The Dead Sea Scrolls Questions and Responses For Latter-Day Saints - Donald W. Parry, Stephen D. Ricks
The Dead Sea Scrolls Questions and Responses For Latter-Day Saints - Donald W. Parry, Stephen D. Ricks
The Dead Sea Scrolls Questions and Responses For Latter-Day Saints - Donald W. Parry, Stephen D. Ricks
Parry, Stephen
D. Ricks
http://publications.mi.byu.edu/book/the-dead-sea-scrolls-questions-and-responses-for-latter-
day-saints/
Preface
What is the Copper Scroll? Do the Dead Sea Scrolls contain lost books of the Bible? Did John the
Baptist study with the people of Qumran? What is the Temple Scroll? What about DNA research
and the scrolls?
We have responded to scores of such questions on many occasions—while teaching graduate
seminars and Hebrew courses at Brigham Young University, presenting papers at professional
symposia, and speaking to various lay audiences. These settings are always positive experiences for
us, particularly because they reveal that the general membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints has a deep interest in the scrolls and other writings from the ancient world.
The nonbiblical Dead Sea Scrolls are of great import because they shed much light on the cultural,
religious, and political position of some of the Jews who lived shortly before and during the time of
Jesus Christ. The biblical scrolls and the scrolls that have biblical themes are of even greater
significance because they present valuable information regarding the ancient world and the way
that the Old Testament was preserved, copied, and transmitted through the ages.
Latter-day Saints will recognize many truths in the scrolls. Even so, the scrolls should be
approached with the same caution that the Lord revealed concerning those who read the
Apocrypha: “There are many things contained therein that are true . . . ; there are many things
contained therein that are not true. . . . Therefore, whoso readeth it, let him understand, for the
Spirit manifesteth truth; . . . and whoso receiveth not by the Spirit, cannot be benefited” (Doctrine
and Covenants 91:1—2, 4, 6).
This small volume, inspired by Joseph A. Fitzmyer’s book Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead
Sea Scrolls,1 gathers information on seventy such questions into a single work. While many of the
questions we respond to are ones that Latter-day Saints have asked us, we also selected questions
that will be of further interest to them. We added still more questions in order to balance our goal
of addressing Latter-day Saints with the need for adequate coverage of the scrolls in general. In any
case, because we wrote this book with an LDS audience foremost in mind, many of our responses
treat themes of particular interest to Latter-day Saints (e.g., baptism, prophecy, premortal life, and
the plan of salvation), include LDS terminology, and refer to LDS scripture.
Our brief volume does not attempt to touch upon all aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls, nor does it
attempt to be comprehensive in its treatment of selected topics. Rather, we have prepared this
book with the needs of the general reader foremost in mind. We have included various illustrations
so that the reader can visualize the scrolls, the caves where they were discovered, and the ruins of
Qumran, among other points of interest. Because we have kept endnote citations to a minimum,
readers desiring additional information on the scrolls are encouraged to consult the select
bibliography found in the final response of this book.
Our preparation of this volume does not imply a historical or theological connection between the
beliefs of the people of Qumran and Latter-day Saints. Numerous similarities exist between any
two religious groups, but there are also differences—and the differences often are more
consequential than the similarities. While we may see several similarities between Latter-day Saints
and the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we also see equally interesting similarities between the
latter group and religious groups of other historical periods and locales. There are actually far more
differences between the Qumranites and the Latter-day Saints than there are similarities.
We have tried to avoid subjects of scholarly controversy. For instance, we do not attempt to settle
the issue of who—Essenes, Sadducees, another Jewish group?—owned or possessed the scrolls
and later hid them in the caves near Qumran. We have also tried to avoid the sensationalism and
gratuitous comparisons between Latter-day Saints and the Qumran people that have marred many
publications and public presentations on the scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls are sensational enough
without such embellishments; they stand on their own as being the greatest manuscript discovery
of the twentieth century.
With few exceptions, we have used the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Geza Vermes, The
Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (New York: Penguin, 1997), which is responsibly prepared,
accepted by the scholarly community, and readily available in libraries and bookstores. Scroll
translations included in our book were drawn from Vermes’s work unless otherwise noted.
We would like to thank the many people who have so ably assisted us in preparing this volume.
Jeanette Miller helped us with research and work on early drafts of some of the responses. Gaye
Strathearn and Dana M. Pike of the Department of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University
and Alison V. P. Coutts of the Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies at BYU
reviewed the early manuscript and offered helpful comments. We also thank Don L. Brugger of
FARMS for his careful and sensitive editing and for his very considerable insight in guiding the book
through to completion. Other FARMS associates competently performed additional tasks: Whitney
Fox and K. Laura Sommer checked the sources; Stephanie Christensen, Alison V. P. Coutts, Paula W.
Hicken, and Sandra A. Thorne proofread the edited manuscript; and Mary Mahan designed and
typeset the book. The cover concept and design are the commendable work of J. Scott Knudsen. To
all of these we express our heartfelt thanks.
Note
1. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Paulist
Press, 1992).
Part I:
Description, Discovery, and Disposition of the
Dead Sea Scrolls
1. What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
The Dead Sea Scrolls comprise a collection of several hundred texts discovered between the years
1947 and 1956 in eleven caves near the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. These scrolls are
believed to have belonged to a Jewish community of Essenes (see questions 6 and 67) who lived in
nearby Qumran (see question 4). However, numerous texts discovered in other locations in the
Judean desert, such as Wadi Murabba’at, Masada, Nahal Hever, Khirbet Mird, Nahal Mishmar, and
Wadi ed-Daliyeh, are also called Dead Sea Scrolls.
The great majority of scrolls are written in Hebrew on animal skins or papyrus. The scrolls form a
significant body of literature, both secular and religious, that originated during the Second Temple
period of Judaism (about 250 BC—AD 70). Unfortunately, most of the scrolls are fragmentary,
having been damaged over the centuries by the natural elements and, as it appears in some cases,
by individuals who trampled them underfoot.
The size of the cemetery located near the ruins and other archaeological evidence indicate that the
community at Qumran may have numbered from 150 to 300 individuals at any one time. The
building complex there appears to have first been built about 140 BC, and its final destruction dates
to about AD 68.7 In 140 BC, when the community settled at Qumran, the building complex was
much smaller in size. However, some decades later the complex was enlarged, and the community
continued to grow until 31 BC. The historian Josephus recorded that there was a large earthquake
in Palestine at that time, and archaeological evidence shows that an earthquake and fire caused
the first destruction of the community. There is some debate about when the area was reoccupied,
but the latest date was probably around 4 BC.
5. What types of texts were discovered among the scrolls?
The scrolls, most of which are fragmentary, belong to a variety of text types, including the
following:
1. Books of the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament). These books include Genesis, Exodus, 1
and 2 Samuel, Isaiah, and Malachi, to name a few. The fragmentary remains of every book of the
Hebrew Bible except the book of Esther have been discovered among the scrolls.
2. Aramaic translations of the Hebrew Bible. Aramaic is a Northwest Semitic language similar to
Hebrew. In the centuries before and shortly after the ministry of Christ, many Jews used Aramaic as
their primary language. Jews translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Aramaic so they
could continue to read and study it. Parts of the books of Job, Leviticus, and other biblical books
written in Aramaic have been discovered among the scrolls.
3. Tephillin and Mezuzot. tephillin (singular tephillah), also called phylacteries (see Matthew 23:5),
are small boxes (made of a variety of woods or metals) attached to cords that are bound to the
head and left arm. Within the boxes are very small parchments containing verses from the books of
Exodus and Deuteronomy (usually including Exodus 13:1—16 and Deuteronomy 6:4—6; 11:13—
21). The idea of tephillin originated from Deuteronomy 6:8: “Thou shalt bind them [certain words
of the Lord] for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.” Even
today the tephillin are used by orthodox Jews during prayers. Approximately thirty tephillin texts
have been found in the Qumran caves.
Mezuzot (singular mezuzah) are small boxes or containers attached to the right side of the doorpost
of a house. Each box contains a parchment with passages from Deuteronomy (usually
Deuteronomy 6:4—6 and 11:13—21). The tradition of mezuzot arose from the command in
Deuteronomy 6:9: “Thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” The
caves of Qumran have yielded eight mezuzot texts.
4. Biblical commentaries. Several scrolls comprise commentaries that explain books in the Old
Testament. Commentaries on the books of Psalms, Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, and Malachi have been discovered among the scrolls.
5. Apocryphal writings. The term apocrypha originally meant “hidden” or “secret” and pertains to
religious books that, for a number of reasons, were not included in the Hebrew Bible.8 Several
apocryphal books have been discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including Tobit, Sirach (also
called Ecclesiasticus), and Letter of Jeremiah.
Doctrine and Covenants 91:1—2 provides guidelines on how to approach apocryphal writings. The
statement concerns the Apocrypha (i.e., those books found in the Catholic Old Testament—such as
Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Susanna, and Bel and the Dragon—that are not in the Protestant Old
Testament): “Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you concerning the Apocrypha—There are many
things contained therein that are true, and it is mostly translated correctly; there are many things
contained therein that are not true, which are interpolations by the hands of men.”
6. Pseudepigraphic writings. The term pseudepigrapha is a Greek term meaning “falsely attributed
writings,” or writings of questionable authorship that purport to be written by certain biblical
heroes and prophets (such as Enoch, Noah, Isaiah, Abraham, Isaac, and Joseph). These writings,
popular among the Qumran people and other Jews of their day, present concepts regarding the
prophetic, historical, political, cultural, and religious status of institutions of the period.
Pseudepigraphic writings found among the scrolls include the Book of Enoch, the Book of Noah,
the Testament of Amram, the Samuel Apocryphon, Second Ezekiel, Para-Danielic
Writings, Jubilees, Pseudo-Moses, and the Testament of Levi.
