The Dead Sea Scrolls

Dead Sea Scrolls

According to Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, the Dead Sea Scrolls, since their discovery in the Judaean desert and their arrival at the various institutions that retain them today, have created "a contradiction. . . between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith" and have indicated "how explosive a non-partisan examination of the scrolls might be for the whole of Christian theological tradition" (xii).

With this in mind, it is clear that the Dead Sea Scrolls contain historical information that could, in essence, upset the entire scheme of things in relation to the life of Jesus Christ and his role in the history of his people, being the Israelite Jews. Thus, the overall importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls lies in the fact that what theologians and religious historians currently accept as the truth concerning the history of Palestine and the role of Jesus within it may be inaccurate with the result being a complete re-writing of history as it is reflected in the scrolls.

One of the first scholars to actually see and photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948 was John Trever, who has provided a highly-researched and documented history of the initial find at Qumran. According to Trever's account, three Bedouin shepherds were in the area of Qumran, located on the northwest side of the Dead Sea, in the spring of 1947. During this time, the area was under the control of the British Mandate in Palestine, and the shepherds were apparently tending their flocks when one of them casually began to throw stones at what appeared to be the opening of a cave just west of the plateau at Qumran.

One of these stones entered the cave opening and the shepherd heard something break. Two days later, another shepherd became curious, went back to the cave site and managed to squeeze into the narrow and hazardous opening of the cave. Inside, he found ten jars, each being about two feet in height; however, all but two of them were empty, with one holding only dirt. But inside the other jar, the shepherd discovered three scrolls with two of them wrapped in linen cloth. After removing the scrolls from the cave, the shepherd presented them to the authorities who later identified them as copies of the Book of Isaiah from the Old Testament, the Manual of Discipline which set forth the rules for a community, and a commentary on the prophesies of Habakkuk (Trever 135).

The contents of the scrolls have been debated since their discovery, yet it is clear that they contain two different types of religious writings, being the biblical and the non-biblical. Michael Wise points out that the biblical texts "are copies of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) which form about one-quarter of the total number of scrolls in the collection." The scrolls also represent "the oldest group of Old Testament manuscripts ever found, at least a thousand years older than the traditional Hebrew texts from the early medieval period" which serves as the foundation for modern Biblical translations (11). The non-Biblical scroll, namely, the 'Community Rule,' contains "the rituals and regulations governing life in the desert community. . . A hierarchy of authority (and) instructions for the master of the community. . . principles of behavior and punishment for the violation of these principles" (Baigent 140).

In March of 1947, the scrolls were brought Khalil Iskandar Shahin, a member of the Syrian Orthodox Church. He then contacted another church member named George Isaiah who then contacted St. Mark's Monastery in Jerusalem. Of course, since the scrolls had never been fully examined at this time, no one knew what they contained, what language they were written in or how much they might be worth to international collectors. Certain members of the monastery then tried to obtain expert advice about the scrolls and one of those contacted was Professor Eleazar Sukenik of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem who showed much interest in purchasing them.

It seems that originally there had been seven scrolls instead of three discovered in the cave at Qumran; these other four contained a collection of psalms, another partial copy of the Book of Isaiah, the War Scroll which described the final battle between the "sons of light" and the "sons of darkness," and the Genesis Apocryophon, being stories based on certain narratives found in the Book of Genesis.

Not too long after Sukenik bought three of the scrolls, other interested parties had managed to identify the original Isaiah scroll; Sukenik then considered the possibility that the scrolls might be linked to the Essenes, for the Roman geographer Pliny had described a group of Essenes living near the shores of the Dead Sea not too far from where the scrolls were first discovered. In his Natural History (volume five), Pliny relates that the Essenes were "remarkable beyond all the other tribes in the whole world, as it has no women and has renounced all sexual desire. . . " (Baigent 20), a statement that makes it highly feasible that Jesus may have been a member of this religious and dogmatic tribe living along the banks of the Dead Sea.

While the tale of the seven mysterious scrolls and their ultimate fate contains many strange coincidences, most of the information about them was published about three or four years after their discovery in the caves of Qumran. For example, the American Schools of Oriental Research published photographs and transcriptions of the Isaiah scroll, the commentary on Habakkuk and the Manual of Discipline in 1950 and 1951, while those purchased by Sukenik appeared to a volume dated 1954, a short time after his death. The last of the seven scrolls to appear, being the Genesis Apocryphon, was not so fortunate, due to being in a bad state of decay, yet when it was finally examined and read, the results were published in 1956.

As of 1994, a total of eleven caves at Qumran have provided approximately 800 manuscripts and it is clear that some of them were copied and written at Qumran while others bear evidence of being written or copied at another location. As to their dates, it has been determined that some of the scrolls were created in the 3rd or early 2nd century B.C.E, while others date from about the time of Christ, circa 25-30 a.D. Of course, for many modern-day Jews, the most important scrolls are the Biblical ones.

The latest list of the Biblical manuscripts include the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial and the Twelve Prophets; Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and finally 1st and 2nd Chronicles, all of which make up the Old Testament with the first five books comprising the Pentateuch, those most sacred to the Jewish people.

These numbers provide a reasonable estimate as to where the Qumran group placed its cultural and societal importance. The Psalms could have been used for many purposes, such as for worship and meditation; the legal books ( first five excluding Genesis) may have served as the authoritative foundation for the way of life developed by the group; the book of Isaiah may have helped the group to understand religious predictions and the messianic leaders that were prophetized to appear, including Jesus Christ. The low number of historical books could mean that historical facts played a rather minor role for those at Qumran. It should be pointed out that the Essenes, quite possibly the group that wrote and copied these Biblical texts, may have had Jesus of Nazareth as one of their members.

