Dead Sea Scrolls Essay, Research Paper

While prosecuting one of his caprine animals into a cave near the Dead Sea in the Jordan

Desert, in 1947, a 15 twelvemonth old male child by the name of Muhammad adh-Dhib,

stumbled on to a great find. Inside the cave, he found broken jars that

contained coils written in a unusual linguistic communication, wrapped in linen fabric and

leather.1 This first find produced seven coils and started an

archeological hunt that produced 1000s of coil fragments in 11

caves. The Dead Sea is located in Israel and Jordan, E of Jerusalem. The dead

sea is really deep, salty, and it? s the lowest organic structure of H2O in the universe.

Because the dead sea is at such a low lift, the clime has a high

vaporization rate but a really low humidness which helped to continue the scrolls.2

Archeologists searched for the home of the people that may hold left the

coils in the caves. The archeologist excavated a ruin located between the

drops where the coils were found and the dead sea. This ruin is called

Qumran. The ruins and the coils were dated by the C 14 method and found

to be from the 3rd century which made them the oldest surviving biblical

manuscript by at least 1000 old ages. Since the first finds archeologists

have found over 800 coils and coil fragments in 11 different caves in the

environing country. In fact, there are about 100,000 fragments found in all. Most

of which were written on caprine animal tegument and sheep tegument. A few were on papyrus, a

works used to do paper, but one coil was engraved on Cu sheeting stating

of 60 buried hoarded wealth sites.3Because the coils incorporating the waies to

the hoarded wealths is unable to be to the full unrolled, the hoarded wealths have non been found

yet. In all, the texts of the coils were singular. They contained unknown

Psalmss, Bible commentary, calendar text, mystical texts, revelatory texts,

liturgical texts, pureness Torahs, bible narratives, and fragments of every book in

the Old Testament except that of Esther, including a inventive paraphrasis of

the Book of Genesis. Besides found were texts, in the original linguistic communications, of

several books of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. These texts? none of which

was included in the Hebrew canon of the Bible? are Tobit, Sirach, Jubilees,

parts of Enoch, and the Testament of Levi, up to this clip known merely in

early Greek, Syriac, Latin, and Ethiopic versions.4 John Trever of the W.F.

Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, was allowed to look into the

coils and was stunned to happen that the coils closely resemble the Nash

Papyrus, the one time known oldest fragment of the Hebrew Bible dated at or around

150 BC. One of the coils was a complete transcript of the book of the prophesier

Isaiah. Trever besides examined three other coils ; the Manual of Discipline, a

commentary on the book of Habbakuk, and one called the Genesis Apocryphon.

Trever took exposure of the texts to William Foxwell Albright ; of John

Hopkins University in Baltimore, who declared the coils dated back to around

100 BC.5 The coil and fragments found in the Qumran is a library of

information that contains books or works written in three different linguistic communications:

Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. Many bookmans separated the coils into three

different classs: Biblical & # 8211 ; Books found in the Hebrew Bible. Apocryphal or

psuedepigraphical & # 8211 ; Works non in some Christian bibles but included in others. Sectarian –

regulations, scriptural commentaries, revelatory visions, and sacred works.6 One

of the longer text, found in Qumran is the Tehillim or Psalms Scroll. It was

found in 1956 in cave 11 and unrolled in 1961. It is a mixture of Psalms,

anthem and an apathetic transition about the Psalmss authored by King David. It is

written on sheep tegument parchment and it has the thickest surface of any of the

scrolls.7 The Manual Of Discipline or Community Rule contains regulations, warnings

and penalties to lawbreakers of the regulations of the desert religious order called Yahad. It

besides contains the methods of fall ining the community, the dealingss among the

members, their manner of life, and their beliefs. The religious order believed that homo

nature and all that happens in the universe is predestined. The coil ends with

vocals of congratulations of God. The coil was found in cave 4 and undermine 5 and It was

written on parchment. The longest version was found in cave 4.8 The War Rule is

normally referred to as the? Pierced Messiah? text. It refers to a Messiah

who came from the line of David, to be brought to a judgement and so to a

killing. It anticipates the New Testament position of the preordained decease of the

