Additional Resources

Topic Recap

• First, the Dead Sea Scrolls, especially those from the caves at and near Qumran change our understanding of Judaism of the late Second Temple period, including the time of Jesus, through providing a wealth of Jewish literature only some of which was known before the discoveries of 1947. Though there was indeed interest in the transmission and discussion of the Law, the Scrolls show us the wider riches of Judaism, its wisdom, its narratives, its prayers and its poetry.

• Second, the Scrolls have helped us to rethink how Judaism might be presented. Rather than relying on Josephus, it is now better to see Jesus as part of a rich and variegated Judaism where some things were held in common, others shared with some but not all fellow-Jews, and some things declared distinctively.

• Third, in and amongst all the variegation, Jesus was not an Essene or a member of the Qumran community.

• Fourth, Jesus’s teachings and actions are only available to us second hand through the lenses of the Greek of the Gospel writers. Nevertheless, in a number of paradigmatic cases, his words and deeds reflect the details of several of the non-sectarian compositions found amongst the Scrolls. His Jewishness is enriched significantly.

• Fifth, Christians need to reflect on how they incorporate all this information. The understanding of the Jesus of history has been helpfully enhanced by the Scrolls; how should this effect the understanding of the Christ of faith?

Key Biblical Texts

• Isaiah 35:5-6 (Eschatological Oracle)

• Isaiah 61:1 (Call of the Anointed One)

• Matthew 5:3-12 (The Beatitudes)

• Mark 1:16-20 (Call of Simon and Andrew, James and John)

• Mark 2:1-12 (Healing of the Paralytic)

• Mark 2:13-17 (Call of Levi)

• Luke 1:32-35 (Annunciation)

• Luke 7:18-23 (Jesus’s answer to John via his disciples)

• Acts 4:32-37 (All things in Common)

Other Key Texts/Primary Sources

• Manuscripts from the Qumran Caves are known technically by Cave number (1-11), Place of find (Q=Qumran), and then a number: 4Q525 = Cave 4, at Qumran, Number 525 = Beatitudes Composition. Many of the compositions also have a name or title, and sometimes a letter follows indicating the copy. Thus 1QHa = Cave 1, at Qumran, Hodayot, first copy (a) from that cave.

• Beatitudes Composition (4Q525; beatitudes are only part of the composition)

• Commentary on Habakkuk (1QpesherHabakkuk = 1QpHab)

• Hodayot (Thanksgiving Hymns; exists in several forms, the best-preserved manuscript of which is 1QHa)

• Instruction (Wisdom Composition)

• Messiainic Apocalypse (4Q521)

• Prayer of Nabonidus (4Q242)

• Rule of the Community (exists in several forms, the most complete of which comes from Cave 1 = 1QSerek ha-Yahad)

• Son of God Text (4Q242)

Glossary of Key Terms

• Aramaic. It is generally agreed that Jesus spoke Aramaic, but the precise character of his dialect is not fully known. Several of the Dead Sea Scrolls contain texts in literary Aramaic of the late Second Temple period.

• First Jewish Revolt. Beginning in 66 CE Jews in Galilee and Judaea rebelled against Rome. In 68 CE Qumran was destroyed as the Roman army passed by on its way to besiege and retake Jerusalem; the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE. The rebellion ended when Masada fell to the Romans in either 73 or 74 CE.

• Essenes. Philo, the Jewish Philosopher (c. 20 BCE-c. 50 CE), described the Essenes as numbering about 4,000. Josephus, the Jewish historian (c. 37 CE-c. 100 CE), seems to have used Philo’s report in writing his own description of them. Most scholars identify the Qumran community as part of a wider Essene movement, though they do not use the label to describe themselves. They had concerns for purity and a hard-working ascetic outlook.

• Fourth Philosophy. The name given by Josephus to zealot groups who were a significant part of the rebellion against Rome in 66 CE, but had forerunners in earlier times of Jewish unrest.

• Hebrew. Hebrew was the language of scripture and worship, of education and legal debate. It was a spoken language at the time of Jesus in formal settings. The majority of the Dead Sea Scrolls are composed in Hebrew which has both archaizing and contemporary features.