7. Writings for worship. Many texts concern the worship practices of the Qumran people, providing
information about prayers, blessings, hymns, and rituals. These texts are called Benedictions,
Purification Ritual, Prayer or Hymn Celebrating the Morning and the Evening, Thanksgiving
Hymns, Daily Prayers, Blessings, Prayers for Festivals, and Bless, My Soul. Unfortunately, most of
the texts are incomplete, as only scroll fragments remain.
8. Legal documents. The Qumran caves yielded a number of religious legal texts that describe rules
and regulations belonging to the Qumran community. These texts include the Damascus
Document, the Community Rule, the Temple Scroll, and Some Observances of the Law (also known
as 4QMMT).
9. Business records. Few in number, business records among the scrolls reveal accounts of money
and grain, the sale of property, and records pertaining to debt.
10. The Copper Scroll. This unique text contains a record of supposed treasures that were hidden
in various locations throughout ancient Palestine.
11. Writings focusing on the last days. Describing events associated with the end of time, these
religious texts are titled the War Scroll, Words of the Archangel Michael, and the New Jerusalem.
12. Poetic compositions and wisdom literature. Many poems pertaining to the study and obtaining
of wisdom were discovered among the scrolls, including The Seductress, Exhortation to Seek
Wisdom, Parable of the Tree, Beatitudes, Noncanonical Psalms, Thanksgiving
Hymns, and Lamentations.
13. Calendrical texts. These writings deal with the calendar used by the Qumran people. They are
named Phases of the Moon, Calendars of Priestly Courses, Calendric Signs, and Horoscopes or
Astrological Physiognomies.
6. Who wrote or possessed the Qumran texts?
Josephus, a first-century-AD Jewish military leader and historian, describes a variety of Jewish
groups who were active in the last centuries BC and the first centuries AD, including the
Boethusians, Essenes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and Zealots. From contemporary and near-
contemporary accounts of the beliefs and practices of these communities, scholars have noted
similarities between descriptions of these groups and the writings in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Two
groups in particular have received attention in this regard: the Sadducees and the Essenes.
A few scholars believe that the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls were Sadducees or proto-
Sadduccees. This judgment is based mostly on material found in a document among the scrolls now
known as Some Observances of the Law (4QMMT). However, other scholars have noted that the
points of comparison are not particularly strong.9
Most scholars agree that the writers and owners of the scrolls were Essenes. This conclusion is
based on comparing the scrolls with statements made by Josephus and others. Dead Sea Scrolls
scholar Todd Beall recently published a book that takes this approach. Although he found in the
writings of Josephus six statements about the Essenes that are apparently at odds with ideas in the
Qumran scrolls, he also found twenty-six other statements by Josephus that are parallel to
Qumranite beliefs and practices.10 For example, Josephus made the following observations
concerning the Essenes:11
1. They must be Jews by birth.
2. They “despise riches and their sharing of goods is admirable; there is not found among them any
one who has greater wealth than another. For it is a law that those entering the group transfer their
property to the order; consequently, among them all there appears neither abject poverty nor
superabundance of wealth, but the possessions of each are mingled together, and there is, as
among brothers, one property common to all.”12
3. They replace neither clothing nor sandals.
4. They avoid spitting.
5. They always dress in white.
All five of these statements accord with similar statements set forth in the Qumran sectarian
writings.
Furthermore, Pliny the Elder, a Roman scholar and scientist, made the following statement
regarding the Essenes:
To the west [of the Dead Sea] the Essenes have put the necessary distance between themselves
and the insalubrious shore. They are a people unique of its kind and admirable beyond all others in
the whole world without women and renouncing love entirely, without money, and having for
company only the palm trees. Owing to the throng of newcomers, this people is daily re-born in
equal number; indeed, those whom, wearied by the fluctuations of fortune, life leads to adopt their
customs, stream in in great numbers. Thus, unbelievable though this may seem, for thousands of
centuries a race has existed which is eternal yet into which no one is born: so fruitful for them is
the repentance which others feel for their past lives!13
Although this brief passage by Pliny contains some factual or historical errors, its details about the
Essenes parallel ideas found in the scrolls: renouncing money, experiencing an increase in converts,
and the long existence of the group. Also, Pliny’s statement places the Essenes’ geographical
location at or near Qumran. However, Pliny’s comments can still be interpreted in more than one
way, making positive identification of the inhabitants of Qumran nearly impossible.
1. Paleographic analysis. Paleography is the science of deciphering ancient writing styles. After a
careful examination of the way that the scrolls’ Hebrew characters were written by the scribes,
Professor Frank Moore Cross of Harvard University placed the scrolls in three time periods: the
Archaic period (250—150 BC), the Hasmonean period (150—30 BC), and the Herodian period (30
BC—AD 68/70).14
2. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). This method of dating the scrolls is similar to the carbon-
14 dating system. Of the eight scrolls tested by AMS, seven agree generally with their paleographic
dating.15
3. Archaeological discoveries. Archaeologists have found pottery and coins in many of the caves in
which the scrolls were found. The pottery and coins can often be dated to a specific time period.
4. Historical allusions. On rare occasions the scrolls allude to events or characters of known dates
in the historical record.
8. Why are the scrolls so important?
The scrolls have been called the most important manuscript find of this century because they have
greatly increased our knowledge of the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism (450 BC—AD 70),
the Hebrew language, and various religious texts. The scrolls have attracted so much attention that
more than seven thousand books, articles, dissertations, and other writings, as well as television
documentaries and news stories, have focused on them. Also, new academic journals have
appeared that are dedicated to the study of the scrolls, and participants in professional
conferences discuss their value.
The scrolls significantly enhance scholarly research in many areas, including the following:
A few of the scrolls, including the book of Daniel, the apocryphal book of Tobit, fragments of the
books of Job and Leviticus, the Genesis Apocryphon, the Book of Enoch, and the Testament of
Levi were written in Aramaic. Aramaic is a sister language to Hebrew, sharing with it the same
alphabet and numerous grammatical features. A few scroll manuscripts of the Old Testament were
written in Greek.
10. How many caves have yielded scrolls?
Eleven caves located near Qumran have yielded scrolls or scroll fragments. For convenience,
scholars call these caves, in order of their discovery, Cave 1, Cave 2, Cave 3, Cave 4, and so on.
Since 1956 no additional caves have yielded more than a few small fragments of scrolls.
Cave 1, located about one mile north of the Qumran ruins, was the first of the eleven caves to yield
scrolls. The seven major scrolls of Cave 1 are the Community Rule, Rule of the Congregation,
the War Scroll, the Thanksgiving Hymns, the Genesis Apocryphon, Commentary on Habakkuk, and
the Great Isaiah Scroll. Cave 2, located near Cave 1, was discovered by Bedouins in February 1952.
It yielded eighteen fragmentary Old Testament texts and fifteen nonbiblical texts, including a text
about the New Jerusalem and two copies of Jubilees.
Archaeologists discovered Cave 3, which yielded fourteen fragmentary texts, three of them biblical
and eleven nonbiblical. Cave 3 also contained the Copper Scroll, a twelve-column text inscribed on
copper sheets that describes the location of presumed temple treasures containing massive
amounts of gold, silver, and precious objects.
Cave 4, discovered in 1952, is an “artificially hewn cave” with “regularly spaced rows of holes found
in the cave’s walls.”16 The manuscripts found there are among the most significant of the Dead Sea
Scrolls discoveries. Scholars estimate that between 500 and 600 different texts, all fragmented,
were found in Cave 4. Of these, approximately 130 are biblical texts and the remainder are
nonbiblical, including fragments of the Community Rule, the Damascus Document, the Testament
of Levi, and Jubilees.
When archaeologists discovered Cave 5 in September 1952, it yielded eight biblical and seventeen
nonbiblical texts, including fragments of the Community Rule, the Damascus Document, and an
Aramaic text concerning the New Jerusalem.
Cave 6, which was located by Ta’amireh Bedouin, yielded seven biblical and more than twenty
nonbiblical texts, including fragments from the books of Genesis and Leviticus, which were written
in an archaic Hebrew script called paleo-Hebrew.
Archaeologists discovered Cave 7 in 1955 and recovered nineteen tiny Greek fragments, two of
which have been identified as Exodus 28:4—7 and Baruch 6:43—44. The remaining fragments are
too small to decipher.
During the months of February and March in 1955, archaeologists discovered Caves 7 through 10.
Cave 8 yielded four biblical fragments, a phylactery, a mezuzah, and a hymnic text. Cave 9 held only
a small papyrus with six Hebrew characters, and Cave 10 yielded a potsherd containing written
inscriptions.
In January 1956 the Bedouin found Cave 11, which yielded the famous Temple Scroll, the longest of
the Dead Sea Scrolls, measuring approximately eight meters long. Other finds in Cave 11 include
the Apocryphal Psalms, which contain many psalms from the biblical book of Psalms and seven
other psalms not found in our Bible, a fragmentary copy of Leviticus written in paleo-Hebrew, and
fragments of the books of Deuteronomy and Ezekiel. In addition, Cave 11 contained fragments of
texts from the books of Jubilees, The Heavenly Prince Melchizedek, the Targum of Job, and Songs
for the Holocaust of the Sabbath Sacrifice.
11. How were the scrolls stored in the caves?
The scrolls of Cave 1 were found intact, wrapped in linen, stored in jars, and sealed in a nearly
inaccessible location. They appear to have been prepared for storage more carefully than the other
scrolls were. The Cave 1 scrolls may have constituted part of the library at Qumran, and the difficult
access to the cave suggests that it was used as a hiding place for the scrolls.
The scrolls found in the other caves seem to have been placed there very hastily, without
protection against the elements. The Cave 4 scrolls, for instance, were found among centuries of
accumulated debris that, at the time of their discovery, reached a height of nearly three feet. As a
result, the Cave 4 scrolls exist only in fragmentary condition.
