The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of writings found in 11 caves near the Dead Sea in Qumran, Israel, from 1947 to 1956. They are the greatest of Biblical archaeological discoveries and contain copies of every Old Testament book except Esther, religious non-biblical writings, and secular documents. The scrolls were originally written between roughly 250 BC to 50 A.D. They were kept in clay pots, so they were well preserved. Most scholars affirm that the Essene community wrote the scrolls. They were devout Jews. The reason they put the scrolls in these caves has yet to be determined. However, scholars speculate that it was to preserve them and keep them hidden from the Roman Empire, which was in control of the area at the time.¹ I have had the privilege of being in Israel and actually being inside Qumran Cave 1, the first Cave that was discovered containing the scrolls. It was a great experience.

“Of the nearly 900 manuscripts found, around 210 scrolls, or approximately 25 percent of the library, were copies of biblical books.”²Barry, John D., David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder, eds. 2016. In The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, the oldest complete Hebrew Bible was the Leningrad Codex from 1008 A.D.³ref. Barr, Bomar, Lexham Bible Dictionary So the discovery of the scrolls enabled scholars to compare the transmission of the text, linguistic changes over the centuries, and more. They found an incredible reliability of the Old Testament documents transmitted through the centuries.

Non-Biblical Writings

The Apocrypha and pseudepigraphical texts were not considered part of the official Old Testament Bible. But, they were included in the Dead Sea Scrolls, probably to preserve their ancient texts.

Secular Manuscripts in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Along with the Apocrypha were cylindrical texts, exegetical texts that interpreted biblical works, the Pesher exegetical work on biblical prophecy, historical texts that dealt with various events not mentioned in the Bible, legal texts that dealt with religious law, parabiblical texts that dealt with expanding upon biblical stories, poetical texts which dealt with poems and hymns, sapiential texts which dealt with wisdom traditions, and the sectarian texts which dealt with the rules and regulations of the Qumran community.

 

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