The Dead Sea Scrolls for Beginners

A Primer on What They Are, Who Wrote Them, and Why They Matter

In this guest blog series, Dr. Andrew Perrin explores key topics and texts from his new book Lost Words and Forgotten Worlds: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls. Follow him on YouTube for more insights into ancient scribes, scrolls, and scriptures.

Crash Course on the Dead Sea Scrolls

Maybe you’ve heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Perhaps you’ve heard a “dad joke” about the Dead Sea Squirrels. Either way, these incredible manuscripts and archaeological discoveries warrant an introduction. After all, they are arguably the most impactful discovery of modern times and are unquestionably a discovery of literal biblical significance. This short article is a crash course of “must know” information on the Dead Sea Scrolls answering key questions about when they were found, who wrote them, and what they do (or don’t do) for our understanding of biblical texts and their ancient contexts.

What are the Dead Sea Scrolls and Who Wrote Them?

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of some 930 fragmentary manuscripts discovered in eleven caves off the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. More recent discoveries suggest there are (or were) likely other caves in the Judaean wilderness that held texts. The majority of scroll finds, however, occurred in in the late-1940s through mid-1950s in eleven caves dotting this arid and rugged wilderness near the saltiest body of water on earth, about a half hour drive from Jerusalem.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were copied and/or collected by an ancient Jewish scribal community that lived at the site of Qumran between about 100 BCE to 68 CE. The group was likely part of an Essene movement. Their group separated themselves from wider society and lived out a communal life structured around purity practices, the rhythm and ritual of liturgy, and a fervent expectation of imminent divine rule. All these ideas, practices, and community structures are steeped in, and shaped by, their deep engagement with the Hebrew Scriptures, read through the revelatory and authoritative lens of their “Teacher of Righteousness,” and informed by other emerging traditions, like those associated with Enoch. As such, the collection includes texts that outline the ideas and ideals of the community (sometimes called “sectarian” texts) on a range of topics including liturgy, apocalypticism, scriptural interpretation, and wisdom.

But not all texts are sectarian. The Dead Sea Scrolls include our earliest copies of most books that are later canonized in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. Esther, for example, is famously absent either by accident or intent. The anthology of writings of the Qumran community also includes several writings that were clearly read by this Essene group but were not written by them. These writings often provide a lens into the thought, life, literature, identities, and history of the wider landscape of ancient Judaism in the mid- to late-Second Temple period (ca. 300 BCE – 68 CE). While the Qumran sectarian documents appear to be all written in Hebrew, the scrolls reflect the linguistic variety of this period with materials penned (or translated) in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

The end of this period saw the tragic destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans who were quelling a Jewish revolt. This not only resulted in a seismic shift in Jewish culture but also spelled the end for the Qumran community. As the Romans gave chase to a group of Jewish rebels fleeing into the Judaean wilderness, the Qumranites were caught in the cross hairs and swept off the map in a violent battle attested to in the archaeological record by ash and arrow heads at the site of their sectarian home. While there was no doubt many texts and artefacts damaged in this destruction, those tucked away in the caves became an accidental time capsule that remained undiscovered for nearly 2,000 years.

When and How were the Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered?

The first Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered in 1947. As excitement built around the early finds, more and more ventures were made by both Bedouin folk living in the region and archaeologists attempting to seek and secure more manuscripts in caves in the Judean Desert. The eleven caves that are part of the early discovery history of the scrolls were all identified by January 1956, with the largest one (Cave Four) not identified until August of 1952. Even if you’ve never seen a Dead Sea Scroll or visited the site of Qumran, you might recognize the now iconic image of Cave Four, which has become synonymous with the discoveries. Ironically, it is a stone’s throw away from the Qumran archaeological site—it was literally hiding in plain sight.

Speaking of stones, perhaps you’ve heard the common tale of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It generally goes something like this. A young Bedouin lad was herding goats. As boys are known to do, he was curious, and aimless, tossing stones. Yet when he tossed a stone into the craggy cliffs of the Judaean desert, he heard a “clink.” He either looked or clambered into the cave where the stone landed. His initial reconnaissance mission confirmed this was neither a normal nor empty cave: there were jars, scrolls, and who knows what other treasure (or evil spirits!) might be within. Taking flight with intrigue and adrenaline, he returned to his tribespeople and shared the news of the peculiar yet promising find. He and others would then return later to extract bundles of leather manuscripts. After discussing maybe making sandals of them, the Bedouin opted for turning a profit and began brokering them through an intermediary. This accidental discovery meant the scrolls could be saved and studied by western scholars.

This is a great story but is it fact? That is the question. Even my paraphrase above draws upon elements from a few different yet common versions of the discovery tale. Like all good stories, there are variations and competing versions. Like all great stories, these have now been retold and reshaped down through generations. There is a blend of mythmaking, memory, history, and historiography at play here.

