What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Q: Can you explain about the Dead Sea Scrolls and what is the big issue with them? Revelation says that “no one shall add or takeaway from his word,” and I am confused. I think if God wanted Dead Sea Scrolls in the Bible, He would not have hid them. What should we believe?

A: Discovery

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, and one of the first Western contacts was John Trever, who in 1948 – a young Methodist scholar who came to the Holy Land to photograph plants of the Holy Land.

But in February 1948, he was asked to come to St. Mark’s Syrian Orthodox Monastery in Jerusalem to look at some manuscripts that were discovered the year before. He eventually figured out that he was looking at a first or second century scroll with the text of Isaiah 65:1 – launching the attention that came to one of the most remarkable manuscript finds of history.

The Library

Over the next eight years, 11 caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea would yield more than 800 manuscripts, about a quarter of them copies of Old Testament books. Others would include a vast array of stories about Old Testament figures, hymns and psalms, wisdom poems, biblical commentaries, and books outlining the distinctive practices and beliefs of a Jewish sect that existed prior to, and contemporary with, Jesus.

Most scholars assume that the Dead Sea Scrolls represent an Essene library, with many of the scrolls actually produced by the group. The scrolls reveal a community concerned with end times, in which it would be vindicated and would assume leadership over the temple.

The scrolls depict a great final war between the “sons of light” (the Essenes and pious Jews who joined them) and the “sons of darkness” (the Romans and faithless Jews who collaborated with them). One scroll may actually describe a confrontation in which the Messiah slays the Roman emperor.

Some Believe Much of the Essene Library was Written in Jerusalem

Magen, who believes the scrolls were written by Jerusalem temple priests, told the San Francisco Chronicle, “We did not find any evidence that the scrolls were written (at) Qumran or the caves which overlook it. Our conclusion is that they were brought there mainly from Jerusalem across the Judean Desert. We discovered several ancient way stations which once were [first-century] Jewish communities where they could have been kept temporarily in local synagogues before being transferred to the caves of Qumran for safety.”

Dead Sea Scrolls and the Sceptics

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Christians faced a slightly different challenge as skeptics argued that the Bible was too recent to be taken seriously. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (fragment shown) in 1947 and following years greatly strengthened the Scripture’s defense, enabling scholars to reconstruct the history of Palestine from the fourth century B.C. to A.D. 135 and show that New Testament accounts followed very closely behind the events they described.

The Dead Sea Scrolls don’t add anything to the Biblical library. Here is what they do:

• Confirm the reliability of the work of the Jewish people who copied the manuscripts of the Old Testament.
• Reveal the thinking and the life of a community of Jews in the first century who were not very well known before the discover of the Dead Sea Scrolls.