The Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Content

¶ … older than the previously established canon of Hebrew literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls add depth, nuance, and historic accuracy to the Biblical texts. Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran, the Masoritic texts provided the most reliable Hebrew primary source documents. These documents had been cross-referenced with the Septuagint and the Samaritan Pentateuch, and since the middle of the 20th century, the Dead Sea Scrolls (Lecture Notes, Part II). The Dead Sea Scrolls cover a relatively specific historical era, and a good portion of them substantiate previously known editions of the same Biblical books and thereby provide insight into how the stories encoded in these books evolved and changed over time and throughout the region. The Dead Sea Scrolls continue to impact scholarly and liturgical knowledge of the historical, linguistic, and cultural formation of the text and canon of the Hebrew Bible.

The diversity of texts found at Qumran also shows how Hebrew culture, worldview, and identity evolved. Similar themes run as threads throughout the traditional Biblical canon and the extra-canonical texts located in the Dead Sea Scroll collection such as the "Damascus Document," also known as the Zadokite Work fragments. In the Charles translation of the Damascus Document, themes such as remembrance of the covenant as a cornerstone of the relationship of the people to God remain salient: "But when He remembered the covenant of the forefathers, / He left a remnant to Israel, and gave them not over to destruction," (line 4). The same historical figures, incidents, and scenes are also mentioned in the Damascus Document as in the Pentateuch, including the role of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon (line 5). The condemnation of those who break the covenant with God, the wrath of God, and other core tools of social control and obedience are also major keynotes of the Damascus Document, as in previously known copies of Hebrew texts. Rather than issuing a more in-depth cosmology or theology of the Hebrew people, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide a more comprehensive overview of the social norms, customs, and worldviews of the people and epoch it covers. Evolving theological and cosmological content in the Hebrew canon is secondary to the historic, linguistic, and cultural developments the discovery of the Scrolls represents.

One of the most notable benefits of having access to the additional texts in the Dead Sea Scrolls is to bolster Biblical history and to help distinguish actual events from their literary counterparts. Therefore, the Dead Sea Scrolls serve a definitively archaeological purpose. As stated in the Lecture Notes, Part II, for example, 1 Samuel 11 in the Qumran edition contains information not found as readily in the Masoretic Text or the Septuagint. In particular, the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint do not clarify the logistical issues with Nahash attacking Jabesh-Gilead, which was "much further north than the contested boundary of the Ammonite land," (Lecture Notes, Part II, slide 13). The Dead Sea Scroll version of 1 Samuel 11 describes the king of Ammon, Nahash, in far greater detail than had previously been provided by the scribes who authored the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint. Nahash is presented as being singularly cruel, using "eye gouging" as one of many oppressive techniques used against Hebrew tribes like the Gadites and the Reubenites. Taken together as a set of historical documents, the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal the character of political leadership in Biblical times. Interestingly, Wright claims that some of the more controversial Dead Sea Scroll texts like 4 QMMT have a direct bearing on historical and even potentially theological understanding of Christianity. Generally, the Dead Sea Scroll texts offer enhancements of historical accuracy and cultural context, rather than of theological issues.

Linguistically, the Dead Sea Scrolls differ little from their sister texts in the Masoretic and Septuagint canon. Hebrew predominant, with Aramaic and even Greek additions provide insight into the cultural and linguistic character of the Levant region during the time of the Second Temple (Dryden). Moreover, the Book of Jubilees refers to Ethiopic texts that can help archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians understand the spread of Hebrew culture and tradition (Book of Jubilees, p. 3). Using language specific to their region of origin and audiences, the authors of the various texts including the Dead Sea Scroll texts and their subsequent counterparts left remarkable clues as to where, when, and how the information contained in the Hebrew canon of literature developed and also how far the cultural influence of the texts spread.

In addition to providing linguistic consonance among various Biblical texts, the Book of Jubilees in particular offers historians the unique opportunity to cross-reference chronologies. Phrases like the "divisions of days," which itself lends its name to a translated version of the Book of Jubilees, show how time periods both brief and inter-generational, can be sequenced with greater accuracy (Book of Jubilees, p. 1). Annual observances and Jubilees throughout the "years of the world" also demonstrate the means by which Hebrew customs and traditions became codified into common practice, passed down through multiple generations lasting until the present day (Book of Jubilees, p. 1). Given the importance of chronology in providing historical accuracy, it is also no wonder that the Dead Sea Scrolls offers anthropologists and archaeologists both the opportunity to clarify questions related to the origin and development of Jewish customs and holiday traditions. Jewish law including dietary law but also temple rituals is also outlined in the Dead Sea Scrolls. For example, the Mishmah Parah 3:7 discusses the sunset purification rites involving the separation of sacred and profane ritual and symbolic zones by the "elders of Israel," ("Jewish Groups in the Second Temple Period," p. 3).