What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of approximately 850 ancient Jewish manuscripts and 15,000 fragments dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE. Discovered in the Qumran Caves near the Dead Sea between 1946 and 1956, they include biblical texts, deuterocanonical works, and extrabiblical books. These documents illuminate the origins of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, and they are mostly housed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

What we know

• The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of about 850 manuscripts and 15,000 fragments from ancient Judaism, originating mainly from the Qumran Caves. [1, 2]
• The scrolls were discovered between 1946 and 1956 in the West Bank near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. [2]
• Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, the collection includes the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire biblical books. [2]
• Most of the manuscripts are written in Hebrew, with others in Aramaic and a few in Greek. [2]

Still open

• While archaeologists have long associated the scrolls with the ancient Jewish sect known as the Essenes, some recent interpretations challenge this connection and argue they were written by Jerusalem priests or other unknown groups.
• The Israeli government's custody of the scrolls is disputed by Jordan and the Palestinian Authority on territorial, legal, and humanitarian grounds.

Where to go next

• a case in pointWhat is the Great Isaiah Scroll?
• how we knowHow do the scrolls illuminate the history of Second Temple Judaism?
• whereWhere are the Dead Sea Scrolls currently exhibited?
• the bigger pictureWhat daily life and practices defined the Second Temple period?
• whenHow did Bedouin shepherds discover the first caves in 1947?
• an unexpected connectionWhy does a copper artifact appear among parchment and papyrus manuscripts?While the vast majority of the Dead Sea Scrolls are written on parchment and papyrus, the collection uniquely includes a text inscribed on a sheet of copper.

Sources

• [1]Dead Sea scrolls (Wikidata Q145780) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Dead Sea Scrolls · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Isaiah Scroll · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]History in the Dead Sea Scrolls · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Dead Sea Discoveries · CC BY-SA 4.0

Your path

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