Difference between revisions of "Dead Sea scrolls"

Revision as of 22:05, June 22, 2007

The first Dead Sea Scrolls to be found, were discovered by Bedouin shepards in 1947 who uncovered seven scrolls in a cave. In the following decade, further searches yielded many thousands of scroll fragments and there are currently approximately 850 such documents known to exist. A nearby habitation, known as Qumran, was also excavated in this time in an effort to identify the people who left the scrolls in the caves.

Within a fairly short time after their discovery, historical, paleographic, and linguistic evidence, as well as carbon-14 dating, established that the scrolls and the Qumran ruin dated from the third century B.C. to 68 A.D. From the standpoint of biblical archeology, this was unparalleled. Coming from the late Second Temple Period, a time when Jesus of Nazareth lived, they are older than any other surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures by almost one thousand years. ^[1]

Scholars have pointed to similarities between beliefs and practices outlined in the Qumran literature and those of early Christians. ^[2] The Biblical Scrolls' contents focus the books from the Old Testament. The Scrolls are written in Hebrew and in Aramaica with a few texts in Greek. Many of the scrolls are now conserved in Jerusalem.

Most part of the biblical books that have survived two millennia in the caves are extremely fragmented; many are no larger than the size of a postcard, and some fragments are as small as a postage stamp. Even the smallest fragment, however, can add to our knowledge of the Bible.... With the exception of the book of Esther, every book of the Old Testament has been found in the Qumran caves. ^[3]

See also

• Yahweh
• Bible
• Messiah

External links

• The Qumran Library
• 25 Facts
• Dead Sea Scrolls & Qumran

References

1. ↑ THE WORLD OF THE SCROLLS Library of Congress Exhibitions.
2. ↑ JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY AND THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS Library of Congress Exhibitions.
3. ↑ Old Testament Texts at Qumran

Sources

• Burrows, M., The Dead Sea Scrolls (Secker & Warburg, 1956).
• Vermes, G., The Dead Sea Scrolls (Penguin, 1968).