<\/p>\n
Not all history is as dry as desert dust. Some is sprinkled with murder, mystery and intrigue. Now, I\u2019m not saying the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls reads like a James Bond novel, but if written correctly, it\u2019s not far off the mark. And if you\u2019re looking for a romp through history with a scriptural bent, you\u2019ve simply got to tune in to the story of the Scrolls.<\/p>\n
Sooo . . . can they be interesting and fun?<\/p>\n
Absolutely. But don\u2019t trust me; read the following fun facts and decide for yourself:<\/p>\n
1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Dead Sea is dying\u2014now go and figure that<\/span><\/em> one out. To begin with, at roughly 1400 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is the lowest place on the surface of Planet Earth. And it\u2019s getting lower. Surface evaporation and reduced inflow from the Jordan River have caused the level to drop and the shoreline to recede. Over the past fifty years, the sea has lost one-third of its volume. The only thing that seems to be increasing is its salinity, which at 35% is eight times that of the world\u2019s oceans. Few microbes can survive the concentrated mineral salts, and anything larger hasn\u2019t a chance.<\/p>\n 2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The desert around the Dead Sea receives an average of two inches of rain per year, and mean summer temperatures approximate 1000<\/sup>F. It is barren, dry, and sun-bleached. The only thing that grows on the shores is scant, stunted brush and hotels. Oh, and sinkholes. Well, sinkholes might not exactly grow<\/em> as much as they (now, stay with me here) sink<\/em>, but they are a new hazard in the area. Three thousand<\/em> of them pockmark the area, and an equal number (or more) of subterranean cavities are believed to exist, even now, as we wait for them to collapse. What happens is this: As the sea level sinks, fresh water flowing down into the sea attacks underground salt deposits previously maintained by the brine of the Dead Sea. When the fresh water dissolves these salt deposits away, the resultant cavity collapses, frequently at the blink of an eye, sucking down everything above it. As a result, certain areas around the Dead Sea are becoming geological mine-fields.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered at Qumran, on the Western shore of the Dead Sea. The scrolls were found in cliff-caves (some of these caves were manmade, others are natural limestone caves to the West). Many of the manmade caves are believed to have collapsed into the Dead Sea as the result of erosion. Whereas the water\u2019s edge used to lap at the foot of the cliffs (sometimes lapping so much that the wall of sandstone\u2014caves, contents and all\u2014crumbled and slid into the sea), the sea has now receded, so the cliffs can now be approached from below as well as from above. Two thousand years ago, when the scrolls were hidden away, that wasn\u2019t the case at all.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The area of Qumran is comprised of the cliff caves and the ruins of the complex, known as Khirbet (i.e., ruins of) Qumran. Some believe Khirbet Qumran was a residential complex, others think it was a fortress constructed along the nearby trade route, still others claim it was an aristocrat\u2019s luxury estate. The most accepted opinion is that it was a wilderness retreat for a monastic Jewish group known as the Essenes. Even that concept has its detractors: Some say the Essenes weren\u2019t really all that monastic (unlike Christian monks and Catholic clergy, who profess lifelong vows of chastity\u2014as did their fathers, and their fathers before them), and others claim the occupants weren\u2019t even Essenes. Whatever the reality, the complex contained everything from stables to scriptorium, from baths to bedrooms, from kitchens to kilns, and from dining hall to . . . to other rooms that start with a \u201cD.\u201d The archeological excavation of Khirbet Qumran exposed everything from an advanced system of aqueducts and cisterns to a communal library and reading room, which were no doubt the centerpiece of the religious community. Situated one day\u2019s walk from Jerusalem and only two hours from Jericho, Khirbet Qumran was by no means isolated from other Jewish communities and centers of learning.<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If not the Essenes, then who were the keepers of the scrolls? Actually, it doesn\u2019t really matter. The Dead Sea Scrolls describe the keepers of the scrolls as the \u201cSons of Light.\u201d Such metaphorical language is typical of Semitic languages, both then and now. By comparison, we find the Bible describing believers as \u201csons of the king\u201d (Matt. 17:25\u201326) or \u201cGod\u2019s sons\u201d (Matt. 7:9 and Heb 12:5), God\u2019s elect as \u201csons of Abraham\u201d (Luke 19:9), and students as \u201csons of the Pharisees\u201d (Matt. 12:27, Acts 23:60). Elsewhere in the Bible, we find \u201csons of the kingdom\u201d (Matt. 8:12), \u201csons of peace\u201d (Luke. 10:6), \u201csons of this world\u201d (Luke 16:8), and \u201csons of thunder\u201d (Mark 3:17). In modern Semitic language, many of us would be \u201cSons of the rhythm method,\u201d or \u201cDaughters of \u2018Trust me.\u2019\u201d Now, I haven\u2019t verified this with my parents, but it wouldn\u2019t surprise me one bit if I turned out to be a son of \u201cnothing-good-to-watch-on-TV-tonight. Gee, hon, what-shall-we-do-to-pass-the-time?\u201d But I digress. The point is that the keepers of the scrolls were known as the Sons of Light, and most scholars presume these \u201cSons of Light\u201d were Essene Jews.