12. Have there been scroll discoveries in recent years?
Since 1956 there have been no significant scroll discoveries, although many people have searched
the Dead Sea coastline and the Judean hills in the hope of finding more scrolls and other artifacts.
Israeli archaeologists Magen Broshi and Hanan Eshel, for example, led an expedition to the Qumran
area in 1995 and 1996 and examined seven caves located in the plateau northwest of the Qumran
ruins. They found hundreds of pottery shards from jars, dishes, and jugs and concluded that some
of the caves served as residences for members of the Qumran community. No scrolls were
recovered from the seven caves.17
13. What is the value of the scrolls?
Once it was determined that the scrolls and fragments were of great monetary value, many were
purchased and then resold at higher prices. Antiquities dealers, collectors, museums, and
universities played various roles in the acquisition of the scrolls. Some transactions were for profit,
while others resulted in the acquisition of scrolls by universities for academic study and publication.
The following Wall Street Journal advertisement, dated 1 June 1954, illustrates the manner in
which the scrolls were treated by dealers shortly after their discovery.
Despite the buying and selling of the scrolls during the early years subsequent to their discovery,
today, fortunately for the world community, most of the scrolls are in museums where they are
stored in climate-controlled depositories or displayed for viewing.
Frank Moore Cross, a Harvard University professor emeritus and one of the first translators of the
scrolls, describes his experience with the scrolls:
On arrival at the Palestine Museum, purchased groups of fragments were in unbelievable disorder.
Many large, well-preserved fragments came in each lot. But large or small, well or ill preserved,
most had to be exposed to a process of humidification, cleaned of incrustations and dirt, and
repaired or reinforced before being pressed flat between glass plates. Fragments in advanced
decay, especially lumps of coagulated layers of leather, require more energy and patience and
special techniques, though the same general procedure is followed. Often a fragment will exhibit
an area of acute decay and shrinkage in the midst of otherwise pliable leather. The bad spot may
draw the entire fragment into a crinkled or scalloped ball, so that the fragment is almost impossible
to flatten. The script in such an area of decay may be shrunk to half or less the size of that in good
areas. Often such decomposition in sheets of leather has caused splitting and fragmentation, and
the problems of fitting into one manuscript healthy, light fragments alongside of wizened and
blackened scraps are, to say the least, tedious.18
Many of the scrolls in Cave 1, in contrast to those described above from Cave 4, were found in a
much better state of preservation because they were wrapped in cloth and then stored in jars.
The Copper Scroll of Cave 3 was also fairly well preserved because of its metal content.
Notes
2. Stephen Pfann mentioned this in a personal conversation with Stephen Ricks, 31 May 1993.
3. Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 3rd ed. (London: Penguin, 1987), xiii.
4. Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, ed. J‑Milton Cowan, 3rd ed. (Ithaca:
Spoken Language Services, 1976), 231, 1059; compare Fitzmyer, 101 Questions, 2.
5. See Philip R. Davies, Qumran (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1982), 30.
6. See ibid., 44—48.
7. See ibid.
8. See LDS Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Apocrypha,” for a discussion of these and other apocryphal books.
9. See, for example, James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 1994), 93—95; and Hershel Shanks, ed., Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader
from the Biblical Archeology Review (New York: Random House, 1992), 35—84.
10. See Todd S. Beall, Josephus’ Description of the Essenes Illustrated by the Dead Sea Scrolls (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
11. See Josephus, Jewish Wars 2.8.2 (paragraph 119), 2.8.3 (122, 123), 2.8.4 (126), 2.8.9 (147).
12. Beall, Josephus’ Description of the Essenes, 15.
13. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 5.17; see H. Rackham’s English translation in the Loeb Classical
Library edition of Pliny’s work (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969).
14. See Frank Moore Cross, “The Development of the Jewish Scripts,” in The Bible and the Ancient
Near East: Essays in Honor of William Foxwell Albright, ed. G. Ernest Wright (Garden City: Anchor
Books, 1965), 136.
15. See the chart in Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Philadelphia: Jewish
Publication Society, 1994), 32—33.
16. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, xxi.
17. Their excavations are summarized in “How and Where Did the Qumranites Live?” in The Provo
International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Technological Innovations, New Texts, and
Reformulated Issues, ed. Donald W. Parry and Eugene Ulrich (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999), 266—73.
18. Frank Moore Cross, Ancient Library of Qumran, 3rd ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995) 39—40.
Part II:
The Writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls
16. What happened to the writers of the scrolls?
The first century AD was a troubled period in Jewish history. After several unsuccessful regional
uprisings, the entire population of Jerusalem and Judea revolted against Roman rule in AD 66.
Vespasian (later to become Roman emperor from AD 71 to 78) was ordered to suppress the revolt.
By AD 70 Rome had crushed the revolt in Judea and Galilee, Jerusalem lay in the grasp of its hated
enemy, and the temple at Jerusalem was destroyed.
Things were not much safer for the community that owned the scrolls. Probably expecting that
their community would shortly be dispersed, and wishing to prevent their writings from being
seized or destroyed, members hid the scrolls in caves about AD 68—70 (scores of coins have been
found in the Qumran caves that assist archaeologists in dating the ruins to this time period). Fire
and the Roman attack destroyed the building complex, as evidenced by a number of Roman
arrowheads that excavation has uncovered.19 It is not known whether the inhabitants of the
community were able to flee or whether they were killed or taken captive at that time.
17. Why did the people of Qumran separate themselves
from Jerusalem?
Scholars believe that the people of Qumran departed from Jerusalem or other parts of Israel to
retreat from those who they believed were wicked or ritually impure. Members of the Qumran
community believed that a very high degree of religious purity was necessary in order to be
prepared for the end of times.
A legal document among the scrolls called Some Observances of the Law (4QMMT) lists differences
between the Qumran group and other religious Jews, perhaps including those of Jerusalem. The
document explains that there were at least twenty points of the law of Moses wherein the Jewish
groups differed, including their respective views on the offering of sacrifices from the Gentiles,
bringing certain animal skins to the temple, sacrificing pregnant animals, eating unborn animals,
bringing dogs into Jerusalem, the marriage of priests, and items concerning lepers, the blind, and
the deaf (see question 55). The text also explains that, as a result of different doctrinal
interpretations, the Qumran people “have separated from the mass of the peo[ple] . . . and from
mingling” in matters pertaining to religious uncleanness and impurity (Some Observances of the
Law 7:7—11).
18. What was the Qumran community’s view of the
inspired interpretation of prophecy?
Qumran texts illustrate the belief in the inspired interpretation of scripture by one Jewish group
that believed it was living in the last days, during which that gift had been renewed. The
community as a whole was convinced that the Spirit of God, a gift for the last days, was present
and active in their midst. Although the Holy Spirit is primarily regarded as the spirit of prophecy in
Rabbinic Judaism, in Qumran the Holy Spirit has a function that is more broadly conceived in terms
of cleansing, truth, holiness, and divinely mediated knowledge and insight. Apart from inspired
interpretation of scripture, prophecy (as direct revelation mediated through inspired speech or
writing) does not appear to have been practiced by the Teacher of Righteousness (see question 21)
or other members of the Qumran community. For the Qumran community, inspired interpretation
played a role equivalent to prophecy, yet it is readily apparent that the differences between the
two phenomena are not small.20
19. Did the Qumran people believe they were living in the
last days?
The writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls believed they were living in the last days. They considered
themselves to be living in the end of times and preparing for the temple of the last days,21 and they
believed that the establishment of their community constituted the period “which will end with the
final judgment.”22 They read and interpreted the scriptures in this light, likening the prophecies
concerning the last days to themselves.
According to Frank Moore Cross, the Qumranites represented a group who lived “in anticipation of
the Kingdom of God.”23 They anxiously looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, who they
believed would cleanse the world and redeem them. The writers of the Qumran community’s texts
considered themselves to be not only the “remnant of Israel” of their time but also the “remnant”
of all time, the final “remnant.”
The War Scroll preserves an account of battles of the last days between the forces of
righteousness, called the Sons of Light (under the direction of the Prince of Light), and the forces of
evil, called the Sons of Darkness (under the direction of Belial). The latter forces, which were
identified with “the traditional enemies of the Jewish people,”24 would be annihilated for eternity.
20. Did the owners of the scrolls believe they were a
covenant people?
In a very real sense, the owners of the Dead Sea Scrolls believed they were a covenant people—the
“sons of light” (Community Rule 1:9; 2:16; War Scroll 1:1, 3, 9, 11, 13)—involved in a mortal
struggle with the “sons of darkness” (Community Rule 1:10; War Scroll 1:1, 7, 10, 16). Becoming a
member of the community involved entering into a “Covenant of Grace . . . that they may be joined
to the counsel of God and may live perfectly before Him in accordance with all that has been
revealed” (Community Rule 1:7). The Community Rule contains some forty-five occurrences of the
word covenant, while the Damascus Document contains forty-two.
21. Who are the “Teacher of Righteousness” and the
“Wicked Priest”?
The scrolls identify the Teacher of Righteousness (Hebrew moreh ha-tsedeq) as a priest who
appears to have been highly influential in the early history of the Qumran community. For reasons
that remain unclear, the writers of the scrolls used code names instead of given names; thus the
actual names of the Teacher of Righteousness and Wicked Priest can only be surmised. The
appearance of the Teacher of Righteousness and his conflict with the Wicked Priest is a chapter in
the wider history of the struggle between Hellenization and traditional Judaism.
