Canon Group Essay 3

Here is my second essay for the Canon Group assignment.

3. The Dead Sea Scrolls

One of the most impactful discoveries for religious study and of great historical value, the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls, happened by chance. In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd boy stumbled upon the greatest finding of the century in a cave by Khirbet Qumran, which is about 35 kilometers east of Jerusalem. These were the Dead Sea Scrolls, which he proceeded to sell on the market. After traveling through different hands on the market, translators and Bible scholars found out about these scrolls, leading to a flood of archaeologists and bounty hunters setting out to find more. The fact that more original manuscripts of the Bible exist than those of popular classic literature such as Homer’s Iliad proves the authenticity and longevity of the Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain a majority of the original Old Testament Manuscripts. By about 1956 a majority of the scrolls, almost 950 texts including mostly fragments, in that region had been discovered in some eleven caves. People searched for these valuable documents, some of which can now be found in the Shrine of Books, and even found nearby treasures through clues from the texts such as copper. Near the lowest point of the earth, in a region where many Bible stories of the Old Testament take place, an ancient community – the Adat Hayahad or Essenes, possibly a reclusive Jewish sect broken off by controversies in the Temple – hid ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and other documents such as laws, calendars, and some apocryphal texts. Through different dating methods, scholars have found that the books span through the Hellenistic-Roman Period, ranging from the third century BCE to before 70 CE – approximately 250 BC to 50 AD. Mostly in the standard Jewish script, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain some paleo-Hebrew from the time of the First Temple, which helps scientists date the books.  Written in primarily Hebrew and some Greek or Aramaic, these thick parchment scrolls revolutionized the modern understanding of history and religion. Many texts within the collection contain records of the Adate Hayahad community showing the history, laws, practices, and even literature of the people. However, parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are also some of the oldest evidences and copies of many Hebrew Books; manuscripts of almost the entire Hebrew Bible, besides Esther, can be found within the group plus copies of some Psalms. These ancient scrolls back up the Bible like it never has been before and spurred on a whole new study of the Word, when they were found simply by accident.

Word Count: 422

Again, I used a lot from the notes provided by our teacher, but I also used some facts from the following two websites: http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/home, http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/