The Dead Sea Scrolls

It appears as though the documents which we call the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden away in cave in what is now Jordan during the period between approximately 2 B.C.E. and 70 C.E. These scrolls were not located again until 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd, starting an ongoing controversy about the use and meaning of those scrolls. Ultimately 800 scrolls have been found, located in 11 caves above Qumran near the Dead Sea. The find is considered to be one of the most significant archaeological finds of this century, affecting two of the major world religions. Perhaps that is why there have been so many controversies; there was fear that some discovery or interpretation would shake the foundations of these religions, or even overturn them in some way.

After the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, they were not simply randomly handed out to people for examination and interpretation. Instead, a formal project was begun in order to bring the best scholarship to bear on the issue. This ultimately developed into the Dea

. . .
going Questions In one of the more recent publications, Eugene Ulrich, a general editor of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project, published a set of essays which actually challenge more traditional theories of the composition and canonization of texts which became the Old Testament. With influences from Qumran, Ulrich proposed that there were multiple literary editions of many biblical texts circulating simultaneously until at least 135 C.E. According to him, in looking at the texts and the history of their development, it becomes apparent that identifying any original text is nearly impossible. It also seems to Ulrich to be an unnecssary task (Ulrich, 1999). This, of course, would be disputed by many more traditional theologians who find it essential to discover the original text. Particularly for those from traditions in which the Bible is viewed as the inerrant view of God, locating the original text is crucial. However, the preponderance of the evidence is on the side of those who view the Bible as fluid during its entire developmental process. As Sidnie Crawford (1999) noted, when the Dead Sea Scrolls were written, there was no canon of the Old Testament. There was no delineation between those books which were bibli
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sea Scrolls, Sea Scroll, Dead Sea, Temple Jews, Scrolls Weitzman, Publication Project, Selection Law, CE According, Vermes Shanks, Hershel Shanks, dead sea, sea scrolls, dead sea scrolls, editorial team, qumran community, dead sea scroll, rabbinic judaism, shanks 1999, bible review, sea scroll, christian faith, scrolls publication, sea scrolls publication, story dead sea, original editorial team,
Approximate Word count = 2318
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

More Essays on The Dead Sea Scrolls