6. what is the significance of the dead sea scrolls

Contact Me Macy messages only jdtabor uncc. About Dr. Gallery Links About Dr. Tabor Contact Dr. Tabor: Macy A jdtabor uncc. Skip to toolbar. Before the scrolls were discovered, scholars were aware of three main editions: the Samaritan, which included only the first five books; the early form of the Masoretic Hebrew; and the Septuagint, a Greek translation from a different Hebrew version.

Catholic and Orthodox Bibles follow the Septuagint in including seven extra books that Jews and Protestants do not recognize as part of the Bible. Various scrolls provide evidence of all three traditions, plus a fourth group of texts unique to the Dead Sea community.

No other Bible besides the Masoretic Text has any authority. Schiffman is an Orthodox layman, but says his attitude is shared by more liberal Jews. He sees the variant editions as an issue only in Christianity, where scholars try to reconstruct the best text from whatever source. The Masoretic manuscripts among the Dead Sea Scrolls are astonishingly similar to the standard Hebrew texts 1, years later, proving that Jewish scribes were accurate in preserving and transmitting the Masoretic Scriptures.

Who originally wrote the scrolls, and who preserved them? Though experts are unable to agree, it appears the Dead Sea community was a marginal group, he says. That has to be factored in. Should cultic groups set the norm? Kaiser recalls the late Harry Orlinsky, the only Jewish translator on the Revised Standard Version, who used the scrolls to make 13 last-minute changes before that translation was issued in But he later told Kaiser and other students that 10 of those changes were too hasty and the Masoretic wording would have been preferable.

If so, which version of Jeremiah or Psalms was original? If we think God is a God of truth, real evidence ought never be shunned. Whoever hid the scrolls from the Romans did a superb job. The texts at Qumran remained undiscovered for nearly two millennia. A few 19th-century European travelers examined what they assumed was an ancient fortress of no particular interest. Then, near it in , a goat strayed into a cave, a Bedouin shepherd flung a stone into the dark cavern and the resulting clink against a pot prompted him to investigate.

He emerged with the first of what would be about 15, fragments of some scrolls secreted in the many caves that pock the cliffs rising above the Dead Sea. The Arab-Israeli War prevented a close examination of the Qumran ruins. But after a fragile peace set in, a bearded and bespectacled Dominican monk named Roland de Vaux started excavations of the site and nearby caves in His findings of spacious rooms, ritual baths and the remains of gardens stunned scholars and the public alike.

He also unearthed scores of cylindrical jars, hundreds of ceramic plates and three inkwells in or near a room that he concluded had once contained high tables used by scribes. Much of his Qumran material remains locked up in private collections in Jerusalem and Paris, out of reach of most scholars. By the s, however, new data from other sites began casting doubt on his theory. For example, we now know that Qumran was not the remote place it is today.

Two millennia ago, there was a thriving commercial trade in the region; numerous settlements dotted the shore, while ships plied the sea. Springs and runoff from the steep hills were carefully engineered to provide water for drinking and agriculture, and date palms and plants produced valuable resins used in perfume.

And while the heavily salinated sea lacked fish, it provided salt and bitumen, the substance used in ancient times to seal boats and mortar bricks. He uncovered more than 1, coins—nearly half of which were silver—as well as evidence of hewn stone columns, glass vessels, glass beads and other fine goods.

Some of it likely comes from later Roman occupation, but Belgian husband-and-wife archaeologists Robert Donceel and Pauline Donceel-Voute believe that most of the accumulated wealth indicates that Qumran was an estate—perhaps owned by a rich Jerusalem patrician—that produced perfume. The massive fortified tower, they say, was a common feature of villas during a conflict-prone era in Judea. And they note that Jericho and Ein Gedi a settlement nearly 20 miles south of Qumran were known throughout the Roman world as producers of the balsam resin used as a perfume base.

In a cave near Qumran, Israeli researchers found in a small round bottle that, according to lab analyses, contained the remains of resin. But they might just as well have been vials of perfume. Other theories abound. Some think Qumran was a modest trading center. British archaeologist David Stacey believes it was a tannery and that the jars found by de Vaux were for the collection of urine necessary for scouring skins.

For his part, Peleg believes Qumran went through several distinct stages. As the morning heat mounts, he leads me up a steep ridge above the site, where a channel hewn into the rock brought water into the settlement. This was a period when the Nabateans—the eastern rivals of Rome—threatened Judea.

But Peleg says that once the Romans conquered the region, in 63 B.