Dead Sea Scrolls

At a glance

History, context & interpretation

What this document is

In late 1946 or early 1947, a Bedouin shepherd boy named Muhammed edh-Dhib (Muhammad the Wolf) was searching for a lost goat near the cliffs of Qumran, northwest of the Dead Sea. He threw a stone into a cave opening (later called Cave 1) and heard pottery break. Returning the next day with companions, he found clay jars containing leather scrolls wrapped in linen. The first seven scrolls came from this cave. Between 1947 and 1956, eleven caves yielded roughly 900 manuscripts and tens of thousands of fragments. They include the oldest known copies of Hebrew Bible books (nearly every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther), sectarian texts of the Qumran community, and non-canonical works such as fragments of the Book of Enoch. Paleographic and radiocarbon dating place the manuscripts between the 3rd century BCE and the 1st century CE, making them the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts by roughly a thousand years compared with previously known copies. The majority are now in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Authorship of individual biblical books remains traditional (e.g., Moses for Torah) or anonymous/composite per scholarly views.

Dating and civilization

Dead Sea Scrolls is catalogued under Jewish / Qumran and is dated c. 3rd c. BCE–1st c. CE. Its recorded category is Scripture / Sectarian, associated with Hebrew / Aramaic.

Where to investigate

Housed primarily at the Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem. Discovered in Cave 1 (and ten other caves) at Qumran, ~1.5 km west of the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea (approx. 31.74°N, 35.46°E), West Bank / Judean Desert.

Connected traditions

This entry connects to Ra (Re), An (Anu), Thor. Follow the linked deity profiles to compare stories and roles.

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Sources and further reading

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls
• https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qumran_Caves

Historical descriptions are educational summaries. Religious traditions, scholarly interpretations and unverified claims are distinguished where possible; imagery may be illustrative rather than an artifact photograph.