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Desert caves
contained famed Dead Sea Scrolls
By TERRY HOUSHOLDER
In the barren, desert mountains of Qumran, overlooking the
Dead Sea, is the site of the most dramatic find of ancient Hebrew
documents ever.
In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd boy, searching for a lost goat, threw
a stone into the opening of a cave, thinking the animal may have
wandered inside. Instead of a goat, he heard the breaking of
pottery.
He returned the next day with his cousin and discovered jars
containing a mass of scrolls dating from the first century B.C.
In all, 900 pieces of manuscripts - called the Dead Sea Scrolls
- were found.
The scrolls, studied for decades and now housed in the Israeli
National Museum in Jerusalem, were produced by a Jewish sect
called the Essenes, whose members had separated themselves from
the Pharisees and Sadducees. They relied heavily on ritual and
strict obedience to the Jewish law. They firmly believed in the
sanctity of the Sabbath. (For example, they refrained from relieving
themselves on this day.)
Two of the scrolls were inscribed in copper, and most of the
rest were on parchment. They were preserved because the area
around Qumran is largely moisture-free.
The discovered documents included all the books of the Old Testament,
except Esther. The most famous writing is the complete text of
Isaiah, 1 foot wide and 24 feet long. It is 1,000 years older
than any other known copy of the book.
The comparisons of the Dead Sea Book of Isaiah with that of two
other documents from the eighth and ninth centuries show that
they were almost identical, testifying to the accuracy of the
scribes throughout the centuries.
The National Parks Authority of Israel has taken over ownership
of the area where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Our group
which visited the area last month had limited time and only studied
the caves from a nearby plateau. However, you can take a complete
tour which allows you to see the remains of a tower, a dining
hall and a room where the scrolls may have been written.
The mysteries of Qumran are still debated today. While it is
still officially portrayed as an Essene monastery, another theory
has emerged among a few scholars. They question why a monastic
order would choose a site next to a busy highway, only a two-hour
walk from Jericho. The Dead Sea area was famous for perfumes
in ancient times and they suggest the upper story dining hall
uncovered was a first century perfume factory, not a room of
silence.
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