• Hebrew Bible. The use of the term Bible in the Second Temple period is strictly anachronistic. There were collections of authoritative books, especially the five books of the Torah. The Hebrew Bible as a book has three sections. The process of moving the Law, the Prophets and the Writings from authority to having canonical status took several centuries, mostly from 250 BCE-150 CE.

• Masada. A rock fortress at the south-western end on the Dead Sea. First built up be the Hasmonaeans, then strengthened by Herod the Great. The place of the last stand against Rome during the First Revolt.

• Nahal Hever. A wadi in the Judaean wilderness where caves were occupied during the Second Jewish Revolt 132-135 CE. A few documentary manuscripts from the time have been found as well as some scriptural fragments.

• Pharisees. A largely lay group within late Second Temple Judaism who were concerned with scriptural interpretation, and with paying attention to the significance of the Temple in daily life.

• Qumran. The site on the north-west shore of the Dead Sea where a community of about 100 people took up residence from c. 60 BCE-68CE. They were most probably some part of the wider Essene movement. Some compositions were created there and others copied, but most of the Scrolls probably came from elsewhere.

• Sadducees. A largely priestly group within late Second Temple Judaism who were concerned with the appropriate running of the Temple.

• Second Jewish Revolt. The rebellion led by Bar Kosiba (Bar Kokhba) from 132-135 BCE. It was suppressed by the emperor Hadrian.

• Synoptic Gospels. The first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke are commonly labelled Synoptic as they clearly are closely related and see the ministry of Jesus, his deeds and words, in similar ways.

• Wadi Daliyeh. A Wadi about 14 kms north of Jericho. 18 partially legible 4th century BCE Aramaic legal papyri were found in a cave in the wadi.

Suggestions for Group Discussion

• Some Jewish listeners of the podcast might be tempted to dismiss the evidence of the Scrolls as on the margins of pre-rabbinic Judaism; many Jewish schools tend to teach Judaism as a straight line from Moses to the Mishnah, with little attention to the rich diversity of Judaism in almost every historical period, as the Scrolls attest for the late Second Temple period.

• The Scrolls provide many parallels to the teaching and worldview of Jesus as that might be constructed from a careful reading of the Synoptic Gospels in particular. Some Christian listeners might find it challenging that the Scrolls have provided so many contextual parallels to what Jesus said and did. Of course, there are many differences too, but the Jewish Jesus now has a new context.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Texts

• Florentino García Martínez and Eibert Tigchelaar, The Dead Sea Scrolls Study Edition (Leiden: Brill; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000). ISBN 978-0-8028-4493-4 [Hebrew/Aramaic and English].

• Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English: Revised Edition (London: Penguin Books, 2004). ISBN 978-0-140-44952-5 [English].

  Websites

• https://orion.huji.ac.il  The website of the Orion Center of the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. The site is most notable for its extensive searchable on-line bibliography but it also carries much other introductory information.

• https://imj.org.il  Under the tab Shrine of the Book, the website of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem contains movable images of the first major Scrolls to be discovered.

• https://deadseascrolls.org.il  This is the website of the Leon Ley Dead Sea Scrolls digital library where hundreds of images of the fragmentary scrolls are freely available for study.

  Popular Well-Illustrated Introduction

• Philip R. Davies, George J. Brooke, and Phillip R. Callaway, The Complete World of the Dead Sea Scrolls (London: Thames and Hudson, 2nd edn, 2011). ISBN 978-0-500-28371-4.

  Most Recent Detailed Survey

• George J. Brooke and Charlotte Hempel (eds.), T&T Clark Companion to the Dead Sea Scrolls (London: T&T Clark, 2019). ISBN 978-0-567-35205-7.

  Scrolls and the New Testament

• George J. Brooke, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament (London: SPCK; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005). ISBN 978-0-281-05710-8.

• George J. Brooke, Qumran and the Jewish Jesus (Cambridge: Grove Books Ltd, 2005). ISBN 978-1-85174-587-6.

• James H. Charlesworth (ed.), Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Doubleday, 1992). ISBN 978-0-385-47844-1.

• Jörg Frey, Qumran and Christian Origins (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2022). ISBN 978-1-4813-1764-1.

• Simon J. Joseph, Jesus, the Essenes, and Christian Origins: New Light on Ancient Texts and Communities (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2018). ISBN 978-1-4813-0776-5.