Around 1907, some forty years before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was reported in the German text of the Crucifixion by an Eye-Witness that Jesus was the son of an Essene teacher whose knowledge "of secret Essene medical knowledge enabled him not just to survive the crucifixion but also to appear to his disciples afterwards as if 'risen from the dead'" ( Baigent 167-68).

The other manuscripts that make up the Dead Sea Scrolls include the Targums, or those translated from Hebrew into Aramaic, the language of Jesus; the Tefillin and Mezuot, parchments containing passages from Exodus and Deuteronomy; the Apocrypha books, made up of the Tobit (a dramatic story of a Jewish exile from the northern kingdom of Israel), the Sirach (the wisdom of Jesus ben Sira, a Jewish teacher), the letter of Jeremiah (an attack on idolatry) and Psalm 151 (an extra psalm similar to that of King David); the Pseudepigrapha (Jewish religious books that did not become part of the Hebrew Bible), composed of Enoch, the Jubilees (a re-telling of the Biblical stories of creation), the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (the twelve sons of Jacob), and the New Pseudepigrapha, a collection of Biblically-related stories and tales of Jacob, Moses, Joshua and Kings Samuel and David.

Without a doubt, one of the most fascinating and important aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls is their relationship to the New Testament. Some of the greatest controversies about the scrolls revolve around their possible connections with early Christianity and even Jesus Christ. Since the beginning of the Qumran studies, many scholars have noticed very close parallels between the scrolls and the books of the New Testament. For the most part, these connections are in the realm of ideas and suggestions and should not be construed as being totally accurate nor truthful, due to the fact that the fragments that point to these connections are just that, mere fragments that once made up a complete text but are now utterly lost to time and decay. Most importantly, the scrolls never mention the name of Jesus Christ, although it is possible that he was included in the scrolls at some time.

According to French scholar Andre Dupont-Sommer who studied the Dead Sea Scrolls in the early 1950's, there are amazing parallels between what the scrolls define as the "Teacher of Righteousness" and Jesus Christ. In one section translated by Dupont-Sommers, we find the following:

"The Galilean Master, as He is presented to us in the writings of the New Testament, appears in many respects as an astonishing reincarnation of the Master of Justice. Like the latter, He preached penitence, poverty, humility, love of one's neighbor, and chastity. Like Him, he prescribed the observance of the Laws of Moses. . .Like him, He was the Elect and the Messiah of God, the Messiah redeemer of the world. Like him, He was the object of hostility of the priests. . . Like him, He was condemned and put to death. . .Like him, He founded a Church whose adherents fervently awaited His glorious return" (Rowley 99).

Although some of these translations are based on misreadings of the Qumran texts, the judgments of Dupont-Sommer reached a vast audience, no doubt due to their obvious reflections of Jesus Christ. Not surprisingly, Dupont-Sommer met with some fierce opposition, especially from Jewish and Christian scholars whom Dupont-Sommer explained "were reluctant to admit the full extent of what the scrolls implied because it would unsettle their coveted religious assumptions." Also, Dupont-Sommer declared that the Jewish scholars were "too anxious to protect the authority of the Masoretic Text and were hardly willing to admit that Christianity was a natural development from any sort of Judaism" (Rowley 145).

While most scholars have devised a number of controversial conclusions regarding the Dead Sea Scrolls and its relationship to Christianity, some have been busy at work in attempting to establish exactly what the similarities and differences are between the New Testament and the scrolls. The results have been, to say the least, confusing and at times remarkable. One scholar from Yale University did much research on the similarities between John and the covenanters, Jesus the teacher and the messages that each provided. Some of the similarities were quite eye-opening, such as the communal structure (i.e. The non-priests in the Qumran group as opposed to the Biblical apostles), the form of worship, community practices, religious doctrines and the interpretation of the scriptures.

After a long and intensive study of these specifics, this scholar concluded that "after studying the Dead Sea Scrolls for seven years, I do not find my understanding of the New Testament substantially affected. Its Jewish background is clearer and better understood, but its meaning has neither been changed nor significantly clarified" (Burrows 343).

To further understand the connections between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament, we must consider several important aspects. First, before the scrolls were discovered, very little Hebrew or Aramaic literature from the last centuries B.C.E. And the first century a.D. existed in extant copies. However, since the discovery of the scrolls, this has changed radically, for scholars now have at their disposal a good body of Hebrew and Aramaic texts which supply valuable data concerning the spoken languages of Palestine during the years before and after the life and death of Jesus Christ. Second, although most scholars do not believe that the scrolls are highly reflective of the New Testament, some are convinced that parts of some New Testament books were based on the scrolls from Qumran. In Second Corinthians (6:14-7:1), one finds the following section:

"I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you, and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

These six verses from the New Testament contain some very Qumran-sounding words and phrases. In this passage, Paul the Apostle is attempting to convert the Corinthians to purity which is related to holiness; purity was, of course, "a central tenet at Qumran and with the Essenes. However, it is not possible to prove that Paul took these words from the Essenes or from any work linked to the scrolls, but in the same section of Second Corinthians, Paul does in fact use language that can often be found in the Qumran documents" (Rowley 214).

Another section of the Dead Sea Scrolls with associations with the New Testament is found in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, chapters 5-7. Some of the expressions are quite similar as those in the New Testament, such as "poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3 and the War Rules 14.7). There are also a number of attitudes used in the Sermon on the Mount that are very reminiscent of some Essene traits, one being the "duty to turn the other cheek" as found in the Manual of Discipline.