The Hellenizers, who wanted Judaism to adopt Greek culture and values, were led by the family of
Tobias. The traditionalists, who preferred to maintain the received values of Judaism and who
viewed Greek influence as baneful, if not deadly, to Jewish life, were led by Onias III, a
Zadokite25 and the legitimate high priest, who is described as a “zealot for the laws” (2 Maccabees
4:2). The struggle between the Hellenizers and traditionalists became so intense that it threatened
to break out in a full-scale civil war. Fearing such a turn of events, Onias went to Syria to plead the
cause of the traditionalists and to affirm his support for Seleucus Philopator, the Syrian Greek ruler
over Palestine (187 AD).26 When Seleucus Philopator was assassinated in 176 AD, he was succeeded
by Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), who was not well-disposed toward Onias. In the view of some
scholars, while in Syria Onias came into contact with members of the Dead Sea Scrolls community
and became one of their guiding lights (possibly the Teacher of Righteousness) and was responsible
for composing several texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Onias was deposed from his high priestly office
by his brother Jason and, hearing of a plot against him, fled to Egypt. He was murdered in 172 AD
on the orders of Menelaus, whom many Dead Sea Scrolls scholars regard as the Wicked Priest.
Although the Teacher of Righteousness did not refer to himself as “prophet,” in many ways he
functioned as one. For example, the Commentary on Habbakuk indicates that he provided inspired
interpretation of scripture and was taught by God himself, who had poured out His spirit upon him
(see 2:2—3; 7:4—7). In the Qumran scrolls, prophecy was related to the interpretation of scripture
and to the community’s concern with the last days:
God told Habakkuk to write down that which would happen to the final generation, but He did not
make known to him when time would come to an end. And as for that which He said, That he who
reads may read it speedily: interpreted this concerns the Teacher of Righteousness, to whom God
made known all the mysteries of the words of His servants the Prophets. (Commentary on
Habbakuk 7:1—5)
22. Were the ritual immersions at Qumran considered to
be baptisms?
It is difficult to tell the significance of ritual immersions among Jews in antiquity, let alone try to
determine the Qumran community’s exact understanding of the practice from their writings.
Archaeological evidence indicates that these immersions took place in a water installation (a type
of font) called a miqveh. Scholars have seen the connections with Christian baptisms, observing
“close contacts in language and thought between the early church and the Qumran community.
Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan during the time when the community of
covenanters was flourishing not many miles away. . . . [John’s mode of baptizing] may have had
some historical connection with the ritual bathing of the Qumran sect.”27
The Community Rule states that purificatory immersions occur following a year of probation (see
3:4—6; 5:13—15). However, as Lawrence Schiffman notes, “to the sectarians, ritual purification
was not more than a symptom of spiritual purification. Indeed, the sect believed that no amount of
lustration or ablution would render pure anyone who was still an unrepentant transgressor.”28 This
view is reflected in the Community Rule:
He will not be purified by atonement rituals, nor will he become pure in waters of lustration. He
will not be sanctified in seas or rivers, nor will he be purified in any waters of ablution. Impure,
impure, he will remain as long as he despises the divine regulations, so as not to be disciplined by
the counsel of His community. (3:4—6)29
Notes
19. See Davies, Qumran, 44—48.
20. See David E. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1983), 342—43.
21. See Florentino GarcÃa MartÃnez and Julio Trebolle Barrera, The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Their Writings, Beliefs and Practices (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), 73, 90.
22. Ibid., 80, 88.
23. Frank Moore Cross, “The Scrolls and the New Testament,” Christian Century 72 (August 1955):
970; compare Cross, “Dead Sea Scrolls: Overview,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H.
Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 1:462, in which Cross describes the writers of the Dead Sea
Scrolls as a “church of anticipation.”
24. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 331.
25. Zadokites were descendants of the priest Zadok, who served in the high priesthood during most
of the First and Second Temple periods.
26. See the chronological table in the LDS Bible Dictionary, 641.
27. Millar Burrows, Burrows on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1978), 328.
28. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 103; see G. R. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New
Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1973), 11—18.
29. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 103.
Part III:
Translation and Publication Information
23. Who pieces together the scroll fragments?
Soon after the discovery of the scrolls, translators and scholars Roland de Vaux, Josef T. Milik, and
Maurice Baillet began the process of sorting through the thousands of scroll fragments. Their goal
was to piece together as many of the fragments as possible. The task was so large that other
scholars were invited to help, including John M. Allegro, assistant lecturer at the University of
Manchester; Frank Moore Cross, thenx a professor at McCormick Theological Seminary and annual
professor at the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem; Patrick W. Skehan, a professor
at the Catholic University of America; John Strugnell of Jesus College, Oxford; and Jean Starcky and
Claus-Hunno Hunzinger. While most of the sorting and piecing of the scroll fragments was
completed in the 1950s, some fifty years after the first discovery of scrolls in Cave 1, approximately
sixty scholars are involved in sorting, editing, and translating the fragments.
1. Types of materials. The fragments are first sorted into groups of leather parchment or papyri.
Then the thickness and the color of the leather of each fragment are evaluated, thus continuing the
sorting process.
2. Scribal handwriting styles. The scribes who copied the texts on the scrolls each had a unique
handwriting style, just as people do today. Paleographers study the bookhand (shape and size of
written characters) and are able to identify different scribes’ styles and, to a great extent,
determine which fragments belong together.
3. Horizontal lines. Scribes or copyists prepared the leather scrolls for inscription by creating
horizontal lines on the leather, similar in some respects to the lined paper of modern times. The
horizontal lines served to guide the hand of the scribe as he copied down the characters. The space
between lines often varied, a characteristic that has helped scholars determine which fragments
belong together.
4. Scribal markings. Many scribes placed various unique markings in the margins of the leather or
between the lines of the text. Such scribal markings provide additional clues to how the fragments
should be pieced together.
5. Textual clues. The words on a fragment may facilitate its identification and positioning among
related fragments, especially if the words belong to a previously known text. For instance, a
fragment with the words “every tree of the garden” (from Genesis 2:16) alert the scholar to place
the fragment with other fragments belonging to the Old Testament book of Genesis.
6. Material join. A “material join” is (1) when two fragments have complementing edges (like two
adjoining pieces of a jigsaw puzzle) or (2) when one fragment has half of a single word (such
as Melchi-) and a second fragment has the other half of the same word (such as -zedek). Scholars
are able to join the two fragments together to read Melchizedek.
The sorting process is often a painstaking and tedious task. As Professor Frank Moore Cross
explains, “A single fragment may require many hours of study before it receives exact identification
and is placed in a slowly growing column of a manuscript.”30 However, the results of joining one
fragment with another provide great satisfaction to the scholar.
Under the direction of Roland de Vaux, a Dominican priest and biblical scholar who was director of
the École Biblique in Jerusalem in the 1950s, assignments were made to prepare, sort, and publish
the scrolls and fragments. Those asked to do so included de Vaux’s Catholic associates at the École
Biblique: Pierre Benoit, Josef T. Milik, and Maurice Baillet. Later, because of the enormity of the
task, a small team was formed from Christian institutions, so that four Catholics and four
Protestants became the official team of editors.31 Over the decades the team expanded, especially
under the leadership of Editor in Chief John Strugnell in the late 1980s, followed by Editor in Chief
Emanuel Tov in the 1990s. Under the direction of Tov, the official team expanded to some sixty
translators, where it remains at the time of this writing.
In January 1994 Professor Emanuel Tov, editor in chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls project, invited
Donald W. Parry of BYU’s Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages to become a member
of the international team of editors working on the scrolls. Parry was assigned to work with
Professor Frank Moore Cross on the biblical books of Samuel. Later that same year, Tov invited BYU
professors Dana M. Pike, David Rolph Seely, and Andrew C. Skinner (all from the Department of
Ancient Scripture) to join the international team. Pike and Skinner were assigned to work on
miscellaneous fragments, and Seely was invited to work with Professor Moshe Weinfeld on
selected hymns. The translations of Parry, Pike, Seely, and Skinner will be published in the official
publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a series titled Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, published by
Oxford University Press.
1. Lack of scholarly access to the scrolls. Geza Vermes, an eminent scrolls scholar, cites “scholarly
mismanagement and irresponsibility” as the reason behind a half century of delays in publishing
the scrolls. He faults Father Roland de Vaux, the one-time leader of the translation team, for
imposing “rules of secrecy on the project that limited access to the manuscripts to the members of
the international team, and prevented other scholars from working on them.”32 Most scholars
generally were not permitted access to the scrolls until the early 1990s, at which time the pace of
the translation and publication of the scrolls increased at an accelerated rate.
2. Limited access to the scrolls. A number of the scholars assigned to translate the scrolls were
distracted by university assignments and other scholarly projects that limited the time they could
work on the scrolls. Moreover, limited access to the documents meant that professors could work
only in the summer, when their teaching assignments allowed them to spend time in the Middle
East.
3. Enormity of the task. The great number of manuscripts and fragments, combined with their poor
condition, created a task of gigantic dimensions, which included the identification and piecing
together of thousands of small scroll fragments. The original members of the translation team
underestimated the amount of work required to translate the scrolls, a matter of too much being
expected of too few.
4. Inadequate funding. Dead Sea Scrolls translators and scholars often lack adequate financial
support to carry on their work. They usually are required to finance their own work and travel to
Jerusalem, often with an extended stay in that city. Such economic challenges create hardships and
delay the publication of the scrolls.
5. Scroll conspiracies. Some publications have claimed that the Vatican, the Great Rabbinate, the
Council of Churches, other religious institutions, or certain authorities have suppressed the
publication of the scrolls because of the fear that the scrolls had the potential to undermine the
faith of Christians or Jews. Such claims are untrue, founded on sensationalism or misinformation.
