Greco-Roman Period
Lawrence H. Schiffman, From Text to Tradition, Ktav Publishing House, Hoboken, NJ, 1991.

The term Dead Sea Scrolls designates a corpus of manuscripts which have been discovered in the last forty years in the Judean Desert in caves along the Dead Sea. The main body of materials comes from Qumran, an area situated near the northern end of the Dead Sea, 8 1 /2 miles south of Jericho. The scrolls were collected by a sect of Jews in the Greco-Roman period. They were hidden in ancient times and rediscovered in 1947, when
a young Bedouin shepherd entered what is now designated as cave 1 and found several pottery jars containing leather scrolls wrapped in linen cloths. Starting in 1951 a steady stream of manuscripts was brought to light.

Actually, this was not the first discovery of its kind, for several accounts preserved by the church fathers indicate that scrolls were unearthed in the Dead Sea region as early as Roman and Byzantine times. Medieval accounts speak, as well, of an ancient Jewish sect of cave dwellers in the area.

The dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls was a subject of controversy from the very beginning. Some regarded the new texts as medieval Karaite documents. Others held that they dated from the Roman period, and some even thought they were of Christian origin. The dating question was resolved by means of several kinds of evidence.

Of primary importance was the archaeological excavation of the building complex on the plateau immediately below the caves. In the view of most scholars, this complex was connected with the scrolls. The residents of the complex copied many of the scrolls and were part of the sect described in some of the texts. Numismatic evidence has shown that the complex flourished from around 135 B.C.E. to 68 C.E. Occupation was interrupted
only briefly by an earthquake in 31 B.C.E.

Similar conclusions resulted from carbon-14 dating of the cloth wrappings in which the scrolls were found. Studies of the paleography (the form of the Hebrew letters in which the texts are written) have supported much the same dating. Scholars have identified the scrolls, therefore, as the library of a sect which occupied the Qumran area from after the Maccabean revolt of 168–164 B.C.E. until the Great Revolt of 66–73 C.E.

The many scrolls found in the Qumran caves can be divided into three main categories- biblical manuscripts, apocryphal compositions, and sectarian documents. Fragments of every book of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) have been unearthed at Qumran with the sole exception of Esther. Among the more important biblical scrolls are the two Isaiah scrolls (one is complete), and the fragments of Leviticus and Samuel (dated to the
third century B.C.E.). The study of the biblical texts from Qumran has given rise to a theory of local texts. This theory maintains that at the root of the variations are three recensions of the Hebrew Bible- One is the Palestinian, from which the Samaritan . Pentateuch is ultimately descended. A second is the Alexandrian, upon which the Septuagint is based. Finally, there is the Babylonian, which is the basis of the Masoretic (received and authoritative) Hebrew text fixed by the tannaim (the Mishnaic rabbis) in the late first century C.E. While the division of biblical manuscripts into three basic
families has much to recommend it, it is unlikely that these text types originated outside of the Land of Israel. Further, recent studies show that the proto-Masoretic texts are the most common and that only a few proto-Samaritan or Septuagintal texts can be identified. In addition, there are a substantial number of manuscripts written in a form peculiar to the Qumran sect.

The contribution of the biblical scrolls to our understanding of the history of the biblical text and versions cannot be overstated. We now know of the fluid state of the Scripturesvvin the last years of the Second Temple. With the help of the biblical scrolls from Masada and the Bar Kokhba caves, it is possible to trace the early stages of the standardizationv process that ultimately led to the final acceptance of the Masoretic (received) Hebrew text as authoritative by the first-century rabbis. We can understand as well the manner in which local texts played a role in this history, and finally, the nature of the Hebrew texts which served as the basis for the ancient translations of the Bible.

By far the most interesting materials among the Dead Sea Scrolls are the sectarian compositions. These are the writings of the sect which inhabited Qumran. They consist of biblical commentaries and documents outlining the regulations by which the sect was governed, its approach to Jewish law, and its messianic yearnings.

The Pesharim were the sect’s biblical commentaries. They seek to show how the present pre-messianic age (i.e., the era in which the scrolls were written) is the fulfillment of the words of the prophets. As such, they provide an important source for an understanding of the sect’s self-image and view of its own history and place in the general society. These Pesharim include commentaries to Habbakuk, Nahum, and some of the psalms. It is only in the commentaries that we find the names of actual historical figures who lived in the period during which Qumran was occupied.

