Ancient Qumran

The contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, along with archaeological evidence and supporting historical texts, have led scholars to conclude that Qumran was inhabited by a sectarian religious community sometimes referred to as the Dead Sea Sect or “Hayachad” (together) sect. Many scholars believe that this sect was in fact a community of highly ritualistic Jews called the Essenes.

Later coins from the period of the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135 CE) were also found at Qumran, indicating that some of the late Judean fighters also found shelter in its ruins. The name Qumran, from the Arabic word meaning “crescent moon,” replaced an earlier name for the community, which has since been lost to history.

The scrolls include the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Biblical Scriptures ever found. Most have been carbon dated to the second and first century BC. As evidence of the diversity of religious and political ideas in existence at the period of the Second Temple, they are of monumental historical, religious and linguistic significance. They also provide invaluable information about Qumran’s inhabitants’ daily life and way of thinking.

The texts are written mostly in Hebrew and Aramaic, along with Greek and Nabataean. The scrolls – mostly written on parchment but some on papyrus or bronze – can be divided into three groups:

1. Copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible
2. Texts from the Second Temple Period and which ultimately were not canonized in the Hebrew Bible, such as the Book of Enoch, Jubilees, the Book of Tobit, the Wisdom of Sirach, and certain Psalms.
3. Sectarian manuscripts of previously unknown documents that shed light on the rules and beliefs of the Dead Sea Sect (probably Essenes) or other Jewish sects. Such manuscripts include the Community Rule, the War Scroll, and The Rule of the Blessing.

Of all the scroll’s contents, perhaps the most remarkable are similarities of several of their expressions to teachings of Jesus that appear in the New Testament. Paul used terms that can be found in the scrolls written at Qumran, and according to some scholars, the sect is also hinted at in the Gospel of John.

Several historical texts describe a sect of Jews called the Essenes, some of whom lived near the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea, whose practices were similar to those of the Dead Sea Sect as depicted in their manuscripts. This leads many scholars to conclude that the Essenes were in fact the sect that assembled the library of manuscripts that comprise the Dead Sea Scrolls. Recent interpretations have challenged this association and suggest that the sectarian scrolls came from Jews living in Jerusalem who hid them away for safekeeping as the Romans destroyed their city, or that the sect living at Qumran were actually Zadokite (Saducean) Priests.

The daily routine of the sect is described in the scrolls. They would rise at dawn and begin the day with communal prayer. After the prayer they worked – some as shepherds of sheep and goats, others as farmers (of dates), or in communal functions like drawing water or preparing food. In the afternoon, they immersed themselves in water as part of a ritual bath before praying again. A communal meal prepared by the priests, was then eaten in hallowed silence. The Essenes prayed once again at sunset, and spent much of the night studying scriptures.

Some scholars have also theorized that John the Baptist himself lived among the Essenes. Though there is no direct evidence of this theory, it is supported by certain similarities between John’s recorded life and practices, and those of the Essenes. Both John and the Essenes lived in the desert, saw themselves as “voices in the wilderness” as prophesied by Isiah, and practiced baptism.

Although the Essenes believed that all of life was pre-ordained by God, their belief in free-will led them to aspire to righteousness. They saw the world as being divided into righteous and evil, and built their lives around a commitment to keep the righteous path. They believed that a great and final war was before them – one in which the world would be destroyed – and saw their role as one of readying the world for the new social order that would come in its wake.

Full-scale excavations of Qumran began after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the late nineteen forties. In the winter of 1946-7, Bedouin shepherd Muhammed Edh-Dhib went into a cave near Qumran and emerged with 7 ancient scrolls. The war that broke out in the years that followed made it impossible to explore the cave until February 1949. It was then that Lancaster Harding, director of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities, and Roland de Vaux, of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, arrived at the cave, known as Cave 1, and began to dig. Soon de Vaux was given authorization to conduct a full scale excavation of the area.

The site that de Vaux uncovered contains two sections: the main building, a two story structure with a central courtyard and a defensive tower on its corner; and a secondary building to the west. The excavation also revealed a complex water system featuring an aqueduct that delivered water to several cisterns and ritual baths around the site, two of which were within the walls of the main building. These findings indicated a community that was consistently developing, with many improvements and new projects undertaken to accommodate growth.

The contents of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which continued to be discovered in nearby caves throughout De Vaux’s excavations of the main site, led scholars to conclude Qumran was inhabited by a sectarian religious community. Additional texts, like the historical accounts of Josephus Flavius, Philo, and Pliny the Elder, led De Vaux and others to adopt the theory that the site was inhabited by a sect of highly ritualistic Jews called the Essenes (despite the fact that the term “Essene” does not appear in the scrolls themselves).

Although de Vaux’s excavations of Qumran were quite exhaustive, and thereby the most important source of information on the settlement, there have been several excavations since de Vaux finished his work, notably:

• The 1967 restoration performed by R.W. Dajjani on behalf of Jordan’s Department of Antiquities
• A systematic survey of the caves and pathways around Qumran conducted by Joseph Patrich and Yigael Yadin between 1984 and 1991. Patrich concluded that the caves were not inhabited by the Dead Sea Sect, but were rather used as hiding places and storage.
• “Operation Scroll”: from November 1993 to January 1994, under the direction of Amir Drori and Yitzhak Magen, the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out works in the Qumran compound.
• In the winter of 1995-1996 and later seasons Magen Broshi and Hanan Eshel carried out further excavations in the caves north of Qumran, in the cemetery and in marl terrace caves.
• Continued excavations as recent as 2010.