The Dead Sea Scrolls have been hailed as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the modern era. But what are they and why do they matter?
This article outlines the opportunity and insights that the scrolls present for modern Bible readers as well as open questions about how they challenged, changed, or confirmed our understanding of the texts and contexts of the Bible.
What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
The term Dead Sea Scrolls refers to about 930 fragmentary manuscripts discovered in caves of the Judean wilderness between 1947-1952. Written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, these texts were copied or crafted by a scribal community of the Jewish Essene movement who lived at the site of Qumran, just off the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from around 100 BC to 68 AD. This means the occupation of the site by this Jewish scribal community took place within the mid- to late-Second Temple period.
The scrolls contain a diversity of writings including our earliest original language copies of many works later received in the Old Testament, predating the major medieval codices of the Hebrew Scriptures (like the Leningrad or Aleppo Codices) by a millennium. The scrolls also include several writings, like the Community Rule, Hodayot, or War Scroll, that outline the “sectarian” identity, practices, structures, liturgies, beliefs, and expectations of the insider community of Qumran.
Alongside these are still other writings of diverse genres that seem to have been read at, but not necessarily written by, the Qumran community. The discovery of copies of works such as 1 Enoch, Tobit, and Jubilees among the scrolls indicates the importance — even authority — of such writings for this group as well as hints at their existence before and beyond Qumran.
Today, the scrolls have been brought back into the headlines due to more recent acquisitions of fragments by private collectors, the majority of which are likely or confirmed forgeries. However, these modern forgeries are distinct and separate from the larger volume of the authentic texts found or acquired in the early waves of discovery from the late-1940s to mid-1950s.
Media Culture and Authoritative Scriptures Before the Canon
One of the obvious, but easily forgotten, realities of the Dead Sea Scrolls is that they are indeed scrolls. This matters for two major reasons: first for media culture and second for canonical development.
The Invention of the Codex
The media format that became the “book” began as a codex, a series of writings that could be stitched together, flipped through, collected, and tucked in between covers. The innovation of the codex began as early as 3rd century BC in Greece but was not widely used until the early centuries of the “Common Era.” Since then, it has proved to be a remarkably durable media format as it evolved throughout centuries of book culture.
Since the Dead Sea Scrolls come from the mid-Second Temple period, “books” in the technical sense did not yet exist in the material culture of this world. The media culture of scrolls is remarkable in its own ways — not least in view of earlier text forms inscribed on stone or pressed into clay. But one major caveat to keep in mind when reading the scrolls, particularly with an interest to biblical literature, is that these materials are not bookish in the same way as the 4th-century Christian codices like Vaticanus or Alexandrinus or the 11th century Leningrad Codex.
The Development of Biblical Canon
This recognition really matters for how we locate the scrolls in the larger story of the canonical development of scripture. Not only are the scrolls from before the media of a book, but they are also before the formalization of a canon as the Book (a.k.a., the Bible).
The process of canonization, of course, was navigated differently in Jewish and Christian traditions of the early centuries AD. But when it comes to Qumran, this was a world of scriptures developing and circulating. While the community did not have a Bible per se, they did seem to understand authoritative writings that guided life, thought, and practice.
Many of these writings, like Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Psalms, to name a few, became biblical for Judaism and Christianity. Others, like 1 Enoch or Jubilees, continue to be read as scripture in Ethiopian Orthodox traditions. Some writings, like the Community Rule, had a different authoritative function in the specific community context of Qumran but did not seem to have a reception beyond that time and place.
The scrolls come from a time before the Bible existed (as a canon) and even could have existed (as a book object). From this angle, we can then observe how scribes copied and cultivated scriptural scrolls in an era that is both formative and foundational for subsequent biblical writings.
How Scribes Preserved and Participated in Scriptural Transmission
In our post-printing press, and increasingly digital, Western world, we’ve lost touch with scribal craft and how their handiwork informed the production of ancient literature. The scrolls, however, thrust the often unknown and unnamed figures of scribes behind Scripture to the front of the stage. The scrolls are often celebrated for how they provide remarkable new texts for studying ancient scriptures. But arguably their value is equally bound up in the new scribal contexts they opened for research on scribal culture and processes.
Observing scribes at work in the Qumran scrolls revealed many things. Scribes were not passive copyists. Rather, they were deeply engaged participants in the transmission and development of scriptural texts. The traditions they transmitted were almost always older than themselves.
As far as we know, few if any, texts among the scrolls are “autographs.” This means we can see how some scribes (or later readers) updated texts, clarified them, even corrected them. This is not a problem in the ancient world: as far as we know, in most cases it was the overall message of a given work that mattered most and that message could be expressed with some variation.
