Overview Overview- Discovery and Acquisition Primary sources The Bible Scholar Who Became an Undercover Agent, Harry M. Orlinsky, Biblical Archaeology Review (18:4), Jul/Aug. 1992. Secondary sources Discovery and Acquisition, 1947–1956, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1994. Early Publication Efforts, 1953–1967, Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, […]
During period Ib there were some workshops at Qumran. One in particular was used for making pottery. It had facilities for washing the clay in a shallow tank, a potter’s wheel, and kilns. It is likely that much of the pottery found at Qumran, which represents a particular, consistent, yet unique collection of styles, […]
In 1954, the Syrian Metropolitan was still in possession of four large manuscripts. He was unwilling to sell to Israel for political reasons, but had been unable to attract a high enough price elsewhere. In desperation, he placed an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal on June 1, in which he suggested that the […]
ISAIAH SCROLL, THE (1QIsaa) Nineteen copies of the book of Isaiah have been found among the Qumran biblical mss. Most of these are very fragmentary. The most important among them are two scrolls coming from cave 1, in particular the scroll 1QIsa.a The second, 1QIsab, only preserves a part of the text of Isaiah, because […]
The Dead Sea Scrolls The Temple Scroll is the longest Dead Sea Scroll (over 28 feet, preserved almost to its entire length) and one of the most important. It was excavated by Bedouin in Cave 11 in 1956 (since then no more scrolls have been discovered at Qumran).a The Dead Sea Scrolls can be divided […]
Edited by Prof. Lawrence H. Schiffman You can start by reading our Overview or by choosing one of the sections below- Introduction- The Dead Sea Scrolls History of Scholarship Discovery and Acquisition Publication and Preservation Excavation The Settlement and Community at Qumran Background Identification of the Sect Religious Life at Qumran The Scrolls Biblical Literature […]
In early 1947 (or late 1946) an Arab shepherd searching for a lost sheep threw a rock into a cave in the limestone cliffs on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Instead of a bleating sheep, he heard the sound of breaking pottery. When he investigated, he found seven nearly intact ancient documents that […]
1QIsaa was among the first mss first discovered by the bedouin at the end of 1946 or the beginning of 1947. It was also the first to be identified. Physically, the scroll is made up of seventeen sheepskin sheets, sewn together by a linen thread. Its average height is 26.2 cm, and it is 7.34 […]
Secondary sources Frequently Asked Questions about the Dead Sea Scrolls What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? Lawrence H. Schiffman, COJS. Dead Sea Scrolls Overview The Dead Sea Scrolls Timeline The Dead Sea Scrolls, John J. Collins, Anchor Bible Dictionary (ed. David Noel Freedman), Doubleday, NY, 1992, Vol.2, p.85-101. Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha, and the Dead Sea Scrolls, […]
The more than one thousand pottery vessels stacked according to type and located in a pantry next door to the dining room, together with the nearby kitchen, containing several fireplaces, have indicated that the group using these facilities held communal meals at Qumran.