The Dead Sea Scrolls

In the late 1940s, Bedouin tribesmen in Israel stumbled upon some old scrolls in the Judean desert near Khirbet Qumran and sold them to scholars. When these scrolls were dated as being written two thousand years earlier, this discovery created such excitement that archaeologists and scholars examined the area thoroughly, eventually finding the remains of about 900 scrolls. These discoveries have produced a wealth of information concerning ancient Judaism.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been dated quite confidently from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 100 based on names of various kings from this era and corroboration of ideas in both the Dead Sea Scrolls and the writings of Flavius Josephus. Many scholars believed the Dead Sea Scrolls to be written by the Essenes because the Scrolls contain many Essene traits (fatalism, communal living, etc.), but this view has been called into question and presently there is no definitive knowledge of the scrolls’ origins. The scrolls themselves record the origin of the group at Qumran but the names of leaders and opponents are given in veiled language (“Teacher of Righteousness,” “Wicked Priest,” etc.). Some view the Dead Sea group as reacting to the corrupt Hasmonean priesthood while others see no direct evidence of such in the scrolls themselves.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have had a tremendous influence on biblical studies by revealing that ancient Judaism was much more diverse than previously thought and that Christianity was much more influenced by Judaism than Hellenism because the ideas of poverty, dualism, and conversion, as well as many others, is attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as Christian documents. In short, the discovery and examination of the Dead Sea Scrolls has yielded a wealth of historical information for Jews and Christians.