<\/p>\n 6)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Dead Sea Scrolls were excavated from eleven caves (five of them natural limestone; six of them manmade) between 1947 and 1956. The scroll fragments range from relatively complete manuscripts to pieces of parchment containing only a letter, or even just half a letter. This wealth of fragments represents over 900 manuscripts, but many scroll fragments are so insignificant as to be virtually if not totally useless. The initial find was in Cave 1, which contained ten scroll jars. Nine of these jars were empty or filled with dirt, but the tenth housed the original seven scrolls discovered at Qumran. These were complete scrolls, unlike most other scrolls, which are fragmented. Now, some scholars believe the find at Cave 1 indicates that the Essenes were massacred. They believe that the scrolls in Cave 1 prove the Essenes never returned to retrieve their precious scriptures. Hence, they must have been wiped out, to the last man. I have a different theory. I don\u2019t look at the one full<\/em><\/strong> scroll jar, but at the nine empty<\/em><\/strong> ones. I believe some of the Essenes did survive the massacre. The survivors would have been forced to sneak around at night. They could not afford to light a candle or torch, out of fear of alerting the rampaging Roman soldiers to their presence. Under these conditions, the survivors would have recovered their scrolls at night. Unable to see in the dark, they simply missed one of the ten jars.<\/p>\n 7)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How many other scrolls were found? In rough scientific terms, oodles and oodles. Cave 4 yielded 15,000 fragments of more than 800 manuscripts. However, the scrolls in Cave 4 were in such poor repair that some believe Cave 4 was a genizah<\/em>\u2014a scroll dump where the Essenes deposited worn out scrolls to molder away, according to the dictates of their faith regarding the disposal of sacred scriptures. These scroll fragments were chewed into pieces and scattered by rodents and insects, not to mention used as nesting material. They were shredded by two thousand years of wind and weather shifts, and the fragments that survived were saturated with urine and coated with feces from the bats, rodents, and birds that occupied the cave. These fragments were in such decay and disarray that for many years researchers believed they represented far fewer manuscripts. Only recently has the scrolls team been able to make sense of many of these fragments.<\/p>\n 8)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Copper Scroll, a list of the Essenes\u2019 treasure troves, was discovered in Cave 3 in 1952, but nobody knows if any of the listed treasures have ever been found. And these treasures must have been considerable. Remember, we\u2019re talking about a religious group that required their recruits to turn all of their worldly possessions over to the communal treasury. Two centuries of taking everybody\u2019s everything adds up to a whole lotta loot! So much, in fact, that the Essenes stashed it away not in one cache, or even in a dozen caches. According to the Copper Scroll, the vast treasure of the Essenes was divided into more than 60 caches. Hm. Makes a person want to take a stroll in the Judean desert with a turbo-charged metal detector, doesn\u2019t it? On the other hand, some scholars believe the Copper Scroll lists the treasures of the Jewish Temple. Whichever it is, the value of the treasure is estimated to be in the billions of dollars, not counting the historical value. Perhaps it was pilfered by the Romans at the tips of their swords, perhaps it was retrieved by surviving Essenes, perhaps it lies in hiding still, awaiting its discoverers. We may never know.<\/p>\n 9)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In 1956, Cave 11 yielded thirty manuscripts, among which was the nine meter-long Temple Scroll. Wow \u2013 that\u2019s as long as two SUV\u2019s laid end-to-end or (and here\u2019s a sobering thought) as long as a Nile crocodile. Fortunately, ancient scripture wasn\u2019t written on crocs. It doesn\u2019t take much imagination to figure out which would be easier to hold down. A few papyrus fragments were also discovered in Cave 7 (these fragments were the size of a croc egg squashed flat by a Nile hippo and picked clean by a hungry egret). The Cave 7 papyrus is unusual in that a) they were papyrus, rather than parchment; b) they were not<\/em> stepped on by a hippo or pecked at by an egret; and c) they were written in Greek. This (the papyrus and Greek combination, not the hippo and egret factor) prompted one scholar (Jos\u00e9 O\u2019Callaghan) to suggest that these fragments represent New Testament material. However, the Cave 7 papyrus pieces are too small to make sense of them, so O\u2019Callaghan\u2019s claim appears to be based more upon wishful thinking than upon scholarly analysis.<\/p>\n 10)\u00a0\u00a0 And now . . . a taste of their times. Beside the orthodox Sadducees and progressive Pharisees, the Essenes represented the third main school of Jewish thought at the period of Christian origins. They were devoted to ritual purity, monastic lifestyle, exhaustive worship, Mosaic law, meat and metal. We\u2019re not talking about pacifist vegetarian monks here \u2013 the Essenes spent generations gearing up for an apocalyptic war in which the \u201cSons of Light\u201d would obliterate their enemies at the points of their lances and the edges of their swords. The Jewish revolution against Roman rule raged from 66-73 CE. When Jerusalem fell in 70 CE, the Romans destroyed the second temple (Babylonians destroyed the first temple in 586 BCE, the Jews rebuilt it seventy years later). The Romans spent the next three years mopping up insurgence in the Holy Land, culminating in their horrific victory against Masada in 73 CE. Given the war, the Essenes had good reason to hide their greatest treasure \u2013 their sacred scrolls. Evidence suggests they hid the Dead Sea Scrolls in the caves around Qumran in or before 68 AD<\/span><\/em> (for Christians), 68 CE<\/span><\/em> (for non-Christians), three score and eight (for Abe Lincoln), and the high side of six dimes for the rest of us. Then they were destroyed. For nearly two millennia the Dead Sea Scrolls lay undiscovered. So what, exactly, do these scrolls contain?