Dead Sea Scrolls Research Paper

It was the most mysterious Qumran text, written on a copper scroll and broken in two. It discusses sixty-four locations where significant quantities of gold, silver, coins, scrolls, and priest garments were hidden. Locations are said to be under an architectural or natural structure such as a cave, cistern, monument, etc. It also discusses the hiding place of that list. The treasures, however, were never found. If the treasures were real they may have been recovered or ransacked a long time ago. The copper scroll presented a serious problem. It was impossible to unroll them. The two copper scrolls, property of the Jordan Government were loaned to the University of Manchester. In February, 1956 they were dissected and the inscriptions were deciphered. “The method adopted was the passing of a spindle through the scrolls, then spraying them with aircraft glue and baking them hard, which allowed them to be sawed by an exceedingly fine circular saw across their rolled-up length (which would be their width, if unrolled), and the resulting strips were available to be photographed.” (Davies, 18). It was a very long and tedious process, but the contents of the scroll were too important. The Copper Scrolls were written in Mishnaic Hebrew the “earliest known extensive text in that dialect.” (Zeitlin). Engraving on copper required experience and labor. Only governments engraved documents on copper, so it is believed the people found this document to be highly important and of value. Although no treasure was found the scroll was one of the most fascinating to

There are so many different variations of the same text that the story cannot be aligned with assurance for some scholars. There are different perspectives regarding the same stories in history, therefore they have been separated into their own collections of literature; such as canonization and biblical text recognized by different sects. Not all of the Hebrew Bible was written in Hebrew, in fact, some of the scriptures were written in Aramaic. Scholars also run into the issue with sources by means of interpretation and preservation. Primary sources like the Dead Sea Scrolls are easier to extract information from rather than archeological artifacts that are likely to be open to interpretation.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in eleven caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between the years 1947 and 1956. The area is 13 miles east of Jerusalem and is 1300 feet below sea level. The mostly fragmented texts, are numbered according to the cave that they came out of. They have been called the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times. In total, scholars have identified the remains of about 825 to 870 separate scrolls. The Scrolls have been divided into two categories, biblical and non-biblical. Fragments of every book of the Old Testament have been discovered except for the book of Esther.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in the caves bordering the Dead Sea, in 1947 further validates the historical witness of biblical inspiration. Qumran is where most were found. I think the Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest known copies of Bibilical works. The works were identified by the bibilical passages they contained. It is amazing to me that 2000 years passed and no one found these works.

The great American scholar, William Foxwell Albright was an American Biblical archaeologist, and is considered to by many to be the “father of Biblical archaeology,” because of his contributions to the archaeological historicity of the Bible. “More than any other scholar Albright’s astounding corpus of books, articles, and public lectures defined a new relationship between archaeology and Biblical studies.”

Throughout the course of the semester, we have constantly talked about and expressed the idea of reading the Bible in a historical context. Picking out the pieces that coincide with evidence that has been found with archeological findings, the accuracy of dates, and important people. The critical study of the Bible is to look at the book as a piece of historical text. The use of our “historical lens” allows us to pick out to various pieces that appear to be factual. Using this analysis of looking at the Bible through our “historical glasses”, we can understand the true meaning of the Bible in its original historical setting.

They can enhance our knowledge of both Judaism and Christianity, also how the Bible was transmitted across the ages. Clearly the Dead Sea Scrolls are important for many reasons.

In effect the Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts consisting of"… HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_manuscripts" o "Biblical manuscripts"biblical manuscripts from what is now known as the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_Bible" o "Hebrew Bible"Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1946 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea" o "Dead Sea"Dead Sea". ( Dead Sea Scrolls) As will be discussed, their importance lies in the fact that they are the earliest known copies

Although it is argued that rabbis began work on compiling the oral histories prior to the fall of the Second Temple, there was a definite resurgence in documentation of the important history and moral laws of Judaism after the fall. The most important of these written documents in the Jewish faith is the Hebrew Bible. This bible is comprised of the Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim, these three components combine to make up the Tanakh. The Torah is the core of the Hebrew Bible and contains the story of creation, as well as directions on daily conduct and religious rituals. The Nevi’im contains the stories of prophets. The prophets were people that spoke on behalf of God to the Jewish people. Lastly, the Ketuvim is comprised of mostly imaginative literature such as psalms, proverbs and poetry (Molloy, 294). Shifting the focus from priests and temple to a written work that is accessible to all regardless of location was the main adaptation of Judaism and certainly saved the faith. Although the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible is debatable, as some stories may have morphed from their origination to when they were assembled in writing, the bible still remains at the core of Judaism today.

I enjoyed reading your post. Like you, I agree that finding the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic text amazing finds. I feel that the fact that they both pertained the same information and material, despite being discovered at different times in history, the true awe and the main reason that these two finds are significant to historians. Because the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic text were so parallel to one another in regards of their content and the information that they both possessed, historians can take the information and feel more confident that the information given is more accurate. Now if the two did not pertain the same information, then I feel as if they would still matter as separate pieces because of what they are; however,

This ancient prayer book was tested using sophisticated carbon dating methods and found to have originated in the first half of the 9th century AD. This makes it one of the oldest known Jewish prayer books in existence. It is a 50-page volume containing Hebrew writing which remarkably still has its original binding. Since Hebrew documents were typically written on scrolls, this book marked a very important

An additional apocrypha writing concerning the Watches exists in the ‘Book of Jubilees.’ Chiefly, the Dead Sea Scrolls contained fifteen books of Jubilees found in the caves at Qumran, all written in Hebrew. Moreover, the large number of manuscripts (more than any other Biblical books

The most important of these written documents is the Hebrew Bible. This bible is composed of the Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim, and these three components combine to make up the Tanakh (Simmons, 83). The Torah is the core of the Hebrew Bible and contains the story of creation, as well as directions on daily conduct and religious rituals. The Nevi’im contains the stories of prophets. The prophets were people who spoke on behalf of God to the Jewish people. Lastly, the Ketuvim is composed of mostly imaginative literature such as psalms, proverbs and poetry (Molloy, 294). Shifting the focal point from

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been called the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. One of the most intriguing manuscripts from Qumran is the Copper Scroll, a sort of ancient treasure map that lists dozens of gold and silver areas. While the other texts are written in ink on parchment or animal skins, this document features Hebrew and Greek letters chiseled onto metal sheets. In late 1946 or early 1947, Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in what is now known as the West Bank. One of the young shepherds tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a shattering sound. He and his friends later entered

The Dead Sea Scrolls are 981 documents, mostly in fragments, which were discovered between the years of 1946-1956 in eleven caves at Khirbet Qumran. However, the discovery was by Bedouin Shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib who was looking for his lost sheep and threw a stone into a cave and heard the sound of breaking pottery stone into a cave and heard the sound of breaking pottery. Furthermore, to which he entered the cave, he founded pottery jars and scrolls, the first scrolls which were found included the Manual of Discipline, the Genesis Apocryphon, the War Scrolls, the Habbakuk Pesher, the Isaiah Scrolls, and the Thanksgiving Hymns were among the scrolls founded in the first cave. (Zukeran, 2006) The Dead Sea Scrolls was hidden for over two thousand