There are basic elements of this narrative that certainly are true. As far as we know, the texts originated in caves though most were not found in situ (that is, in a controlled archaeological dig). Several members of the Ta’amireh Bedouin tribe were crucial in these early discoveries and they continued to play a role in both finding and brokering materials as early scrolls scholars and archaeologists tried to outpace them in their desert going scroll missions.

But when we read the discovery story of the Dead Sea Scrolls alongside other manuscript discoveries from about the same time, like the Nag Hammadi texts, it is clear that these stories are often told with a similar arc: an accidental find, scrolls in jars, caricatured natives looking to exploit the finds, and western scholars swooping as if Indiana Jones to rescue writings of historical, biblical, and theological significance.

Not unlike how the actual texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls require careful interpretation, we can (should and even need to) critically interpret this modern story in order to untangle fact from fable. This also helps provide a new framing for our approach to the Dead Sea Scrolls today. With an outline of what the Dead Sea Scrolls are, and a more nuanced understanding of how these ancient texts emerged in the modern world, we can now encounter them for how they challenged, changed, our confirmed our understanding of the making and meanings of scriptures in their ancient contexts.

What Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Reveal about the Words and Worlds of Scripture?

If the first generation or two of scrolls scholars’ primary job was the arduous and detailed work of deciphering what the texts say (transcription and translation), the ongoing work of scrolls scholars is exploring what the texts mean (interpretation and understanding).

The scrolls are revolutionary for both the new texts they revealed as well as the fresh or even unknown contexts they provided for rethinking the historical, textual, cultural dynamics of the Bible. Take the traditional divide between Old Testament and New Testament studies, which, for better or worse, are often siloed from each other in course offerings, publications, departments, and conferences. The scrolls, however, relate deeply to both these domains. As noted above, they include our earliest known biblical manuscripts in their original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek) and crucial to understanding the scribal formation and transmission of Hebrew Scriptures at an early time. A quick sample of fragments from each of these languages hints at their importance.

Starting with Hebrew writings, 4QJeremiah^a is among the earliest manuscripts in the entire scrolls collection (dating to about 225-175 BCE). It also happens to have the more corrections or scribal updates than any other writing among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Just take a look at this beautiful sample fragment that has scribal interventions and creativity literally written all over it. What do we make of this? This is a great reminder that scriptures were both copied and shaped by human scribes in this period—they were part of the story. Not only do manuscripts like this help us understand the textual history of Hebrew Scriptures they also reveal the scribal culture that encountered and invested in them.

The Aramaic writings attested in the Qumran collection represent between 10-13% of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These diverse materials reveal Jewish scribes were actively copying, developing, or even translating works in this common language of the ancient Near East. Take, Job, for example. Any student of biblical Hebrew knows, this is a challenging book to translate: the book’s syntax is often tricky and its vocabulary tougher. Perhaps this was also the reason why some ancient scribe(s) rendered Hebrew Job into more approachable Aramaic. Or maybe this translation served a social function such as reading in liturgy or synagogue. Either way, the existence of fragments of portions of Job in Aramaic, such as those found in Caves Four (4QTargumJob) and Eleven (11QTargumJob), are significant for how we understand both scribal innovations and social encounters with this classic book of Hebrew wisdom.

Alexander the Great’s push across the Near East starting in the fourth century BCE brought a new cultural and linguistic element to the equation: Greek. This also sparked the need or opportunity for translating the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, otherwise known as the Septuagint. While most books of the Septuagint have their own dynamics, story, and character, the scrolls once again provide some of our earliest fragmentary materials relevant to the study of ancient Hebrew Scriptures in Greek. Take, for example, the Minor Prophets scroll (dated to about the 1^st century BCE) found in a cave at the nearby site of Nahal Hever. Not only is this our earliest witness to snippets of prophetic books like Jonah, Michah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Zechariah it is also an important and early example of the scribal collection of several such prophetic works onto a single scroll. In this way, we see scribes and their communities not only thinking about texts but combining traditions on the same material object.

The above example of Greek fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls all relate to ancient Jewish writings and translations of scriptural materials. The Qumran collection does not include any New Testament texts. The scrolls do, however, come from a time in Jewish culture that was also the common soil for the early Jesus movement. As such, they provide remarkable (even game changing) views of the belief, practices, even tensions of Jewish groups in this period that are also and essential part of the story of Christian origins. But that is a whole other story for a subsequent article in this series.

Beyond Dead Sea Scrolls 101

This short primer on the Dead Sea Scrolls highlights their extraordinary value for understanding the textual traditions and historical contexts that formed Judaism and Christianity's foundational thought and scriptures. If this teaser on the scrolls piqued your interest, I invite you to explore them further in my new book, Lost Words and Forgotten Worlds: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls, and by subscribing to my YouTube channel.