Dead Sea Scrolls

In late 1946 or early 1947, Bedouin shepherds discovered some scrolls in clay jars - seven of which contained leather and papyrus scrolls - near Qumran, situated on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. They sold the scrolls to an antiquities dealer. With the passage of time, 800 different manuscripts were found in 11 caves near Wadi Qumran. The manuscripts comprised 60,000 fragments, portions, or complete scrolls on many subjects. 

The origin of the Scrolls can be traced back to the period starting in the third century BCE to the first century of the Common Era, before the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Although the texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are more than 2000 years old and written between 150 B.C. and 70 A.D., there is no robust evidence pointing to who wrote the scrolls. 

Although some of these Scrolls were found in nearly-intact condition, most of these writings are in the form of parchments and papyrus fragments. The Scrolls can be split into “biblical” and “non-biblical” manuscripts. One-fourth of these non-biblical manuscripts can be tagged as “sectarian,” and comprises eschatological biblical commentaries, apocalyptic and liturgical works, and the religious beliefs and practices of a particular community. 

The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from each book of the Old Testament, barring the Book of Esther. Although a major portion of the Scrolls is written in Hebrew, with some fragments written in the ancient paleo-Hebrew, about 15% is written in Aramaic. Additionally, several texts of the Hebrew Bible have been translated into Greek.

The Scrolls serve as vessels of communication and contain a wide range of Jewish religious writings about the Second Temple period, including parabiblical and exegetical texts, prayers and hymns, wisdom and apocalyptic texts, calendrical texts, and others.

Intriguing Facts:

• Four of the original Dead Sea Scrolls were purchased by a Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem, Athanasius Yeshua Samuel, from a cobbler for less than $100. He offered them unsuccessfully to Yale and several other universities. In 1954, he placed an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal. Yigael Yadin, an Israeli archaeologist whose father had obtained the other three scrolls from the initial collection in 1947, purchased them on behalf of the State of Israel.

• The Copper Scroll, one of the manuscripts, depicts an ancient treasure map that lists numerous gold and silver caches. Although the texts in the other scrolls are written in ink on parchment or animal skins, this document contains text using an unconventional vocabulary and odd spelling in Hebrew and Greek carved onto metal sheets. It describes 64 underground hiding places spread around Israel that allegedly contain riches stowed away for safekeeping. None of these places has been discovered, but there is speculation that the treasure either belonged to the local Essenes - taken out of the Second Temple before its destruction - or did not exist at all.

On a different note, the Dead Sea is not only home to these captivating literature but is now also a growing destination for medical and curative tourism. The lower atmospheric pressure coupled with the goodness of Dead Sea mud, salt, and minerals attracts people like magnets. It has also given rise to a burgeoning Dead Sea cosmetics industry, among which one of the leading players is Premier. As such, the Dead Sea - actually a hypersaline lake - is famous for a lot more than just the Dead Sea Scrolls.