Loading...I gave a lecture the other day in which I mentioned the Dead Sea Scrolls. This morning, when looking back over the blog, I realized I haven’t really said much about them for … years! So, here are some of the basics you can pull out when things get dull at your next cocktail party.
Even though just about every thinking human being in our context has heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, most have no clue what the scrolls are, what they contain, and how they were found. It’s no surprise they’ve at least heard of them. The Dead Sea Scrolls are by virtual consensus the most significant manuscript discovery of the twentieth century, of major importance for understanding Judaism at the time of Jesus and, in some respects, the teachings of Jesus himself.
Here is what I say about the scrolls in my New Testament textbook (Oxford University Press: The New Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction). I begin by talking about the Jewish group widely thought to have been responsible for producing, using, and eventually hiding the scrolls — which remained hidden from 70 CE until 1947. The group is called the Essenes.
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What makes the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls more important than the discovery of the Nag Hammadi Library?
I wouldn’t say they are “more important” for everyone (unless I did say that! In which case I maybe shouldn’t have). The question is always “important for whom and what”? For scholars of ancient Judaism and the historical Jesus and the beginnings of Xty they are the most important discovery; for scholars of early Christianity the century after Jesus Nag Hammadi is more important. But if we mean, “which made the greatest impact on broader society” then the Scrolls win by a large margin (news coverage, etc.)
Many many years ago, think the 90s, I was reading lots of articles by a Catholic priest about 7Q5, a small fragment that apparently could only match some verses of the gospel (of Matthew if I remember correctly).
I’ve searched about 7Q5 recently and it seems that most scholars agree that’s highly unlikely: that’d be the only fragment in the whole dead sea scrolls lot to be from one of the gospels. But I also read that O’ Callaghan, the Spanish (not Irish…) scholar to propose this hypothesis hadn’t even examined a copy of the fragment, only a printed transcription, and apparently he had misinterpreted a character for something else.
Anyway, that fragment though must be in Greek, so does that mean it belongs to the Hebrew bible in Greek?
Yes, there are Greek fragments ampong the Dead Sea Scrolls (including biblical texts). And no, as you indicate: none of them is from a Christian writing.
This is entirely off the topic, but I cannot find an answer in the Forum, the search feature, or online from a non-Christian source. Why does Acts tell us that Jesus was hung from a tree? (NRSVue – 5:30, 10:39, 13:29)
The Christian sites tell me the Greek word for wood, “xulon”, can be applied generically to wood in any context, such as crucifixion crosses, trees, clubs, and plies of wood. Is this accurate?
Thanks for all that you do. I look forward to your reply.
Yes, that’s right. It can mean tree or wood or anything made from a tree / wood. It becomes more important for Paul in Gal. 3:13 in relation to Deut. 21:23, since it shows that Jesus “took the curse” upon himself.disabledupes{3716d9b2cbe22fd0a5623d91d98c3612}disabledupes
The DSS are endlessly fascinating! I made it through Bible college without ever hearing about them… not because anyone was trying to suppress the material, it’s just many professors are simply unfamiliar with it. That’s unfortunate, because in many ways, they may be one of the best windows into the culture and religious milieu of Jesus’ world.
For better or worse, the ancient curators of these texts were reluctant to name names! While the standard scholarly model explains much of the evidence well, there are still unresolved tensions. For example, 4Q448 appears to praise King Jonathan, despite the community’s apparent hostility toward non-Zadokite priests controlling the Temple. Additionally, handwriting analysis suggests very few scribes contributed to more than one scroll- odd if the Qumran community functioned as a scribal center.
It’s easy to drift into speculation about them. I catch myself wondering whether known historical figures might be connected to them (Alexander Jannaeus, John the Baptist, Samaritans, Jesus’s family…). Do you find yourself leaning toward any particular theories about the community, even if the evidence doesn’t quite allow them to be firmly substantiated?
After this, you should consider doing a post on the Elephantine papyri and ostraca!
(114) Simon Peter said to him, “Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life.”
Jesus said, “I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Simon to Mary
Women worthy
Jesus
Myself
Her to male
She become spirit
Males
Woman
Male
Will kingdom
Kingdom will
Male
Woman
Male
Spirit become she
Myself
Jesus
Worthy
Women
Mary to Simon
*Either the sculptor was granted a vision of the divine—
lifted beyond the mortal veil to behold Zeus in his true glory—
or Zeus himself chose revelation,
allowing his countenance to be known through stone and hand.
For such likeness is not born of craft alone;
it arises where human sight meets divine disclosure. * Zeus, we love you.
Have any studies been conducted on literacy and the ability to read and write among members of the Dead Sea/Essene community?
With so many texts available, could it have been more than the average population?
The best study is Catherine Hezser, Literacy in Roman Palestine. It’s hard if the Scrolls community was more literate on the whole that the rest of the population since most “reading” was done out loud to groups in antiquity, so that lots of books didn’t mean lots of people who could make sense of writing.