The Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls, most of which come from the Qumran Caves, are ancient Jewish manuscripts dating to the Second Temple period. They were found over a decade, from 1946 to 1956, in caves near Ein Feshkha on the Dead Sea’s northern shore in the West Bank, along with some nearby locations. Ranging from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, these scrolls contain the earliest known copies of entire books that later became part of Jewish and Christian biblical canons, including deuterocanonical works from late Second Temple Judaism and texts outside the Bible. Because of this, they have shed new light on how Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity emerged and how they relate to earlier Jewish traditions. More broadly, the term “Dead Sea Scrolls” also covers similar finds from elsewhere in the Judaean Desert, sometimes called Judaean Desert scrolls, with some of those later scrolls coming from centuries after the Qumran finds. Nearly all of the 15,000 scrolls and fragments are kept at the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Who controls the scrolls is disputed. Jordan and the Palestinian Authority challenge Israel’s custody on territorial, legal, and humanitarian grounds—most were discovered after Jordan annexed the West Bank, and Israel acquired them following the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. Israel, in turn, bases its claim on historical and religious importance to Jewish history and heritage.

Thousands of written fragments have turned up in the Dead Sea area, most published in the 40-volume *Discoveries in the Judaean Desert* alongside details of their discovery. These are remnants of larger manuscripts damaged by nature or humans, with the vast majority being tiny scraps. Only a few well-preserved, nearly intact manuscripts survive—fewer than a dozen from the Qumran Caves. Researchers have pieced together 981 different manuscripts from 11 caves near the Hellenistic Jewish settlement at Khirbet Qumran in the eastern Judaean Desert, West Bank. The caves lie about 1.5 kilometers west of the Dead Sea’s northwestern shore, giving the scrolls their name. Archaeologists have long linked the scrolls to the Essenes, a Jewish sect, though some recent views challenge this, suggesting priests in Jerusalem or other unknown Jewish groups wrote them.

Most manuscripts are in Hebrew, some in Aramaic (including regional dialects like Nabataean, as in the Son of God Text), and a few in Greek. Other Judaean Desert finds add Latin (from Masada) and later Arabic manuscripts from the 7th–8th centuries CE (from Khirbet al-Mird). The texts are mostly on parchment, some on papyrus, and one on copper. While scholarly consensus dates the Dead Sea Scrolls to between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, Arabic manuscripts from related sites date from the 8th to 10th centuries CE. Bronze coins from the same sites form a sequence starting with John Hyrcanus (ruler of Hasmonean Judea, 135–104 BCE) and continuing through the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), supporting the paleographic and radiocarbon dating.

Because some scrolls are in poor condition, not all texts have been identified. The identified ones fall into three groups: about 40% are copies of canonical Hebrew scriptures; roughly 30% are Second Temple period texts not canonized in the Hebrew Bible (like the Book of Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit, Wisdom of Sirach, and Psalms 152–155); and the remaining 30% are sectarian manuscripts of previously unknown documents that reveal rules and beliefs of a particular group within Judaism, such as the Community Rule, War Scroll, Pesher on Habakkuk, and The Rule of the Blessing.

The scrolls were found in 12 caves around Ein Feshkha near the Dead Sea in the West Bank (then under Jordanian control) between 1946 and 1956 by Bedouin shepherds and archaeologists. Storing worn-out sacred manuscripts in earthenware jars buried in caves or earth follows the ancient Jewish custom of genizah. The initial discovery happened between November 1946 and February 1947, when Bedouin shepherd Muhammed edh-Dhib, his cousin Jum'a Muhammed, and Khalil Musa found seven scrolls in jars in a cave near the Qumran site. John C. Trever reconstructed the story from interviews with the Bedouins. Edh-Dhib’s cousin spotted the caves, but edh-Dhib was the first to fall into one (now Cave 1). He retrieved several scrolls—identified by Trever as the Isaiah Scroll, Habakkuk Commentary, and Community Rule—and brought them to camp. None were destroyed. The Bedouins hung the scrolls on a tent pole while deciding what to do, occasionally showing them to others. During this time, the Community Rule was split in two. They first took the scrolls to a Bethlehem dealer named Ibrahim 'Ijha, who returned them, saying they were worthless.