Florentino García Martínez describes two versions of this inaccuracy that have prevailed in the last
few years:
The content of this myth in its crudest form can be expressed as follows. Among the Dead Sea
Scrolls there are many texts the publication of which would pose a great danger for the established
religions, Judaism as well as Christianity. These alleged texts would allow the falsehood of both
Christianity and Judaism as a religion to be demonstrated. For this reason, the religious authorities
(Jewish and Christian alike) have prevented their publication until now. In another version of the
myth, the religious authorities (the Great Rabbinate, the Vatican or the Council of Churches) are
not involved. Instead, the actual research scholars responsible for publication (some of whom are
priests or ministers) willingly censored certain texts which offended their religious sensibilities or
delayed their publication to prevent the harm they could do to the faithful.33
The real explanations for the delay in the publication of the texts are many and varied. Our strong
inclination is to accept all of the reasons except the last one, the sensationalist rumors concerning
the content of the scrolls.
Notes
30. Cross, Ancient Library of Qumran, 40.
31. See Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 11.
32. Geza Vermes, “The War over the Scrolls,” New York Review of Books, 11 August 1994, 10.
33. García Martínez and Barrera, People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 194.
Part IV:
The Dead Sea Scrolls and Modern Technology
31. What is the FARMS Dead Sea Scrolls computer
database?
The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) at Brigham Young University,
in collaboration with other institutions, has developed a computerized library of the Dead Sea
Scrolls called the Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Reference Library. It includes eight hundred
photographs of nearly all of the nonbiblical scrolls, the texts of those scrolls written in Hebrew
characters, an English translation, a catalog of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and related materials such as
the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament). This state-of-
the-art research tool on CD-ROM enables scholars, researchers, students, and other interested
persons to gain access to and study the scrolls on their personal computers. Among other features,
the sophisticated software links the scroll fragments and images with their corresponding texts,
and the user can display, enlarge, and scroll this material in separate windows, as well as conduct
word or phrase searches.
32. What about DNA research and the scrolls?
Scott R. Woodward, a geneticist in the Department of Microbiology at Brigham Young University, is
assisting the international team of translators by using DNA analysis to determine which parchment
scroll fragments came from the same animal and therefore belong together.
Woodward, with the cooperation of Gila Kahila, Patricia Smith, Charles Greenblatt, Joe Zias, and
Magen Broshi, began DNA testing on the scrolls and fragments there during the summer of 1994.
He explains how DNA analysis works:
Because [the Dead Sea Scrolls] parchments were produced from animal skins it is possible that they
would contain remnant DNA molecules. Within the last decade new techniques in molecular
biology have been developed that have made it possible to recover DNA from ancient sources. The
molecular analysis of ancient DNA (aDNA) from the Judean desert parchment fragments would
enable us to establish a genetic signature unique for each manuscript. The precision of the DNA
analysis will allow us to identify at least three levels of hierarchy: the species, population, and
individual animal from which the parchment was produced.34
DNA analysis has already identified the animal species from which the leather used to create the
scrolls was produced: at least two parchments were created from either an ibex or gazelle; other
parchments came from wild or domestic goats. DNA analysis will also assist scholars in determining
whether the library of scrolls came from the immediate region of Qumran and the Dead Sea or
from other areas of ancient Palestine.
Note
34. Scott R. Woodward et al., “Analysis of Parchment Fragments from the Judean Desert Using DNA
Techniques,” in Current Research and Technological Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Conference on the Texts from the Judean Desert, Jerusalem, 30 April 1995, ed. Donald W. Parry and
Stephen D. Ricks (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), 216.
Part V:
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Old Testament
33. Which Old Testament books were discovered among
the scrolls?
Approximately two hundred of the Dead Sea Scrolls represent books from the Old Testament, such
as Genesis, Exodus, Samuel, Isaiah, and Jerem iah. Most of these scrolls were damaged over time
and now exist as fragments. In some cases, multiple copies of portions of a single work have been
found, including fifteen copies of Genesis, eight copies of Numbers, two copies of Joshua, three
copies of Judges, twenty-one copies of Isaiah, six copies of Jeremiah, six copies of Ezekiel, thirty-six
copies of Psalms, two copies of Proverbs, and four copies of Ruth.35 All of the books of the Old
Testament, except the book of Esther, were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some scholars,
noting that Purim (the festival celebrating the deliverance of the Jews exiled in Persia) is
conspicuously absent from Qumran’s calendrical texts, have suggested that the book of Esther may
have been deliberately excluded from the Qumran comm u nity because (1) its theme of retaliation
is contrary to teac h ings in the scrolls, (2) it makes no reference to God, and (3) Esther, a Jew,
married a Persian king, a union that may have been repugnant to the conservative group at
Qumran.36
34. What is the Great Isaiah Scroll?
The Great Isaiah Scroll was one of the initial seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered, and because of its
beauty and completeness, it is perhaps the most famous of the biblical scrolls. It was found
wrapped in a linen cl oth and concealed in a large clay jar in Cave 1. Containing all sixty-six chapters
of the book of Isaiah, the scroll consists of seventeen pieces of sheepskin sewn together to form a
scroll measuring 24.5 feet in length and 10.5 inches in height. The scroll was prepared in
approximately 150 BC. The scribe who copied the book of Isaiah onto the scroll was quite careless
in his work, erring in numerous places. The first error is located in the first line of text, where the
scribe misspelled Isaiah’s name. He corrected his own errors on a number of occasions by writing
the corrections between the lines or in the margins. The scroll contains numerous scribal markings
that may mark passages that were important to the Qumran community. The scroll shows much
evidence of use, as it was well-worn before it was stored in the jar. This scroll is extremely
important to the study of the Bible because it is approximately one thousand years older than
other Hebrew copies of Isaiah. Although most of the readings of the scrol l are the same as those of
the traditional Hebrew Bible (the Masoretic Text), there are a number of important variant
readings that have been included in mo d ern translations of Isaiah. For example, Isaiah 33:8, as
translated in the King James Version of th e Bible, reads:
The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath
despised the cities, he regardeth no man.
The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath
despised the witnesses, he regardeth no man.
The Isaiah scroll reads witnesses rather than cities, thus presenting a more accurate, superior
reading.
35. Does the text of the Great Isaiah Scroll support the
Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon that differ from
those in the King James Bible?
The Book of Mormon contains lengthy quotations from Isaiah (see, for example, 2 Nephi 12—24).
In many instances the wording of corresponding Isaiah passages in the King James Version of the
Bible (KJV) and in the Book of Mormon differs. To date, no one has completed a comprehe n sive
study comparing the Isaiah scroll from Cave 1 with the Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon
Isaiah. In 1981, however, John Tvedtnes37 conducted a serviceable prelim i nary study by comparing
the Isaiah passages in the Book of Mormon with those in the KJV, the Hebrew Bible, the scrolls
found at Qumran (notably the Great Isaiah Scroll, which contains all sixty-six chapters of Isaiah),
and other ancient versions of Isaiah. Several readings of Is aiah in the Book of Mormon are
supported by the Isaiah scroll. The following representative examples of these parallels have been
adapted from Tvedtnes’s work.
1. In many cases passages in the Isaiah scroll and in the Book of Mormon contain the
conjunction and, which is lacking in the corresponding KJV text. Compare the following:
“and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not” (KJV, Isaiah 3:9)
“and they declare their sin as Sodom, and they hide it not” (Isaiah scroll, Isaiah 3:9)
“and doth declare their sin to be even as Sodom, and they cannot hide it” (Book of Mormon, 2
Nephi 13:9=Isaiah 3:9)
2. Second Nephi 24:32 lacks the word one, which appears in Isaiah 14:32. The Book of Mormon
version thus makes messengers the subject of the verb answer. The Hebrew Bible uses a singular
verb, but the Isaiah scroll uses the plural, in agreement with the Book of Mormon:
“What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation?” (KJV, Isaiah 14:32)
“What shall then answer the messengers of the nations?” (Isaiah scroll, Isaiah 14:32)
“What shall then answer the messengers of the nations?” (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 24:32=Isaiah
14:32)
3. In the KJV, Isaiah 48:11 reads, “for how should my name be polluted?” while 1 Nephi 20:11
reads, “for I will not suffer my name to be polluted.” The Isaiah scroll supports the Book of Mormon
by having the verb in the first person, as follows:
“for I will not suffer my name to be polluted” (Isaiah scroll, Isaiah 14:32)
“for I will not suffer my name to be polluted” (Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 20:11=Isaiah 48:11)
4. In the KJV, Isaiah 50:2 reads, “their fish stinketh, because there is no water,” and the Isaiah scroll
reads, “their fish dry up because there is no water.” Second Nephi 7:2 essentially preserves the
verb stinketh from the KJV and the phrasal verb dry up from the Isaiah scroll: “their fish to stink
because the waters are dried up.”
5. Often a singular noun in the KJV is represented by a plural noun in the Book of Mormon. One
example of this appears in Isaiah 9:9, where the KJV reads “inhabitant” and 2 Nephi 19:9 reads
“inhabitants.” The Isaiah scroll supports the reading of the Book of Mormon with its reading of
“inhabitants”:
Yet many other translation committees, in preparing their new translations or revisions of previous
translations, have disregarded the variant readings of the Dead Sea Scrolls. For instance, the New
King James Version of 1982 prefers on evariant reading from the Dead Sea Scrolls book of 1
Samuel; in fact, it relies on the Dead Sea Scrolls on only six occasions in the entire Old Testament
(in Deuteronomy 32:43; 1 Samuel 1:24; Isaiah 10:16; 22:8; 38:14; 49:5). 40 Generally, though, recent
translation committees have examined and subsequently integrated many variant rea d ings of the
Dead Sea Scrolls into their translations. According to Harold Scanlin, a translation adviser for the
United Bible Societies, “Every major Bible translation publish ed since 1950 has claimed to have
taken into account the textual evidence of the Dead Sea Scrolls.” 41 Many of these English
translations have gone through subsequent revisions to incorporate the variant readings gained
from recent scholarship. For instance, the Revised Standard Version (1952) is now the New Revised
Standard Version (1990) , the New English Bible (1970) has become the Revised English
Bible (1989), the Jerusalem Bible (1966) is now the New Jerusalem Bible (1985), and the New
American Bible (1970) is going through a major revision at the present time. It is anticipated that
the translation committees will accept more variant read ings from the biblical scrolls and
fragments in the coming years.
