Dear ciao-ga;
What a marvelous question! I am happy to be of assistance to you.
The discovery of a collective group of ancient writings known as “The
Dead Sea Scrolls” of Khirbet Qumran happened by sheer accident in 1947
when Bedouin shepherds, searching for a lost goat 13 miles east of
Jerusalem, stumbled across a sandstone cave (along the wadis that
descend through the Judean wilderness to the left bank of the Dead
Sea), that contained a number of old clay pots or earthenware “jars”
that contained seven ancient scrolls made of animal skins and papyrus,
wrapped in linen. The shepherds, not having much formal education, had
no idea of the magnitude of their discovery and sold these manuscripts
to a cobbler and antiquities dealer a year later. Some time later, the
Cobbler sold three of the scrolls to Eleazar L. Sukenik, of Hebrew
University, and four of them to Mar Athanasius, of the Syrian Orthodox
monastery of St. Mark. Mar Athanasius, thinking that the scrolls may
contain significant information, brought his scrolls to the American
school of Oriental research to be examined by American and European
scholars.
Between 1949 and 1956, as the scrolls began to give rise to greater
interest, scholars enlisted the aid of archaeologists and Bedouin
guides to find more of the scrolls, if any existed. In time, thousands
of fragments from eleven separate caves (plus another one near the
city of Jericho) were recovered. At the same time, archaeologists
excavating the ruin at nearby Qumran and found buildings on the cliffs
near the Dead Sea. Subsequent Carbon-14 testing found that both the
scrolls and the artifacts taken from the nearby ruin dated from the
same period, 200 B.C. to A.D. 68 (150 BCE to 68 CE).
The Dead Sea Scrolls, as they became commonly known, are made up of
about 850 writings by as many as 500 authors, recorded in three
languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and as such have yielded a great
deal of information regarding these ancient languages. The contents of
scrolls can be divided into two basic categories: Biblical (the Old
Testament, except of the book of Esther which was not included for
whatever reason) and Non-Biblical. The Biblical text that have been
discovered to date include 19 copies of the Book of Isiah (Isaiah), 30
copies of the Psalms, (including some previously unknown psalms
attributed to King David and Joshua) as well as a number of prophecies
that are not found in the modern day Bible, written by Ezekiel,
Jeremiah, and Daniel. The known scrolls also contain Non-Biblical
information such as rules of society, laws, and war conduct. In 1957
another scroll written on copper plate (the only one on written on
copper), was discovered which bears a treasure map to 64 underground
caches of treasures of gold, silver, aromatics and manuscripts,
believed to be from the Temple at Jerusalem, that were hidden for
safekeeping. Undoubtedly, many people have searched for the treasure
mentioned on the map, but since little is known of the ancient Hebrew
language and many of the villages and landmarks mentioned no longer
exist, no treasure has yet been found.
The significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Biblical scholars is
unprecedented and indeed immeasurable. The discovery may in fact be
the most magnificent archaeological find in centuries. They not only
provide the most tangible insight into the early years of Christianity
but also give greater insight into Jewish society of the period. The
story of the scrolls is indeed a work in progress with many of the
puzzle pieces still missing. After more than fifty years of meticulous
research into the language of the scrolls there is still much to learn
from them. In fact, some believe that perhaps the real treasure lies
is in the mysterious words of the scrolls that we have yet to
understand.
I hope you find my research helpful and interesting.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
SOURCES
World News
“Dead Sea Scrolls still a puzzle after 50 years”
July 26, 1997
http://ancienthistory.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2FWORLD%2F9707%2F26%2Fdead.sea.scrolls%2F
The Dead Sea Scrolls
(A timetable of the discovery, selected translations and photos)
http://religion.rutgers.edu/iho/dss.html
University of Arizona
“New Radiocarbon Age Dates for Dead Sea Scrolls Agree With
Paleographic Dates”
April 11, 1995
http://www.physics.arizona.edu/physics/public/dead-sea.html
SCROLLS FROM THE DEAD SEA
“The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship”
(Exhibit at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC)
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html
Scrolls From the Dead Sea: The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern
Scholarship
http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/
Modern Interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls
http://www.kw.igs.net/~dukerman/
The World of the Scrolls
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/world.scrolls.html
The Qumran Community
http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/Community/communit.html
“What really are the Dead Sea Scrolls?”
By Lawrence H. Schiffman
http://www.jcrelations.net/articl1/schiffman.htm
Wikipedia – The Free Encyclopedia
“Dead Sea scrolls”
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_scrolls
Fascinating Facts About the Dead Sea Scrolls
http://www.centuryone.com/25dssfacts.html
PUBLISHED
Assorted reading on the issue of the Dead Sea Scrolls
http://www.powells.com/subsection/ReligionWesternDeadSeaScrolls.html
“The Dead Sea Scrolls at Fifty: Proceedings of the 1997 Society of
Biblical Literature Qumran Section Meetings”
Robert A. Kugler and Eileen M. Schuller, editors
http://www.sbl-site.org/Publications/catalog/0788505432.html
AVAILABLE MEDIA
The Dead Sea Scrolls Revealed CD-ROM
http://www.insmkt.com/scrolls.htm |