Another of the manuscripts in the Qumran collection was the Damascus Document, also known as the Zadokite Fragments. Two copies of this work, dating from the tenth and twelfth centuries C.E., had been among the Hebrew manuscripts that Solomon Schechter had found in the genizah (“storehouse”) of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, and brought to Cambridge University in England in 1896. Until the discovery at Qumran the Damascus Document, which detailed the life and teachings of an otherwise unknown Jewish sect, had been regarded as a strange composition of quite uncertain provenance. It now became apparent that it had been written by the Qumran sect and thus that at least one Dead Sea text had continued to circulate in the Middle Ages.

Admission into the Qumran sect, the conduct of daily affairs, and the penalties for violating its law are the subjects of the Manual of Discipline (Rule of the Community). This text makes clear the role of ritual purity and impurity in defining membership in the sect, and, as well, details the annual mustering ceremony and covenant renewal. Appended to it are the Rule of the Congregation, which describes the community at the end ofdays, and the Rule of Benedictions,which contains praises of the sect’s leaders. The Thanksgiving Scroll contains a series of poems describing the beliefs and theology
of the sect. Many scholars attribute its authorship to the so-called teacher of righteousness (or “correct teacher”) who led the sect in its early years.

The Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness details the eschatological war. In it, the sect and the angels fight systematically against the nations and the evildoers of Israel for forty years, after which the end of days dawns. This scroll is notable for its information on the art of warfare in the Greco-Roman period. Unique is the Temple Scroll, an idealized description of the Jerusalem Temple and its cult, including, as well, various other aspects of Jewish law. The text takes the form of a rewritten Torah, and the various verses dealing with the subjects at hand are harmonized
into one consistent whole. Debate surrounding this text concerns the question of whether it is actually a sectarian scroll or simply part of the sect’s library like the biblical and apocryphal compositions described above. Numerous smaller texts throw light on mysticism, prayer, and sectarian law. Many of these texts have not yet been published or await thorough study.

Exceedingly significant is a still unpublished text called the Miqsat Ma’aseh Ha-Torah (literally, Some Matters Relating to the Torah), referred to in chapter 6 in connection with the Sadducees. Described as a “halakhic letter,” it is written in the form of a letter from the leaders of the sect to the Jerusalem establishment, outlining the disagreements over Jewish law and Temple practice that had caused the sectarians to secede. The text
indicates that there were close connections between the founders of the sect and the Sadducean priesthood, and demonstrates, as we have noted, that views later attributed to the Pharisees governed actual practice in the Jerusalem Temple in Hasmonean times. The Dead Sea Scrolls have illuminated the background for the emergence of Rabbinic (Mishnaic) Judaism and early Christianity. While many of the detailed comparisons that have been suggested do not have adequate support, the more general conclusions reached by scholars are very important. We now know that as a result of the Great Revolt of 66– 73 C.E., and to some extent even in the years preceding it, Judaism was moving toward a consensus that would carry it through the Middle Ages. As Talmudic Judaism emerged from the ashes of the destruction, groups like the Dead Sea sect fell by the wayside. Nonetheless, the scrolls allow us an important glimpse of the nature of Jewish law, theology, and eschatology as understood by one of these sects.

The scrolls show us that the Second Commonwealth period was an era in which Jews engaged in a vibrant religious life based on study of the Holy Scriptures, interpretation of Jewish law, the practice of ritual purity, and messianic aspirations. Jewish practices known from later texts, such as the putting on of tefillin (phylacteries), daily prayer, and grace before and after meals, were regularly practiced. Rituals were seen as a preparation
for the soon-to-dawn end of days which would usher in a life of purity and perfection. The scrolls, therefore, have shown us that Jewish life and law were already considerably developed in this period. Although we cannot expect a linear development between the Judaism of the scrolls and that of the later rabbis, since the rabbis were heir to the tradition of the Pharisees, we can still derive great advantage from the scrolls in our understanding of the early history of Jewish law. Here, for the first time, we have a fully developed system of postbiblical law and ritual.

At the same time, it is now clear that the sect, emphasizing as it does the apocalyptic visions of the prophets, provides us with a background for understanding the emerging Christian claims of messiahship for Jesus. The Dead Sea Scrolls are especially illuminating with regard to the world-view of early Christianity. This is true despite the fact that the Dead Sea sect, and for that matter all the known Jewish sects of Second Temple times, adhered strictly to Jewish law as they interpreted it.