38. Are there passages missing from our Bible that were
discovered among the scrolls?
Scribal error has caused words and entire phrases to be omitted from, changed, or added to the
books of the Old Testament. For instance, James C. VanderKam notes that one Hebrew version of
the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) differs from
another Hebrew version in “some six thousand rea d ings; most of these are minor matters such as
different spel l ings of words.” 42 Copies of a few of the books of the Old Testament, such as 1 and 2
Samuel discovered in Cave 4, have scores of words and phrases that apparently have been lost or
changed through scribal error.43 A striking example of an entire verse of scripture that was lost
more than two thousand years ago has been discovered in the Dea d Sea Scrolls texts of
Samuel.44 The new verse presents some forty-nine Hebrew words that were missing in the Hebrew
Bible. The missing verse reads as follows:
And Nahash, king of the children of Ammon, oppressed harshly the Gadites and the Reubenites. He
would gouge out the right eye of each of them and would not grant Israel a deliverer. No one was
left of the Israelites across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, King of the Ammonites, had not
gouged out. But there were seven thousand men who had fled from the Ammonites and had
entered Jabesh-gilead.45
With this verse in place at 1 Samuel 11:1, a better trans i tion occurs from the final verse in chapter
10 to the first verse in chapter 11, and the context for the story of King Nahash falls into place. The
verse also assists students of the Bible in understanding the situation described in chapter 11
concerning the advance of Nahash and his troops against Jabesh-gilead and the Israelites. It was
the plan of Nahash to make a treaty with the Israelites who were dwelling in Jabesh-gilead, under
the condition that he be allowed to “gouge out the right eye of each person in the city,” rende r ing
them helpless in rebelling against him. The story turns out well for the Israelites, however, for they
rally around King Saul and the prophet Samuel (see 1 Samuel 11:5—7), and together they slay a
number of Ammonites and cause the remainder to flee. Samuel and Saul give credit to the Lord for
their victory. There are many other passages that have been discovered among the Dead Sea
Scrolls biblical texts that perhaps are biblical in nature, such as the psalms called the Prayer for
Deliverance and Hymn to the Creator. Newly discovered prose texts were also found, including An
Account of David’s Poems, The Prayer of Nabonidus, and A Jeremiah Apocryphon. One newly
discovered text is the Apostrophe to Zion, a beautiful psalm that sets forth the wonders of Zion. The
first half of this psalm reads:
I will remember you, O Zion, for a blessing; with all my might I love you; your memory is to be
blessed for ever. Your hope is great, O Zion; Peace and your awaited salvation will come.
Generation after generation shall dwell in you, and generations of the pious shall be your
ornament. They who desire the day of your salvation shall rejoice in the greatness of your glory.
They shall be suckled on the fullness of your glory, and in your beautiful streets they shall make
tinkling sounds. You shall remember the pious deeds of your prophets, and shall glorify yourselves
in the deeds of your pious ones. Cleanse violence from your midst; lying and iniquity, may they be
cut off from you. Your sons shall rejoice within you, and your cherished ones shall be joined to you.
How much they have hoped in your salvation, and how much your perfect ones have mourned for
you? Your hope, O Zion, shall not perish, and your expectation will not be forgotten. (Apostrophe to
Zion 12:1—9)
Notes
35. See VanderKam, Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 30.
36. See Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, “Why Is Esther Missing from
Qumran?” Bible Review, August 1999, 2.
37. John Tvedtnes, “The Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon” (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1981).
38. See VanderKam, Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 142—44, 149, 157.
39. See Harold Scanlin, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Modern Translations of the Old
Testament (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1993), 26.
40. See ibid., 34.
42. The two versions are the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Masoretic Text. See VanderKam, Dead
Sea Scrolls Today, 125.
43. The material in this section has been adapted from Donald W. Parry, “The Contribution of the
Dead Sea Scrolls to Biblical Understanding,” in LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed.
Donald W. Parry and Dana M. Pike (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1997), 59—60.
44. For a complete discussion of this missing verse of scripture, see Frank Moore Cross, “The
Ammonite Oppression of the Tribes of Gad and Reuben: Missing Verses from 1 Samuel 11 Found in
4QSamuela,” in History, Historiography and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform
Literatures, ed. H. Tadmor and M. Weinfeld (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983), 148—58; Emanuel
Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 342—43.
45. Translation is by Donald W. Parry. Josephus refers to this incident of King Nahash
in Antiquities 6.68—71.
Part VI:
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament
39. Were books of the New Testament discovered among
the scrolls?
Not a single copy of a New Testament book was found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The reason for
this is twofold: first, the group that inhabited Qumran was not Christian; second, many or most of
the texts belonging to the corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls were created and copied before the rise
of Christianity in the first century AD.
1. Immersion in water. The scrolls mention water rites required of those who enter the community
for the first time or reenter it after a period of separation. Like the baptism of the early Christians,
this rite was performed by immersion, but unlike baptism, the water rites had nothing to do with
Jesus Christ or the remission of sins.
2. Healing through the laying on of hands. The New Testament refers to the healing of the sick by
the laying on of hands (see Mark 6:5; Luke 4:40; 13:11—13), a practice that corresponds to a
passage in the Genesis Apocryphon. According to this text, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was suffering
from “scourges and afflictions.” He called upon his “magicians” and “healers” to heal him, but they
failed to do so; he then called upon Abraham, who healed the pharaoh by the laying on of hands.
Abraham explains, “So I prayed [for him] . . . and I laid my hands on his [head]; and the scourge
departed from him and the evil [spirit] was expelled [from him], and he lived” (Genesis
Apocryphon 20:21—22, 28—29).
3. Twelve and three. According to the Community Rule, the Qumran community had at its head a
group of twelve men, who themselves were directed by three:
In the Council of the Community there shall be twelve men and three Priests, perfectly versed in all
that is revealed of the Law, whose works shall be truth, righteousness, justice, loving-kindness and
humility. They shall preserve the faith in the Land with steadfastness and meekness and shall atone
for sin by the practice of justice and by suffering the sorrows of affliction. They shall walk with all
men according to the standard of truth and the rule of the time.
When these are in Israel, the Council of the Community shall be established in truth. . . . They shall
be witnesses to the truth at the Judgement, and shall be the elect of Goodwill who shall atone for
the Land and pay to the wicked their reward. (Community Rule 8:1—7)
The number twelve corresponds with the number of the apostles whom Jesus selected; but the
twelve men who directed the Council of the Community were not apostles, nor did they possess
the powers to cast out unclean spirits, heal the sick, and perform other such acts (see Matthew
10:1—5).
4. Beatitudes. The beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew 5:3—11), each of which
begin with the word Blessed, correspond in some ways to the beatitudes discovered in the scrolls.
A Cave 4 fragment called <spanstyle=’font-size:12.0pt’>Beatitudes reads in part:
Blessed are those who hold to her (Wisdom’s) precepts and do not hold to the ways of iniquity.
Blessed are those who rejoice in her, and do not burst forth in ways of folly. Blessed are those who
seek her with pure hands, and do not pursue her with a treacherous heart. Blessed is the man who
has attained Wisdom, and walks in the Law of the Most High. (Beatitudes 2:1—3)
5. Light and Darkness. The apostle John’s writings contain many teachings regarding light and
darkness. As recorded in John 12:35—36: “Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light
with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in
darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be
the children of light” (see John 1:4—5; 3:19; 8:12; 1 John 1:5—6).
Professor Julio Trebolle Barrera of the Universidad Complutense of Madrid sees definite parallels
between these teachings and those in the scrolls that speak of “spirits of light and darkness,”
“source of light,” “source of darkness,” “Prince of Lights,” “paths of light,” “Angel of Darkness,”
“paths of darkness,” and “sons of light” (Community Rule 3:19—26).48
6. Other similarities. Julio Trebolle Barrera discusses several additional parallels between the
Qumran texts and the beliefs of Christianity, including the two groups’ approach to wealth, their
beliefs regarding divorce, the communal meal and Last Supper, the bid for perfection, disciplinary
action against those who break rules, the idea of the Creator, overlapping concepts from Paul’s
epistles and the Qumran texts, and the way that the expression “Son of God” is used.49
Notwithstanding the correspondences between the two groups, there are many points of contrast
that are noted in the following question.
Furthermore, the Qumran community did not share with the Christians beliefs in the plan of
salvation, aspects of church organization, priesthood offices, the Second Coming, a living prophet,
the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands, the gift of tongues and
interpretation of tongues, other gifts of revelation and of the Spirit, and numerous other doctrines
that were part of the early Christian church and that are now part of the Church of Jesus of Christ
of Latter-day Saints.
Notes
46. David Rolph Seely, “Praise, Prayer, and Worship at Qumran,” in LDS Perspectives on the Dead
Sea Scrolls, ed. Parry and Pike, 98.
47. For a discussion of views regarding John the Baptist and Qumran, see García Martínez and
Barrera, People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 205—6.
48. See ibid., 214—15.
49. For a full discussion on parallels between the Qumran texts and the New Testament, see García
Martínez and Barrera, People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 203—20.
Part VII:
Specific Texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls
45. What is the Commentary on Habakkuk?
The Commentary on Habakkuk, found in Cave 1, is a verse-by-verse commentary covering the first
two chapters of the book of Habakkuk. This commentary, also known as the Pesher Habakkuk,
dates to the Herodian period (30—1 BC), although the composition itself dates to an earlier period.