christ. It is written in a Hebrew book and is merely a six line fragment.9 Most

of the coils were found in caves near Qumran. The Qumran site was excavated to

fi

nd the habitation of those who deposited the coils in the nearby caves. The

diggings uncovered home bases bowls and graveyards with over 12 hundred

Gravess that have the same features which suggest spiritual uniformity,

along with a composite of constructions which suggested that they were communal in

presentation.10 Many believe this is where a community of a distant Judaic religious order

called the Essenes may hold one time lived. The Essenes were members of a Judaic

spiritual brotherhood, organized on a communal footing who practiced strict

subjects. The order had around 4000 members and they existed in Palestine and

Syria from the second century BC to the second century AD. The religious orders chief colonies

were on the shores of the Dead Sea.11 In some bookmans views the site was the

wilderness retreat of the Essenes. Harmonizing to these bookmans, the Essenes or

another spiritual religious order resided in adjacent locations, most likely caves,

collapsible shelters, and solid constructions, but depended on the centre for community installations

such as shops of nutrient and H2O. 12 Many bookmans believe the Essene community

wrote, copied, or accumulated the coils at Qumran and deposited them in the

caves of the adjacent hills. Others inquiry this account, claiming that

the site was no monastery but instead a Roman fortress or a winter abode.

Some besides believe that the Qumran site has little if anything to make with the

coils and the grounds available does non back up a unequivocal reply. 13 Angstrom

oversight in the usage of the site is linked to grounds of a immense temblor. Qumran

was abandoned about the clip of the Roman invasion of 68 A.D.,14 two old ages

before the prostration of Judaic self-determination in Judea and the devastation of

the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The coils are believed to hold been brought

from Jerusalem the Judean wilderness for safekeeping when Jerusalem was

threatened by Roman ground forcess. This was the clip that Qumran was a judean military

fortress which was destroyed in a conflict with the Romans Since their find,

the Dead Sea Scrolls have been the topic of great scholarly and public

involvement. For bookmans they represent an priceless beginning for researching the

nature of post- scriptural times and examining the beginnings of two of the universe & # 8217 ; s

great faiths. For the populace, they are artefacts of great significance,

enigma, and play. 15 The Dead Sea Scrolls give us a better position of a important

period in the history of Judaism. Judaism was divided into legion spiritual

religious orders and political parties. With the devastation of the Temple in 70 AD. , all

that came to an terminal. Merely the Hebraism of the Pharisees ; the most powerful Judaic

religious order & # 8211 ; Rabbinic Judaism & # 8211 ; survived. Qumran literature shows a Hebraism in the thick

of alteration from the faith of Israel as described in the Bible to the Hebraism

of the rabbis as explained in the Talmud, which tells the regulations that Jews live

by.16 Scholars have emphasized similarities between the beliefs and patterns

shown in the Qumran stuff and those of early Christians.17 These similarities

include rites of baptism, communal repasts, and property.18 One of the most

intriguing similarities is how the people divided themselves into 12s folks

led by 12 heads. This is really similar to how Jesus had twelve apostles who

would sit on thrones and justice the 12 folk of Israel. 19 The Dead Sea

Coils were written during the birth of Christianity and an of import clip in

Judaic history. The coils have giving an penetration into the lives and imposts of

the people who lived in a clip of Roman invasion and Judaic history. Although

the text do non keep all the replies, they do give people a tool to utilize when

analyzing scriptural history. Merely a really few bookmans had entree to the coils

before transcripts of the coils were published in the 1990? s ; now we all have a

opportunity to read an semen to our ain decisions about the text. Whether the

coils uphold Judaic or Christian beliefs is non the lone interesting portion of

the coils. The text besides give a more personal expression at the people who lived in

a major portion of Judaic history.

Burrows, Millar. ( 1955 ) . The Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Grammercy Printing

Company Roth, Cecil. ( 1965 ) . The Dea Sea Scrolls. A New Historical Approach. New

York: W.W. Norton & A ; Company. Schubert, Kurt. ( 1959 ) . The Dead Sea

Community. Great Britain: Bowering Press Plymouth. Shanks, Hershel. ( 1998 ) . The

Mystery And Meaning Of The Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Random House. Undertaking

Judaica Foundation, Inc. ( 1996-1999 ) . Welcome to Scroll FROM THE DEAD SEA. The

Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship, an Exhibit at the Library of

Congress, Washington, DC hypertext transfer protocol: //metalab.unc.edu/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html,

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