Over 2000 years ago a band of men worked intently at hiding some of their most valued possessions. These men were hiding scrolls in caves near their community of Qumran. At first they hid them in caves at some distance from the city and took great pains to carefully preserve the scrolls. Later as the danger of invasion grew more imminent their efforts became feverish and they dropped the scrolls, unprotected into the most convenient caves. Little did these dwellers of Qumran realize that their precious scrolls would some day make world history.
Now let us spin the clock of time forward. The caves mutely held their secrets for hundreds of years. Nations rose and nations fell, new lands were discovered, the tide of history rolled on, but the records of the Qumran community lay unchanged. Finally in t h e Spring of 1947 a Bedouin lad was climbing over the same hills that the men of Qumran trod so many years before. He was searching for a goat which had become lost. He tossed a rock into one of the caves which dotted the area. Much to his surprise he heard the crash of breaking pottery. He hurried away and returned with a friend for moral support. The two of them explored the cave and found several interesting-looking leather rolls which had been sealed in a pottery jar. The rolls were covered with writing in an unknown language.
The boys took the scrolls to a merchant in Jerusalem, but he pronounced them worthless. Word of these mysterious scrolls filtered through to the Saint Mark’s Syrian Convent in Old Jerusalem. The Bedouin lads were sought out and the rolls purchased. A telephone call to the American School of Oriental Research alerted them to the discovery. The potentiality of an unprecedented archaeological find was recognized by the professors at the school the moment they saw the scrolls.
Pictures of the scrolls were taken and sent to Professor William Al-bright, the dean of American archaeologists. Professor Al-bright identified one roll as the complete text of the book of Isaiah an d indicated the date of writing as approximately 150 B.C. The result of this amazing discovery was that the date of the earliest known Hebrew manuscript of the Old Testament was pushed back 1000 years.
The crash of the stone breaking the pottery jar in the cave near the ruins of the community of Qumran echoed around the world. Now, thirteen years later, the world is still feeling the impact from the event that has proved to be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. This, my friends, is the story of t h e discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Let us first consider what was found in the caves on the shores of the Dead Sea. The material that was found had once been the library of the community of Qumran. About the year 68 B.C. the inhabitants hid the scrolls in caves in the nearby hills to save them from the ravages of the invading Roman armies. When the contents of the caves were discovered in 1947, the scrolls were in varying states of preservation. Some scrolls had been preserved intact, while others were nothing but a jumble of fragments. The manuscripts which were found intact were composed of leather with ink writing and papyrus written upon in the same manner. These rolls had been rolled in linen cloth, carefully placed in pottery jars evidently made solely for the purpose and covered with a pottery lid. The lid had not been sealed, but t h e deterioration of the scroll material near the lid formed a sticky substance which over the years sealed the crack around the lid. Scrolls in the few jars which were sealed in this manner were removed in perfect condition. One of the perfect leather scrolls contains t h e entire book of Isaiah.
Rolls which were not so carefully placed suffered much worse treatment. All that is left of them is partial rolls and in most cases literally thousands of fragments. These rolls have deteriorated to their present state due to t h e effects over the years of air, moisture and small animals.
To all appearances, hundreds of these were scrolls which were just dumped into caves close to the city in great haste. It is estimated that the fragments contain portions of from 600 to 1000 scrolls. The infinitely painstaking work of assembling the fragments is being carried out in Jerusalem at the present time. An idea of the tremendous job facing those entrusted with assembling the fragments can be obtained if you would take a newspaper. tear it into pieces approximately one inch across, mix the pieces in a bowl and then proceed to reconstruct the newspaper by placing each piece in its proper place.
Two of the rolls caused considerable interest and speculation. They were composed of sheets of thin copper inscribed with a sharp tool and rolled together. When they were found, the copper was in such a state of oxidation the rolls could not be unrolled without the brittle material flying into thousands of pieces. An ingenious method of reading the rolls was devised. The entire rolls were cast in plaster-of-Paris. Then a very fine saw was used to cut each layer of copper into a series of strips running the width of t h e roll. Thus, strip by strip the brittle copper was laid out until the entire roll could be read.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have received their name from the region where they were found. They were found in caves in the hills on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. The nearest city at the present time is Jericho, which is 7½ miles due north of the site. The location is known as Khirbet Qumran. “Khirbet” means “ruins” and Qumran is the name of the community that existed in the area between about 175 B.C. and 68 B.C. The ruins of Qumran lie about 1000 ft. above the Dead Sea and about one mile from the Shore.
Eleven different caves have been found which contain scrolls or fragments thereof. The caves have been numbered from one to eleven in the order of their discovery. Cave number four, which lies closest to the ruins has the greatest abundance of material. Over 300 separate books have been identified from its contents. Several archaeological expeditions have thoroughly searched all caves in the area and have excavated t h e ruins of Qumran. Their findings have been invaluable in filling in the history of these scrolls which have proved so interesting to archaeologists and Bible students.
Next month we will discuss the material found in the scrolls and the date of the scrolls.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One