<\/p>\n 11)\u00a0\u00a0 The Dead Sea Scrolls can be divided into three categories \u2013 biblical scrolls, non-biblical scrolls and sectarian scrolls. The biblical scrolls are 1000 years older than any other Old Testament texts, and represent all of the books of the OT except Esther. Now, keep in mind, when we say \u201cbiblical\u201d in reference to the Dead Sea Scrolls, we\u2019re talking about the Jewish Bible, meaning the Old Testament. None of the scrolls, other than the aforementioned questionable fragments discovered in Cave 7, represent New Testament books. Having said that, 207 out of the 930 scrolls found at Qumran are biblical scrolls. The non-biblical scrolls contain new psalms, the retelling of biblical stories, mystic tales and biblical interpretation. Sectarian scrolls, such as the Rule of the Community, were written by and about the keepers of the scrolls, the aforementioned \u201cSons of Light\u201d whom most scholars presume to be the Essenes.<\/p>\n 12)\u00a0\u00a0 Science and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Now, here is where it gets interesting, from a technical point of view. The scrolls have been dated by paleography (the study of age-indicative, period-specific writing styles) and Carbon-14 analysis. From this we have learned that the biblical scrolls date from 250-150 BCE; sectarian and non-biblical scrolls date from 100 BCE-70 CE. Scroll fragments have been matched by paleography, scribe-specific writing styles, C-14 dating, and even mitochondrial DNA analysis of the parchment they are written upon. Those scrolls that are blackened beyond readability have had the text teased out by multispectral imaging. DNA analysis has determined that biblical texts were written on bovine parchment, sectarian texts on sheep parchment, and non-biblical texts on sheep or Ibex. Wow, what a worthless piece of information. <\/em>But no, really it\u2019s not, and here\u2019s why: there is no reason to believe cows were raised at Qumran. There were no cow bones found in the communal dump, and it is the wrong terrain for them. This suggests that the biblical texts were not penned at Qumran, but were imported from other Jewish centers of learning. If the DNA of the scroll parchment can be matched to cow bones at other archeological digs, we may someday learn where these scrolls came from. In the meantime, scientists are using neutron analysis to match the chemical signature of scroll jars with kilns and pottery at other archeological sites. So far they have learned that some of the scroll jars were made at Qumran, but others not \u2013 more evidence that some of the scrolls were imported from outside the immediate community.<\/p>\n 13)\u00a0\u00a0 The original Scrolls Team of eight scholars was headed by the Dominican Priest, Roland DeVaux, the head of Ecole Biblique, a French Catholic theological seminary in East Jerusalem. DeVaux was widely criticized for withholding the scrolls from public scrutiny, by outside scholars as well as by members of his own team, and it was during his tenure that charges of academic scandal and theological bias were first leveled. Huh, imagine that \u2013 a priest allowing his religious convictions to prejudice his interpretation of scripture. Hard to imagine, cough, cough. Then, after the Six Day War in 1967, Israel expanded its borders to the Dead Sea and laid claim to the scrolls as well as to the archeological site of Khirbet Qumran. Over the next few years, the focus of the charges of academic scandal and theological bias switched from the Christian controllers to the new Jewish custodians. Roland DeVaux refused to work with the Israelis, but lost leadership over the scrolls project when he died unexpectedly (a little too<\/span><\/em> unexpectedly, if you ask me) while undergoing minor surgery. The charges of obstructing full and unbiased disclosure of the scrolls\u2019 content have remained upon Israeli shoulders to this day.<\/p>\n 14)\u00a0\u00a0 So, where does all this leave us? This leaves us with the greatest archeological find of the twentieth century \u2013 a library of scriptures with an intriguing and bloody history, which have been the subject of some of the slickest scientific analysis known to man. Paradoxically, these scrolls convey a message of such importance that the Jewish keepers of the scrolls two thousand years ago died to preserve them, yet modern Jewish custodians struggle to convolute or conceal the religiously-revolutionary, theologically-threatening secret of the scrolls. And the final step in the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls will be exactly this \u2013 exposing their secret to the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Not all history is as dry as desert dust. Some is sprinkled with murder, mystery and intrigue. Now, I\u2019m not saying the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls reads like a James Bond...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119],"tags":[102,131],"class_list":["post-921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comparative-religion","tag-christianity","tag-dead-sea-scrolls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":923,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921\/revisions\/923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}