The Dead Sea Scrolls are widely recognized as one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century. They are especially priceless to the fields of biblical studies, Judaism, and early Christianity. Last week, Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of additional scroll fragments recovered from the Judean desert south of Jerusalem, just west of the Dead Sea. These pieces are the first new Dead Sea scroll discoveries in more than 60 years.
What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
In 1947, Bedouin shepherds from Bethlehem stumbled upon several large clay jars in a desert cave near the Dead Sea. When they opened one of those jars, they discovered four bundles wrapped in linen. The bundles contained parchment scrolls that included a complete copy of the Book of Isaiah, a commentary on the Book of Habakkuk, and a document that would be named the “Manual of Discipline” because it governed life in a local religious community. The fourth scroll that the shepherds found that day did not survive to be examined by archaeologists. These scrolls were the first of approximately 900 manuscripts that would be recovered from a total of eleven caves in the area. Most were fragmentary, but among the finds were twelve fully intact scrolls, including the Isaiah scroll from the original find.
More than 200 of the recovered manuscripts are texts from the Bible. They include 39 manuscripts from Psalms, 36 from Deuteronomy, and 22 from Isaiah. The Dead Sea Scrolls date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D., and apart from a few small, earlier fragments, they are the earliest biblical manuscripts that we have. In addition to biblical material, the scroll finds have yielded documents containing interpretations of biblical texts and sectarian literature related to the beliefs and rules of the nearby religious community of Qumran. While most of the texts are Hebrew, the scrolls also include some Aramaic and Greek manuscripts.
What is the new discovery?
The newest parchment fragments recovered from the region contain Greek texts from the biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, they date from around the first century A.D. About 80 pieces were found, and experts believe that they belong to a scroll that was stashed in the cave during an armed uprising against the Romans between 132 and 136 A.D. called the Bar Kochba revolt.
An important feature of the new discovery is a slight variation in the biblical text that gives a Greek rendering of the Hebrew that is different from other known Greek manuscripts. Studying the similarities and differences in ancient Bible manuscripts helps us to understand where the text stood at certain times and how the text came to be in its traditional form. This also helps in establishing the most accurate manuscript traditions from which to do Bible translation today.
Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls so important?
As a general rule, the older a biblical manuscript is, the more helpful it is for accessing the original text. We do not have original manuscripts of any Old or New Testament material, so we rely on later copies of those original texts. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the earliest Old Testament copies that we had dated from about the ninth century A.D. With that historic find beginning in 1947, our earliest Old Testament manuscripts jumped back one thousand years. One of the most remarkable features of the discoveries is the amazing continuity between the scrolls and those later copies. They are nearly identical, which speaks to the stability of the text’s transmission over the centuries and consequently to its reliability. Such continuity is staggering given the fact that these texts were copied by hand so many times over so many years.
In addition to the insight that the Dead Sea Scrolls give us into the history and transmission of the text itself, they also give us a window into ancient Jewish belief and practice. Judaism had multiple expressions that were lived out among various sects, including Jewish messianic communities of the kind represented in the sectarian Dead Sea Scroll documents. For Christian studies, this provides not only additional Jewish background, but a parallel to the early Christian community.
The fact that we are continually adding to the data that help us to understand the text, the world, and the meaning of Bible is exciting! I will blog more about the Dead Sea Scrolls from time to time between now and our next trip to the Holy Land. Subscribe to the blog in the sidebar to the right of this post and stay tuned!
