Dead Sea Scrolls Qumran Virtual Qumran Essene Theory

Dead Sea Scrolls

Qumran

Virtual Qumran

Essene Theory A Jewish sect ( with Pharisees & Saducees) ● Lived communally with long initiation times ● Communal meals ● Concerned with extreme piety and ritual purity (especially bathing) ● Studied scriptures and probably copied them ● Probably hid scrolls in caves in anticipation of Roman destruction of Qumran in 68 CE ●

Jar

Cave 4

Cave 4 Interior

Qumran Artifacts

Wooden Comb

Plates

Sandals

Phylactery Cases

Qumran's Water System

The Scriptorium

An Inkwell

Scrolls

Community Rule (3. 5”x 8. 5”) 1 CE Parchment

st 11 Q 14 Book of War 1 c. CE

4 Q 271 Damascus Document (30 -1 BCE)

Manuscripts Available to Essenes

Part of the Hebrew Alphabet 1. Paleo-Hebrew 2. Hasmonaean (125 -50 BCE) 3. Herodian (50 BCE-70 CE) 4. Medieval

11 Q 1 Paleo-Leviticus (1 -50 CE)

4 Q 179 Nahum Commentary st (1 c. CE)

11 Q 10 Job Targum in Aramaic (30 -50 CE)

Tetragrammaton

11 Q 5 Psalms (1 -50 CE) 7. 3”x 28”

Closeup of Second “Page” From Right

st 4 Q 175 Testimonia (early 1 c. )

3 Q 115 Copper Scroll

Papyrus (5/6 Hev 46 Bar Kokhba) (134 CE)

Other Manuscripts Scrolls from Dept of Antiquities of Jordan: ● Testamonia-Biblical Excerpts 4 Q 175 ● Isaiah Pesher(Commentary) 4 Q 162 Manuscripts from Russian National Library: ● Pentateuch fragments from about 1000 CE ● Nehemiah fragments 994 CE th century ● Torah Scroll 9 Ethiopic Manuscripts th and 18 th centuries ● Two Psalm books of the 17

St. John's Bible

Virtual Qumran

Bookstore