The Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls Essay

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

students beginning their journey of academic biblical studies and is supposed to be used as a guide

The Messianic expectation is when one is chosen by God and acts as an active agent, warrior, and liberator. Before the writing of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Maccabean revolt took place against the Greeks, which led to the establishment of the Jewish kingdom by the Hasmoneans. The Hasmoneans then claimed king and priestly roles, which became problematic. Kings were to be from the line of David and the priestly roles were from the lineage back to Zadok, the high priest of David. However, this was problematic because the Hasmoneans were breaking covenant rules by not following the appropriate lineages. The Qumran community did not abide by the new ruler and viewed everyone outside the Qumran community as the “Sons of Darkness” and their ruler as the “Wicked Priest” (The Other Bible, 223). Those in the Qumran community were referred to as the “Sons of Light.” The Dead Sea Scrolls describe the strict rules of the Qumran community over the “Sons of Darkness.” Those who abided by the rules triumphed. In their triumph, there would be two Messiahs that would rise to rule the new kingdom. There would be a priestly leader and a warrior king, those whom adequately abided by the chosen linages. The Teacher of Righteousness was the official mediator of revelation and could also be viewed as a Messiah. The Teacher taught that what the Hasmoneans were doing was wrong and would lead to the end.

Despite the disproval of his detractors, Albright’s success has been acknowledged throughout the archaeological world and his work lives on with “The W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research (AIAR) in Jerusalem is the oldest American research center for ancient Near Eastern studies in the Middle East. It was renamed in 1970 after its most distinguished director, William Foxwell Albright.” This research paper will discuss the person, contributions, criticisms and legacy of William Foxwell Albright, an acknowledged founder of biblical archaeology.

to the Masoretic Text of Isaiah one thousand years later. That proves the unusual accuracy of copies of scriptures over many years.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been described by numerous scholars and biblical commentators as one of the most important finds in archeological history. (Top 10 Most Important Historical Finds) The find occurred in 1947 when a Bedouin shepherd came across sealed jars in a cave containing leather scrolls. The scrolls which were subsequently brought to an antiques dealer in Bethlehem were purchased by a Syrian Orthodox Archbishop named Mar (Athanasius) Samuel. ( HYPERLINK "http://bible.org/byauthor/2658/Patrick%20Zukeran" Zukeran) He recognized that the scrolls were in Hebrew and were possibly very ancient. These scrolls were then examined by a prominent Middle East archaeologist, Dr. William Albright, and were confirmed as originating between the first and second century B.C. ( HYPERLINK "http://bible.org/byauthor/2658/Patrick%20Zukeran" Zukeran)

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,

A team of archaeologists crept down a staircase in an ancient library in what had once been Israel, where rumors told of ancient texts, previously undiscovered. This floor was certainly undiscovered, buried 50 feet underground. They emerged from the staircase, and found themselves in a small room not much bigger than a handful of broom closets. A yellowed piece of paper was rolled up on an ancient

When reading these passages, I couldn’t help, but notice the important role that food played in both Egyptian and Sumerian cultures. The importance of food is very evident in the second chapter “Egyptian Book of the Dead”. In “Egyptian Book of the dead” It lays out the beliefs of the Egyptian’s by going into depth with their religious texts. My main question that I have come across when I was going through these readings was why do the Egyptian’s mix religion with food. Did they mix religion and food because they held both of these entities in such a high regard?

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a most controversial document. This mysterious work is not controversial in the matter of does it exist, but why does it exist? Was this document a legitimate attempt by the Zionists to define their plan for world domination? Or perhaps the author was just someone with a strong dislike towards the Jewish people, and was looking for a specific reason to destroy an entire race. This is a decision based from opinion alone. But that is what a conspiracy is, a fact stranger than fiction with more than one path to the answer that is a plausible solution.

The early beginnings of the Common Era displayed several Jewish expectations of the Messiah that were complex. As compiled in the Dr. Peter Flint, some was expecting the return of Elijah (Mal 4:5-6, Mark 6:15), or even Moses (Deut 18:15-19, John 1:21) and many expected the Messiah to be a descendent of King David, one that would arrive in Bethlehem . Apart from the background of messianic expectations seen in modern Bibles, several sectarian scrolls shed light on such expectations. Four select texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls in Cave 4 helps shed some light into this area of messianic expectations and will aid help answering this question on who was the Messiah.

I really enjoyed reading your post. I agree that finding both the Masoretic text and the Dead Sea Scrolls important, not only in the sense of being examples of different parts in history, but also because they were very similar to one another- like you mentioned, during different time periods. To me, this is not only significant to historians, like our prompt mentioned, but it was and is significant to all Christians as well. Since both of these findings suggest the same information regardless of the time period(s), it brings a sense of truth to what is being said and told within the documents, and that is huge!

The Egyptian Book of the Dead was used primarily from the establishment of the New Kingdom in 1550 BCE to 50 BCE. It consisted of the collection of texts and spells designed to assist the deceased in their journey to the next world. The book of the dead was part of a custom of memorial texts that consisted of the past Coffin Texts and the Pyramid Texts that were decorated on objects. Spells were drained from the past works and other Egyptian history courting to Third Intermediate Period (Budge, 2012:21).

Before the gospels and Pauline epistles, early church Christians related to the Old Testament as Scripture and viewed their Christian walk as the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel from the Old Testament, which foretold of the coming age of the Messiah. The first New Testament Christians understood the importance of the Old Testament; it was their “Bible” they preached from. Just as in the early church, Christians today need the Old Testament for preaching and in which to reference and understand Christ’s purpose for why he came.