The Case of the Two Isaiahs
We see this, for example, in the classic case of the two Isaiah scrolls from Qumran Cave One. Both are brilliant examples of scribes engaging their ancestral Isaiah traditions and representing it for their own day. In general, this pair of manuscripts share the same scope, structure, and a majority of details. But there are differences.
1QIsaiaha had at least two scribes working on it (we can tell by studying script styles) and there are literally hundreds of differences on this magnificent text when we compare it to other known text traditions in the Greek Septuagint or later Hebrew Masoretic text.
1QIsaiahb, though more fragmentary, seems to be less varied and reflects a text form that is very close to the subsequent Masoretic form of Isaiah. Yet both manuscripts were read as representing the iconic writing known as Isaiah, a book esteemed as authoritative scripture by the Qumran community. The variations didn’t count against the works’ authority; if anything, they attest to the vitality of the Isaiah tradition as scripture for the Qumran community.
This is a good reminder that the world of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls is not only before the concept or media culture of a canon, but also well before the advent of print production of digital media where copies are essentially clones.
The opportunity for readers and challenge to text critics or translators today is how to navigate the unity and variety of scriptural texts among the scrolls for modern Bibles.
The Impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Old and New Testament Scripture
Any modern translation of the Bible today is the result of a long and complex process that starts in establishing the best original language texts to serve as the basis of the translation and then crafts a contemporary translation for an audience based on a series of principles. These processes involve decisions at every step of the way. A good Bible translation will tell you right up front in the preface how the text critics and translators navigated this homework on your behalf.
Already by 1952, the preface of the second edition of the RSV hinted that the Dead Sea Scrolls were poised to update contemporary scriptures with these unexpected, and then still largely unknown, texts of ancient Hebrew Scriptures. Now more than 75 years past that nearly prophetic preface, most contemporary Bible translations will engage and incorporate the scrolls.
There are several ways the Dead Sea Scrolls factor into the making for contemporary scriptures.
Effect of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Old Testament Translation
First, the text and notes for Old Testament writings. Since the scrolls contain our earliest examples of many writings that were later received as canonical scripture, text critics will pay special attention to both where they agree or differ from other known manuscripts. These differences are called “textual variants,” and can range in size from spelling, morphology, words, phrases, sentences, or even a paragraph.
Sometimes a textual variant among the scrolls will affirm a reading as very old. In others, they’ll shed new light on a reading that might have been unknown, overlooked, or fell out of traditions down through the ages. When such a reading is recovered and incorporated into the actual body of the text, translators will flag this for you in the footnotes. At times, if they’re not entirely certain, a good translation will also let you know in those footnotes where there is an important difference found in the scrolls.
In all of this, a good modern translation will make it clear where the “new” data of the scrolls has in fact made your Bible more ancient in a good way.
Insights From the Dead Sea Scrolls on New Testament Context
Second, the contextual nods for New Testament writings. Since the Dead Sea Scrolls are before and apart from early Christianity, we do not find any New Testament texts among the collection. However, because the Qumran community and early Jesus movement both are part of the wider cultural context of Second Temple Judaism, the scrolls can provide new insight into expressions, ideas, or practices reflected in New Testament writings.
Readers of modern study Bibles are likely to find mentions of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the introductions or short running commentaries to biblical books. This may include mentions of how specific writings among the scrolls feature a similar turn of phrase, interpret Hebrew Scripture, exhibit an approximate worldview, or depict an analogous religious practice.
In this way, the scrolls present the opportunity to re-read the New Testament with an eye to how its ideas, expressions, narratives, and letters were part of, or shaped by, these shared cultural contexts.
Continue Your Encounter With the Dead Sea Scrolls
These glimpses into the texts and contexts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are just the beginning. For a fuller journey into these remarkable writings, I invite you to continue your exploration in my new book Lost Words and Forgotten Worlds: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In Lost Words and Forgotten Worlds, Andrew B. Perrin reintroduces readers to the Scrolls while correcting common misunderstandings and highlighting overlooked issues. Perrin’s tour spans the traditions of ancient Judaism and extends to the “big business” of modern antiquities trading―and the surprising number of forgeries on display in our museums. Along the way, he debunks popular myths and conspiracies.
Andrew B. Perrin is Professor of Humanities at Athabasca University and the author of Lost Words and Forgotten Worlds: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls. An award-winning scholar of ancient texts, his work has received the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise and the David Noel Freedman Prize for Excellence and Creativity in Hebrew Bible Scholarship. Visit www.andrewperrin.com to discover more about his research on ancient scribes, scrolls, and scriptures.
