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In the scorching, blistering Jordan desert in the Middle East there lies a cave that is home to one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the century. The Dead Sea Scrolls wrapped in linen cloth, enclosed in jars contains the unexplained excerpts of the Bible. Around 150 BCE a group of people known as the Dead Sea Sect, who are believed to be the ancient biblical people called the Essenes, wrote numerous scrolls about their ways of life, and their ways of religion. The discovery of the scrolls in Qumran and the insight it contained, questioned the interpretation of the Bible. The Dead Sea Scrolls are also known as the Qumran manuscripts because the scrolls were found in a group of caves surrounding the Dead Sea in Jordan called Qumran.
The scrolls were found at the lower elevations of the Dead Sea. Along with the scrolls artifacts were later found at Qumran, which dated back to the Iron Age, which was between the eight-seventh century BC. This site was later named Ir Ha-Mean City of Salt. The discovery of the scrolls was not by archeologists, but rather a boy from a Bedouin tribe called Muhammad Adh-Did.
This boy accidentally stumbled upon the scrolls while looking for treasure in the Qumran caves. The scrolls were discovered in several broken jars with many other broken pieces surrounding them. The scrolls were made of leather, except for two scrolls, which were made of copper. Each scroll was wrapped in torn linen cloth. When Muhammad saw this paper he thought he could get some money for it. He sold the scrolls in the market for money.
After they were in the market an archeologist by the name of E. L. Sukenik realized the importance of them. He smuggled them back to the United States to be translated, but then later brought them back to the Middle East.
Scientist realized that these scrolls were different form all other biblical archeological discoveries. Upon translating they found that some of the scrolls were actually part of the bible. The scrolls gave the common interpretation of the books of the bible that we use today, but also other scrolls gave us books of the bible from the Septuagint, the Greek Bible, showing a different version of the book. This is important because it shows that there was no single authorized text, causing there to be different interpretations of the bible, thus questioning the true meaning of the bible.
Before the discovery of the scrolls, the oldest surviving Hebrew manuscript of the bible dated to medieval times. People were not sure about the bibles context, but when the scrolls found contained similar text, the people knew that the bible as we know it today is right in its validity. The seven main scrolls contained over one hundred copies of the Hebrew Bible. Included were all 23 out of the 25 books of the Old Testament.
The only two books missing were Esther and Nehemiah. The information gathered form the scrolls filled in the blanks of history about the bible, and also gave light to the beginnings of Christianity, and where it really came from. The book of Isaiah was the first scroll to be identified; this basically retells the book of Isaiah in the exact sense as we see it today. The second Scroll was another fragment of Isaiah.
The third was a Midrash on (commentary) on the book of Habakkuk. This also was the Old Testament book of Habakkuk that is found in the bible today. The fourth scroll was called the Manual of Discipline. Powell Davies said that is scroll was a covenant of steadfast love in which member of a dedicated community (the Dead Sea Sect) are united with their god. Along with this the Scroll contained the Spirits of Light and Truth in a man, as well as penalties of disobeying laws in their community. The Manual of Discipline described the Sects way of life.
According to the scroll they believed in a full communal life. It is said in the scroll, They shall eat communally, and bless communally, and take counsel communally showing a strong sense of togetherness. The fifth scroll contains Thanksgiving Hymns, which are a collection of devotional "psalms" of thanksgiving and praise to God. The Sixth Scroll was called "Rule of War. " This scroll dealt with the Sons of Lights with the Sons of Darkness. This scroll describes a conflict between the righteous and the wicked, and how one will rise above the rest. This scroll is compared mostly the book of Revelation in the New Testament.
It is said that the Dead Sea Sect wrote this scroll because they believed that the end of days was coming. The last of the major scrolls to be discovered was the Lamech Scroll. This scroll was believed to be the lost apocalypse of Lamech, but really turned out to be totally different. It was written in Aramaic, a language in the times of Jesus that contains no vowels, rather than Hebrew, so it was renamed the Hebrew Scroll. The scroll contains chapters form the book of Genesis, which was important because it showed us the similarities between the bible today and the scriptures found in the scrolls. These were the seven main scrolls discovered in 1947.
Later on thousands upon thousand more scrolls were found in Qumran Caves Qumran. The most interesting one however was the Copper Scroll. This scroll contains a list of sixty-four hiding places were gold, silver, sacred objects and other scrolls are found. To this day they still have not found single one of these hiding places.
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Research essay sample on Dead Sea Scrolls Books Of The Bible