According to the commentary, the mysteries of the Lord’s prophets were revealed to Qumran’s
Teacher of Righteousness and Habakkuk’s prophecy was interpreted in relation to the people of
Qumran in the last days. For example, we read in the Pesher Habakkuk:
And God told Habakkuk to write what was going to happen to the last generation, but he did not let
him know the end of the age. And as for what he says: [Hab 2:2] So that the one who reads it /may
run/. Its interpretation concerns the Teacher of Righteousness, to whom God has disclosed all the
mysteries of the words of his servants, the prophets. [Hab 2:3]50
This fragment is particularly interesting because it may shed further light on the Qumran
community’s view of their messiah, a subject that continues to be intensely debated. Some
scholars interpret the writings from the Dead Sea as indicating a single messianic figure, while
other scholars find evidence for a belief in two messiahs, one priestly and one royal. While the
majority of messianic references in the Dead Sea Scrolls are clearly singular in form, there is one
example where the word messiah is plural and appears to refer to two separate messianic figures.
Whoever has deliberately insulted his companion unjustly shall do penance for one year and shall
be excluded.
Whoever has deliberately deceived his companion by word or by deed shall do penance for six
months. . . .
Whoever has borne malice against his companion unjustly shall do penance for six months/one
year; and likewise, whoever has taken revenge in any matter whatever.
Whoever has lain down to sleep during an Assembly of the Congregation: thirty days. And likewise,
whoever has left, without reason, an Assembly of the Congregation as many as three times during
one Assembly, shall do penance for ten days. But if he has departed whilst they were standing he
shall do penance for thirty days. (Community Rule7:4—14)
In many respects the Community Rule displays parallels to community regulations for later
Christian groups, whose docume nts include the Didache, the Apostolic Constitutions,
the Didascalia,and the Rule of Benedict. All products of the early Christian centuries, these
documents, like the Community Rule, reflect a concern with providing a constitution for the
communities as well as a pattern for daily living.
The scroll continues with similar descriptions of hidden treasures. A few treasure seekers have
exerted great efforts to discover the treasures described in this scroll, but with no success.
The texts describe a visionary or prophet who is led by a heavenly minis trant who shows him the
dimensions and various parts of the New Jerusalem, including the gates, streets, houses, doors,
thresholds, lintels, and stairs. One of the fragments reads in part, “And he measu[red from] this
[ga]te to the eastern corner 25 stadia. vacat [empty space in the manuscript] And he led me into
the city, and he measured each block of houses for its length and width, fifty-one reeds by fifty-
one, in a square” ( New Jerusalem 2:10—12). At times the ministrant describes various parts of the
New Jerusalem, for example, “all [the streets of the city] are paved with white stone . . . marble and
jasper” (1:7—9).
The literary form of the New Jerusalem texts recalls Ezekiel 40—46, in which Ezekiel was hosted by
an angel who revealed to him the future Jerusalem temple and its dimensions.
The document concludes with the admonition “Under stand all these (matters) and ask Him (God)
to straighten your counsel and put you far away from thoughts of evil and the counsel of Belial”
(Some Observances of the Law 3:5—6).
[I thank] Thee, O Lord, as befits the greatness of Thy power and the multitude of Thy marvels for
ever and ever. [Thou art a merciful God] and rich in [favours], pardoning those who repent of their
sin and visiting the iniquity of the wicked. [Thou delightest in] the free-will offering [of the
righteous] but iniquity Thou hatest always. Thou hast favoured me, Thy servant, with a spirit of
knowledge, [that I may choose] truth [and goodness] and loathe all the ways of iniquity. And I have
loved Thee freely and with all my heart; [contemplating the mysteries of] Thy wisdom [I have
sought Thee]. For this is from Thy hand and [nothing is] without [Thy will].
Notes
50. Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English,
trans. Wilfred G. E. Watson, 2nd ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), 200.
51. See VanderKam, Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 56—57; García Martínez and Barrera, People of the
Dead Sea Scrolls, 52—53; Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London:
Penguin, 1997), 113—14; Michael A. Knibb, The Qumran Community (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987), 13—15.
52. See Moshe Weinfeld, The Organizational Pattern and the Penal Code of the Qumran Sect: A
Comparison with Guilds and Religious Associations of the Hellenistic-Roman Period (Fribourg:
Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1986), 21—23, 43—44, 48—55, 58—73, 78—79.
53. Vermes, Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 100.
54. An earlier, bootlegged edition was published by John M. Allegro, The Treasure of the Copper
Scroll: The Opening and Decipherment of the Most Mysterious of the Dead Sea Scrolls, A Unique
Inventory of Buried Treasure (New York: Doubleday, 1960).
Part VIII:
Specific Insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls
58. Do the scrolls contain previously unknown religious
writings?
Many of the writings represented among the Dead Sea Scrolls were unknown before the scrolls’
discovery in the years 1947 through 1956. These writings include legal texts (Temple Scroll,
Community Rule, Some Observances of the Law [4QMMT]), hymns and poems (Thanksgiving
Hymns, Apocryphal Psalms, Noncanonical Psalms), calendrical texts (Phases of the Moon,
Calendars of Priestly Courses, Zodiacal Calendar with a Brontologion), biblical
commentaries (Commentary on Micah, Commentary on Habakkuk, Commentary on Psalms),
apocryphal works (Prayer of Enosh and Enoch, Elisha Apocryphon, Joshua Apocryphon), biblically
related or based works (New Jerusalem, Prayer of Nabonidus, Words of Moses, Book of Noah, Ages
of the Creation), prayers and liturgical works (Liturgical Work, Purification Ritual, Blessings,
Benedictions, Prayers for Festivals), and other miscellaneous texts.
These texts provide significant information regarding the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, how
some Jews worshipped during the centuries before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, and
the religious views of the Jews of the Qumran community.
YHWH [Jehovah] gave [David] an intelligent and brilliant spirit, and he wrote 3,600 psalms and 364
songs to sing before the altar for the daily perpetual sacrifice, for all the days of the year; and 52
songs of the Sabbath offerings; and 30 songs for the New Moons, for Feast-days and for the Day of
Atonement.
In all, the songs which he uttered were 446, and 4 songs to make music on behalf of those stricken
(by evil spirits).
All these he uttered through prophecy which was given him from before the Most High. (An
Account of David’s Poems)
In addition to these psalms, the Dead Sea Scrolls include thirty nonbiblical hymns that are called
the Thanksgiving Hymns (see question 57). Brigham Young University professor David Rolph Seely
explains that “five of these are part of Barki Nafshi—a single text of hymns blessing the Lord,
named after the opening phrase ‘Bless, O My Soul.'”59 Seely translates a portion of one of the
hymns as follows:
Bless, O my soul, the Lord, for all his wonders forever, and blessed be his name. For he has
delivered the soul of the poor and the humble he has not despised, and he has not forgotten the
distress of the helpless. He has opened his eyes to the helpless, and the cry of the orphans he has
heard, and he has turned his ears to their cry. In the abundance of his mercy he was gracious to the
needy and he has opened their eyes to see his ways and their ears to hear his teaching. And he
circumcised the foreskin of their heart and he delivered them because of his grace and he set their
feet to the way.60
In this hymn the Lord is praised because he has “delivered [the unfortunate] because of his grace.”
The documents comprised letters and deeds belonging to the leader of the Second Jewish Revolt
(a.d. 132—35), Shimeon bar Kosiba (or Simeon Bar Kokhba). Among the documents was land-lease
agreement written in Hebrew and containing the name Alma. The papyrus sheet consists of
twenty-six lines and about two hundred words. Part of the text reads as follows:
Of their own free will, on this day, have Eleazar son of Eleazar son of Hitta and Eliezer son of
Samuel, both of En-gedi, and Tehinnah son of Simeon and Alma son of Judah both of ha-Luhith in
the (coastal) district of Agaltain, now resident in En-gedi, wished to divide up amongst themselves
the places that they have leased from Jonathan son of MHNYM the administrator of Simeon ben
Kosiba, Prince of Israel, at En-gedi.64
The so-called Alma deed is significant for Latter-day Saints because it reveals that the name Alma
did in fact exist as a male name in antiquity just decades after the mortal ministry of Jesus Christ.
Nibley also observes that “in giving us a much fuller account than the Bible of how the flood came
about, the Book of Enoch settles the moral issue with several telling parts: (1) God’s reluctance to
send the Flood and his great sorrow at the event. (2) The peculiar brand of wickedness that made
the Flood mandatory. (3) The frank challenge of the wicked to have God do His worst.”69 The Dead
Sea Scrolls record many of the people’s iniquities as well as God’s weeping over the necessity of
destroying his own creation.
There is a further note of interest. In the Book of Moses account in the Pearl of Great Price, there
appears “out of the blue . . . the name of the only nonbiblical individual named in the whole book—
Mahijah (Moses 6:40).”70Strikingly, the name Mahujah (MHWY—”the semi-vowels w and y are
written very much alike in the Aramaic script and are sometimes confused by scribes”71) also
appears in the Enoch materials in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Moses 6:40 reads: “There came a man unto
him, whose name was Mahijah, and said unto him: Tell us plainly who thou art, and from whence
thou comest?” This is strikingly similar to 4QEnoch Giants 1:20: “And they summoned MHWY and
he came to them: And they asked him and sent him to Enoch.”
Besides illuminating the rich variety of Judaism in antiquity, the scrolls permit us to see one group
of Jews who took a more comprehensive and embracing view of scripture (because their writings
“are unaffected by either Christian or rabbinic censorship”)72 and who took a more exacting view of
the observance of festivals and sacrificial practices and of community leadership inspired by the
Holy Spirit.
Rogers, Lewis M. “The Dead Sea Scrolls: Qumran Calmly Revisited.” BYU Studies 2/2 (1960): 109—
28.
