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Dead Sea Scrolls Lecture

Where are they from?

-1947 three shepherds from the Ta amireh Bedouin tribe-One of the Shepherds, Juma, throws a rock and there is a great crash

-Try and sell three of the MSS they found in a stone jar the next day in Bethelehem-Unsuccessful they sell the MSS to a cobbler named Khalil Eskander Shahin, known asKando-This first cave was named after the town it was just North of, Khirbet Qumran-Kando sells 4 texts to the Metropolitan (the Metropolitan Athanasius Yeshue Sanuelof St Marks Syrian Orthodox Monastery in Jerusalm) for 24 Jordanian pounds, about$100-In the midst of political heat Hebrew professor E.L. Sukenik comes from Jerusalem toPalestine to purchase three MSS from Kando-After acquiring the land the Qumran caves were in, the Jordanian government sendssoldiers out to find more documents-without the help of the Bedouin shepherds who also

want to find these valuable MSS-11 Caves found in all-Two times of settlement: 6-7th century BCE and 150 BCE to 68 CE-Kando didnt sell all the texts he had, for fear of being punished for the unlawful act ofremoving antiquities from a historical site he buries MSS in his garden to hide them,when he digs them up they have already become a mangled mess-lost forever

What are they?

-Nearly 900 MSS-various texts, HB and otherwise

-Genesis 20, Exodus 17, Leviticus 14, Numbers 8, Deut 30, Joshua 2, Judges 3, 1-2 Sam 4, 1-2 kings 3, Isaiah 21, Jeremiah 6, Ezekiel 6, 12 Minor Prophets 8,Psalms 37, Prov 2, Job 4, Song of Songs 4, Ruth 4, Lamentations 4, Ecclesiastes2, Esther 0, Daniel 8, Ezra 1, Nehemiah 0, 1-2 Chron 1

-Commentaries

-1QpHabbakuk (1st

Cave, Qumran, Pesher Habbakuk)-1QS (1st cave; Qumran S= serkh, Hebrew for rule)-1QM (1st Cave; Qumran, M=milhamah, Hebrew for war)-Caves 9 and 10 have 1 MSS each while cave 4 has over 500 MSS

-Writings we already knew of before DSS-1QIsaiah predates copies of Isaiah in Hebrew by 1,000 years-Gives us HB literature being read while Jesus was walking the earth

-Writings no one knew about before DSS discovery that are similar to HB literature, butadded to or paraphrased; not necessarily composed by the Essene community

-Interpretive paraphrase known as 1QapGenesis

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-Many of these thought to be treated as Scripture by the Essenes but also thewider Judean community, since some of what exists is not specifically related tothe Essenes

-Writings composed by the Essene community at Qumran, not known before the DSSdiscovery

-Date from approximately 275 BCE-75 CE (depending on MSS)

What is their significance?

-HB before 1947: based on the Masoretic tradition-Also had LXX and Samaritan Pentateuch, but there are differences in places between thethree

1 Samuel 10.26-11.4 (NRSV)1 Sam 10.26 Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went warriors whosehearts God had touched.1 Sam 10.27 But some worthless fellows said, How can this man save us? They

despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace. Now Nahash, king ofthe Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. Hewould 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 escaped from the Ammonites and had entered Jabesh-gilead.1 Sam 11.1 About a month later, Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a treaty with us, and we willserve you.

1 Sam 11.2 But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, On this condition I will make atreaty with you, namely that I gouge out everyones right eye, and thus put disgrace upon

all Israel.1 Sam 11.3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, Give us seven days respite that we maysend messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, wewill give ourselves up to you.1 Sam 11.4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in thehearing of the people; and all the people wept aloud.

-Bolded section is not included in LXX or the MT, but was in 4QSamuel; the editors ofthe NRSV decided to put it in the text.-But he held his peace and About a month later look the same in Hebrew, scribes eyelikely skipped, what we call Haplography

-There were no lists of authoritative or canonical documents at Qumran, the fact that wehave many different documents and different texts of the OT demonstrates that themembers of the Essene community, and likely the Jewish/Christian world at large wasnot interested in closed canon as Christians and Jews are today-On the flip side, this does not necessarily mean their were not authoritative texts, andeven authoritative texts that Christians and Jews call Scripture today, in fact much of the

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evidence from Qumran (namely the wealth of certain HB MSS) demonstrates that certainbooks were widely used and likely considered authoritative in the first century

Habakkuk Pesher questions:

1.) How does the 1QpHab document compare to Habakkuk in your Bible?Significant differences? Significant similarities?2.) What does the commentary on Habakkuk say about the way this communityinterpreted prophecy?

3.) Does the commentary on Habakkuk say anything about the authority of the textfor this community?

4.) What else might the commentary and text reveal about the Essene community atQumran?

5.) How do the Essenes feel about (the Kittim)?