Qumran is located on a small plateau by the Dead Sea.
Nothing grows naturally at Qumran. It is hot. It is barren. It is rock. Two
thousand years ago, the only sound you would hear at Qumran would be the wind
whistling up the wadi cliffs and the constant buzz of insects. The only moving
things there would be snakes, lizards, and bugs. About 2,200 years ago, a group
settled at Qumran and built a fortress with a watchtower. They created a water
system which enabled them to catch and channel enough rain water for drinking
purposes, laundry purposes, and their daily ritual purification rites. There
was also a writing room, a communal dining room, and, in the cliffs above the
community, small caves ideal for privacy and meditation.
This community was unknown fifty years ago. The story of its
discovery is really very exciting. Eliezer Sukenik was
an archaeologist in Palestine in the 1940's (when Palestine was under British
rule). One day a dealer in antiques showed him some scrolls. Professor Sukenik
immediately asked him where the scrolls had been found. The dealer didn't
answer at that point, but, with time, the story came out. A Bedouin (desert
nomad) boy had lost a goat. He was looking for him in the cliffs along the Dead
Sea. While looking, he crawled into some small caves. In one of them, he found
some jars. He opened one hoping to find something valuable but was very
disappointed to only old pieces of parchment. He took some of them home with
him anyway hoping to sell them to an antique dealer. He succeeded, and some of
the scrolls were delivered to Sukenik. After some more intrigue in 1954, Sukenik's
son, Yigael Yadin, succeeded in acquiring four more major scrolls. They are one
of the most exciting finds of the 20th century, catching the attention of
laymen and scholars alike.
The parchments were written in Pre-Christian Hebrew and included fragments from
23 books of the Bible (there are 24 books; nothing was found from the Book of
Esther). Parchments have been found in eleven caves around Qumran. Of the five
hundred fragments uncovered, the most exciting finds were a complete scroll of
Isaiah; a commentary to the Book of Habbakuk; some texts describing the
theology and organization of the community, and the Temple Scroll.
The Manual of Discipline, one of the community books, describes the
organization of the community and the role of the leader, the Righteous One.
Another text, the Manual of War, was an apocalyptic book describing the final
battle which the writer believed was right around the corner. The battle was
going to be between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness.
These texts led scholars to envision a community of Israelite ascetics living
by the Dead Sea. They were greatly influenced by Zoroastrianism, with its
vision of duality between Light and Darkness. The community viewed the physical
as bad and the spiritual as good. Light (good) needed all the help it could get
fighting Darkness (evil). They viewed themselves as the Sons of Light preparing
(spiritually) for the Final Battle against the Sons of Darkness. These
preparations included frequent ritual purification and avoidance of any
physical pleasures.
Basing their life style on the verse in Isaiah 40: The voice of him cries,
"In the wilderness prepare the Way of
Yahowah," the community dressed in white robes, regularly purified
themselves with water, grew small plots of vegetables, and thoroughly studied
the Scriptures. Some of their group were scribes, writing out the sacred texts
(hence the presence of scrolls).
This description matches (more or less) Josephus' description of Essenes.
Yigael Yadin, who translated and explicated the Temple Scroll, believed that it
was considered to be a sacred book by the community. He went so far as to
suggest that they viewed it as an additional book of the Torah. It was written
in the first person (by YHWH)to Moses; it combined a variety of commandments
found in separate places in the Torah demonstrating a different editing of
Torah than the text we now use; it added numerous laws unknown in Jewish
tradition including a Wine Festival and a different calendar. It included
numerous laws about ritual purity that were much more rigid than those found in
the Torah or rabbinic texts, and it included legislation about kings which
provide us with insights into the political situation in the 2nd century BCE.
Its major section is a description of the design and construction of the Temple
(hence its title: The Temple Scroll).
The Qumran community was occupied for almost 500 years, a long time for a
celibate commune. The people apparently did not live within the fortress; they
probably slept either in tents or in caves.
Along with the finds already mentioned, a pair of tefillin were found at
Qumran, showing that the ritual dated back to at least the 2nd century BCE.
Scholars were thrilled with the discovery of these scrolls (now called the Dead
Sea Scrolls, although the tefillin are called the Qumran Tefillin). They are
the oldest examples we have of
any biblical works; Comparative analysis with more recent writings have
provided scholars with opportunities to compare differences.. They demonstrate
that there were some Israelite ascetic communities. They corroborate Josephus'
description of the existence of Essene-like Judeans. They show some parallels
to the description of Yahchonan the Baptists. They make more plausible some of
the descriptions about Yahoshua Ben Yosef and his preaching.
Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls (along with Bar Kochba materials) are beautifully
housed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in a special building called the
Shrine of the Book. Shaped like the top of a white clay jar with a slab of
black next to it (symbolizing Light and Darkness...), the Shrine of the Book is
one of the more popular tourist sites in Jerusalem. Other fragments are being
studied at the Rockefeller Museum (also in Jerusalem).