Seely, David R. “The Barki Nafshi Texts (4Q434—439).” In Current Research and Technological
Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Conference on the Texts from the Judean Desert, Jerusalem,
30 April 1995, edited by Donald W. Parry and Stephen D. Ricks. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.
———. “The ‘Circumcised Heart’ in 4Q434 Barki Nafshi.” Revue de Qumran 17 (1996): 527—35.
———. “Praise, Prayer, and Worship at Qumran.” In LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls,
edited by Donald W. Parry and Dana M. Pike. Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1997.
Skinner, Andrew C. “The Ancient People of Qumran: An Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls.”
In LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls, edited by Donald W. Parry and Dana M. Pike. Provo,
Utah: FARMS, 1997.
Tvedtnes, John A. “The Dead Sea Scrolls.” In The Church of the Old Testament, 2nd ed. Salt Lake
City: Deseret Book, 1980.
Woodward, Scott R. “Putting the Pieces Together: DNA and the Dead Sea Scrolls.” In LDS
Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls, edited by Donald W. Parry and Dana M. Pike. Provo, Utah:
FARMS, 1997.
Woodward, Scott R., Gila Kahila, Patricia Smith, Charles Greenblatt, Joe Zias, and Magen Broshi.
“Analysis of Parchment Fragments from the Judean Desert Using DNA Techniques.” In Current
Research and Technological Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Conference on the Texts from
the Judean Desert, Jerusalem, 30 April 1995, edited by Donald W. Parry and Stephen D. Ricks.
Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.
English Translations
García Martínez, Florentino, trans. The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English.
Translated into English by Wilfred G. E. Watson. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994.
Vermes, Geza. The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English. New York: Penguin, 1997.
Wise, Michael, Martin Abegg Jr., and Edward Cook. The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation. San
Francisco: Harper, 1996.
General Studies
Collins, John J. The Scepter and the Star: The Messiahs of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Other Ancient
Literature. New York: Doubleday, 1995.
Cross, Frank Moore. The Ancient Library of Qumran. 3rd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995.
Fitzmyer, Joseph A. Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Paulist, 1992.
García Martínez, Florentino, and Donald W. Parry, eds. A Bibliography of the Finds in the Desert of
Judah, 1970—95. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996.
García Martínez, Florentino, and Julio Trebolle Barrera. The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their
Writings, Beliefs and Practices. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993.
Ringgren, Helmer. The Faith of Qumran: Theology of the Dead Sea Scrolls. New York: Crossroads,
1995.
Scanlin, Harold. The Dead Sea Scrolls and Modern Translations of the Old Testament. Wheaton, Ill.:
Tyndale House, 1993.
Schiffman, Lawrence H. Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society,
1994.
VanderKam, James C. The Dead Sea Scrolls Today. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994.
Yadin, Yigael. The Scroll of the War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness. London:
Oxford University Press, 1962.
———. The Temple Scroll: The Hidden Law of the Dead Sea Sect. New York: Random House, 1985.
Notes
1. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Responses to 101 Questions on the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Paulist
Press, 1992).
2. Stephen Pfann mentioned this in a personal conversation with Stephen Ricks, 31 May 1993.
3. Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 3rd ed. (London: Penguin, 1987), xiii.
4. Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, ed. J-Milton Cowan, 3rd ed. (Ithaca: Spoken
Language Services, 1976), 231, 1059; compare Fitzmyer, 101 Questions, 2.
5. See Philip R. Davies, Qumran (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1982), 30.
6. See ibid., 44—48.
7. See ibid.
8. See LDS Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Apocrypha,” for a discussion of these and other apocryphal books.
9. See, for example, James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids, Mich.:
Eerdmans, 1994), 93—95; and Hershel Shanks, ed., Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader
from the Biblical Archeology Review (New York: Random House, 1992), 35—84.
10. See Todd S. Beall, Josephus’ Description of the Essenes Illustrated by the Dead Sea Scrolls (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
11. See Josephus, Jewish Wars 2.8.2 (paragraph 119), 2.8.3 (122, 123), 2.8.4 (126), 2.8.9 (147).
12. Beall, Josephus’ Description of the Essenes, 15.
13. Pliny the Elder, Natural History 5.17; see H. Rackham’s English translation in the Loeb Classical
Library edition of Pliny’s work (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969).
14. See Frank Moore Cross, “The Development of the Jewish Scripts,” in The Bible and the Ancient
Near East: Essays in Honor of William Foxwell Albright, ed. G. Ernest Wright (Garden City: Anchor
Books, 1965), 136.
15. See the chart in Lawrence H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Philadelphia: Jewish
Publication Society, 1994), 32—33.
16. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, xxi.
17. Their excavations are summarized in “How and Where Did the Qumranites Live?” in The Provo
International Conference on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Technological Innovations, New Texts, and
Reformulated Issues, ed. Donald W. Parry and Eugene Ulrich (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999), 266—73.
18. Frank Moore Cross, Ancient Library of Qumran, 3rd ed. (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995) 39—40.
19. See Davies, Qumran, 44—48.
20. See David E. Aune, Prophecy in Early Christianity and the Ancient Mediterranean World (Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1983), 342—43.
21. See Florentino Garc’a Mart’nez and Julio Trebolle Barrera, The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Their Writings, Beliefs and Practices (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995), 73, 90.
22. Ibid., 80, 88.
23. Frank Moore Cross, “The Scrolls and the New Testament,” Christian Century 72 (August 1955):
970; compare Cross, “Dead Sea Scrolls: Overview,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H.
Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 1:462, in which Cross describes the writers of the Dead Sea
Scrolls as a “church of anticipation.”
24. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 331.
25. Zadokites were descendants of the priest Zadok, who served in the high priesthood during most
of the First and Second Temple periods.
26. See the chronological table in the LDS Bible Dictionary, 641.
27. Millar Burrows, Burrows on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1978), 328.
28. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 103; see G. R. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New
Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1973), 11—18.
29. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 103.
30. Cross, Ancient Library of Qumran, 40.
31. See Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls, 11.
32. Geza Vermes, “The War over the Scrolls,” New York Review of Books, 11 August 1994, 10.
33. Garc’a Mart’nez and Barrera, People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 194.
34. Scott R. Woodward et al., “Analysis of Parchment Fragments from the Judean Desert Using DNA
Techniques,” in Current Research and Technological Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls:
Conference on the Texts from the Judean Desert, Jerusalem, 30 April 1995, ed. Donald W. Parry and
Stephen D. Ricks (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1996), 216.
35. See VanderKam, Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 30.
36. See Martin Abegg Jr., Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, “Why Is Esther Missing from
Qumran?” Bible Review, August 1999, 2.
37. John Tvedtnes, “The Isaiah Variants in the Book of Mormon” (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1981).
38. See VanderKam, Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 142—44, 149, 157.
39. See Harold Scanlin, The Dead Sea Scrolls and Modern Translations of the Old
Testament (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1993), 26.
40. See ibid., 34.
41. Ibid., 27.
42. The two versions are the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Masoretic Text. See VanderKam, Dead
Sea Scrolls Today, 125.
43. The material in this section has been adapted from Donald W. Parry, “The Contribution of the
Dead Sea Scrolls to Biblical Understanding,” in LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed.
Donald W. Parry and Dana M. Pike (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1997), 59—60.
44. For a complete discussion of this missing verse of scripture, see Frank Moore Cross, “The
Ammonite Oppression of the Tribes of Gad and Reuben: Missing Verses from 1 Samuel 11 Found in
4QSamuela,” in History, Historiography and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform
Literatures, ed. H. Tadmor and M. Weinfeld (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983), 148—58; Emanuel
Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 342—43.
45. Translation is by Donald W. Parry. Josephus refers to this incident of King Nahash
in Antiquities 6.68—71.
46. David Rolph Seely, “Praise, Prayer, and Worship at Qumran,” in LDS Perspectives on the Dead
Sea Scrolls, ed. Parry and Pike, 98.
47. For a discussion of views regarding John the Baptist and Qumran, see Garc’a Mart’nez and
Barrera, People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 205—6.
48. See ibid., 214—15.
49. For a full discussion on parallels between the Qumran texts and the New Testament, see Garc’a
Mart’nez and Barrera, People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 203—20.
50. Florentino Garc’a Mart’nez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in
English, trans. Wilfred G. E. Watson, 2nd ed. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994), 200.
51. See VanderKam, Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 56—57; Garc’a Mart’nez and Barrera, People of the
Dead Sea Scrolls, 52—53; Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (London:
Penguin, 1997), 113—14; Michael A. Knibb, The Qumran Community (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987), 13—15.
52. See Moshe Weinfeld, The Organizational Pattern and the Penal Code of the Qumran Sect: A
Comparison with Guilds and Religious Associations of the Hellenistic-Roman Period (Fribourg:
Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1986), 21—23, 43—44, 48—55, 58—73, 78—79.
53. Vermes, Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 100.
54. An earlier, bootlegged edition was published by John M. Allegro, The Treasure of the Copper
Scroll: The Opening and Decipherment of the Most Mysterious of the Dead Sea Scrolls, A Unique
Inventory of Buried Treasure (New York: Doubleday, 1960).
55. See Vermes, Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 583—84; Shanks, Understanding the Dead
Sea Scrolls, 227—41.
56. Dana M. Pike, “Is the Plan of Salvation Attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls?” in LDS Perspectives on
the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. Parry and Pike, 90.
57. Ibid., 75.
60. Ibid.
62. Translated by Elisha Qimron and James Charlesworth, quoted in Seely, “Praise, Prayer, and
Worship at Qumran,” 100.
67. G. W. Anderson, “Enoch, Books of,” in Encyclopedia Britannica (1973), 8:605, cited in
Nibley, Enoch the Prophet, 56 n. 2.
68. James C. VanderKam, Enoch and the Growth of the Apocalyptic Tradition (Washington, D.C.:
The Catholic Biblical Association of America, 1984), 90.
69. Nibley, Enoch the Prophet, 4.
70. Ibid., 277.