches in length and 2.75 inches in width at its widest point in the middle.
Qumran Caves are a series of caves, some natural, some artificial, found around the archaeological site of Qumran in the Judaean Desert of the West Bank. It is in these caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
4Q246, also known as the Son of God Text or the Aramaic Apocalypse, is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran which is notable for an early messianic mention of a son of God. The text is an Aramaic language fragment first acquired in 1958 from cave 4 at Qumran, and the major debate on this fragment has been on the identity of this "son of God" figure.
The Seekers After Smooth Things is the name given to a group referred to in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in fragments 3 and 4 of the Pesher Nahum (4Q169). The term is used to designate those who appealed to Demetrius III Eucaerus, in opposition to Alexander Jannaeus and the community that produced the scrolls.
Habakkuk 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Habakkuk in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Habakkuk, and is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter and the previous one form a unit, which Marvin Sweeney sees as "a report of a dialogue between the prophet and YHWH" about the fate of Judah, which biblical scholars, such as F. F. Bruce, label as "the oracle of Habakkuk".
Nahum 1 is the first chapter of the Book of Nahum in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Nahum, and is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter describes the character of God in giving a fair judgment upon Nineveh.
Nahum 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Nahum in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Nahum, and is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets.
4Q166, also known as The Hosea Commentary Scroll, is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls and was found in Cave 4 at Qumran in the West Bank. The parchment of 4Q166, 17.5 cm by 16.8 cm in size, is estimated from late first century B.C.E. The manuscript is the larger of two unrelated fragments of the Hosea Commentary found in Cave 4. The script, which is identical to that of a commentary on Psalms, belongs to the rustic, semiformal type of the Herodian era.
References
- ↑ Shani L. Berrin (2004). The Pesher Nahum Scroll from Qumran: An Exegetical Study of 4Q169. Brill. p. 1.
- ↑ Translation by E.M. Cook in Michael Wise; Martin Abegg Jr; Edward Cook, eds. (1996). The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation . HarperSanFrancisco. p. 217.
- ↑ Larry R. Helyer, Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period. InterVarsity Press, 2002 ISBN 0830826785
- ↑ Fitzmyer, Joseph A. (2008). A Guide to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 49. ISBN 9780802862419 . Retrieved February 15, 2019.
