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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; the last scrolls discovered were found in the Cave of Horror in Israel. 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 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.
Qumran is an archaeological site in the West Bank managed by Israel's Qumran National Park. It is located on a dry marl plateau about 1.5 km (1 mi) from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalya.
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.
Lawrence Harvey Schiffman is a professor at New York University ; he was formerly Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University and Professor of Jewish Studies. He had previously been Chair of New York University's Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and served as the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor in Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University (NYU). He is currently the Judge Abraham Lieberman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University and Director of the Global Institute for Advanced Research in Jewish Studies. He is a specialist in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Judaism in Late Antiquity, the history of Jewish law, and Talmudic literature.
The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, also known as War Rule, Rule of War and the War Scroll, is a manual for military organization and strategy that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscript was among the scrolls found in Qumran Cave 1, acquired by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and first published posthumously by Eleazar Sukenik in 1955. The document is made up of various scrolls and fragments including 1QM, and 4Q491–497. It is possible that The War of the Messiah is the conclusion to this document. The 4Q491–497 fragments were published by Maurice Baillet in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, 7 and comprise a shorter recension of the War Scroll.
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 Community Rule, which is designated 1QS and was previously referred to as the Manual of Discipline, is one of the first scrolls to be discovered near khirbet Qumran, the scrolls found in the eleven caves between 1947 and 1954 are now referred to simply as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Rule of the Community is a key sectarian document and is seen as definitive for classifying other compositions as sectarian or non-sectarian. Among the nearly 350 documents discovered, roughly 30% of the scrolls are classified as "sectarian".
The Book of Mysteries is an ancient Essene text found in fragmentary form among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scroll fragments are given the alphanumeric designations of 1Q27 and 4Q299–301.
The Thanksgiving Scroll was one of the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 by the Bedouin. The scroll gets its name from the recurring use of the phrase "I thank you" in many of the poems. The Hebrew word Hodayot refers to "thanks" or "thanksgiving". Other names include Thanksgiving Hymns, Thanksgiving Psalms, Hymns Scroll and Scroll of Hymns.
The Rule of the Blessing (1QSb) is a very fragmentary text once thought to be part of the text of the Community Rule scroll found in Cave 1 at Qumran as part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is added as one of two appendices following the book of the Community Rule, on one of the first seven scrolls discovered at the Qumran site. The Rule of the Blessing includes three benedictions for use during the eschaton: one for the general assembly of the eschatological Tribe of Israel, which describes a sort of “living water” bringing them into a new covenant with God, one concerning the Kohen (priest) Sons of Zadok, chosen by God who will act “like angels” and lead Israel after the War. The third prayer is that for the messianic meal, to bless the “Prince,” or Davidic messiah, who has come to deliver Israel. Similar prayers are found elsewhere in the scrolls, and some believe that this particular manuscript may be a collection of prayers for general, daily use.
The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, also referred to as the Angelic Liturgy, are a series of thirteen songs, one for each of the first thirteen Sabbaths of the year, contained in fragments found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Songs were found in 10 fragmentary copies: nine at Qumran and one at Masada. The dating is difficult to determine, but it is thought to have been written around 100 BCE.
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.
The War of the Messiah is a series of Dead Sea Scroll fragments describing the conclusion of a battle led by the Leader of the Congregation. The fragments that make up this document include 4Q285, also known as The Pierced Messiah Text, and 11Q14 with which it was found to coincide. It is possible that it also represents the conclusion of the War Scroll, as the two read coherently and discuss related thematic issues.
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.
Carbon dating the Dead Sea Scrolls refers to a series of radiocarbon dating tests performed on the Dead Sea Scrolls, first by the AMS lab of the Zurich Institute of Technology in 1991 and then by the AMS Facility at the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1994–95. There was also a historical test of a piece of linen performed in 1946 by Willard Libby, the inventor of the dating method.
The Nahum Commentary or Pesher Nahum, labelled 4QpNah or 4Q169, was among the Dead Sea Scrolls in cave 4 of Qumran that was discovered in August 1952. The editio princeps of the text is to be found in DJD V., edited by John Allegro. The text is described thus: 'one of the "continuous pesharim" from Qumran, successive verses from the biblical Book of Nahum are interpreted as reflecting historical realities of the 1st century BCE."
There are about twenty different texts from Qumran which deal with a 364-day Lunar Calendar. They are mainly very fragmentary, so the calendar is not completely understood. However, it is significantly different from the Babylonian lunar calendar which evolved into the 354-day Hebrew calendar as known today. The scrolls calendar divided the year into four quarters and recorded the feast days of the community. Feasts were fixed to the solar year and so occurred on different days from those indicated in the Babylonian-based calendar. Many of the texts are rosters of weekly shifts or courses of temple service for the twenty-four priestly families, known as Mishmarot.
The Great Psalms Scroll, also referred to as 11Q5, is the most substantial and well preserved Dead Sea Scrolls Psalms manuscript of the thirty-seven discovered in the Qumran caves, six of which were discovered in Cave 11.
The Pesher on Genesis, or Commentaries on Genesis, is part of the collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in caves near the archaeological site of Qumran about a mile off the Northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. There are four fragmentary manuscripts that have been grouped together from Cave 4: 4Q252, 4Q253, 4Q254, and 4Q254a which contain interpretations of the Book of Genesis. The most extensive of the manuscripts is 4Q252 which contains 6 fragments. They date from mid 1st century BCE to late 1st century CE. They are all written in Hebrew on parchment.
References
- Phillip R. Davies, George J. Brooke and Phillip R. Callaway. "The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls," London: Thames and Hudson, 2002.
- Michael O. Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Edward M. Cook. "The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation," San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
- Lawrence H. Schiffman, “Community (Rule of the),” The Anchor Bible Dictionary. Ed. David Noel Freedman, Gary A. Herion, David F. Graf, John David Pleins, Astrid B. Beck. New York: Doubleday, 1992. 450.
- Lawrence H. Schiffman, The Eschatological Community of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1989.
- Lawrence H. Schiffman, “Rule of the Congregation.” The Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Ed. Lawrence H. Schiffman and James C. Vanderkam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. 797-799.
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