Summary: An exploration of key questions related to Qumran and its connection to the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'” Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. – Matthew 3:1-6 (ESV)
Key Questions for the Discussion
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain the oldest known copies and fragments of biblical books (with the exception of the Silver Scrolls / Ketef Hinnom amulets). A flurry of new interest in Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls has occasioned fresh opportunity to revisit several key questions related to their source. These include: “Why were the scrolls placed in the caves at Qumran, and who put them there?” “What was the real identity and purpose of the Qumran settlement? Was it really even religious in nature, or could it have been a fortress or even a commercial site?” “Is there even an undisputed connection between the settlement and the scrolls in the caves?”
These are fascinating questions that are still being debated seven decades after the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered. However, the cumulative research that has occurred over the past number of years is narrowing the conversation considerably. To begin our study, let’s begin with one of the most basic questions. (See Part 1 of Who Wrote and Hid the Dead Sea Scrolls)
Who placed the scrolls in the caves?
One of the most fundamental questions about the Dead Sea Scrolls is related to their source. Traditionally, they have been linked to the community situated near the entrance to the caves. But after all these centuries, can we even be sure that the members of the Qumran settlement were the ones responsible for secreting them away?
Some have said, “No.” But is that conclusion justifiable? With the cumulative weight of research produced over the past 15 years, it is increasingly difficult to hold a dissenting view on this point. As noted in Part 1, it has been successfully shown that the community was well equipped to produce scrolls satisfying a most basic requirement.
Establishing a Chain of Custody
Next, it was shown that the jars in which some of the scrolls were found, were specific (virtually exclusive) to the Qumran settlement, seeming to establish a direct chain of custody. Some have argued that the scrolls were produced elsewhere (e.g. Jerusalem) and only relocated to Qumran later, perhaps to preserve them from impending demise at the hands of the Romans. Following this hypothesis, it could be argued that someone could have simply acquired Qumran pottery after arrival at the settlement specifically for the purpose of storing them.
But is such a hypothesis unnecessarily complicated? After all, the community had the capacity to produce scrolls. So, what if it could be proven that at least some of the scrolls were produced at Qumran? At least one study seems to have answered this point definitively.
Protons and Parchments
On July 1st, 2010, researchers from Italy’s National Institute for Nuclear Physics announced in a press release that they had been able to prove the point of origin of the Dead Sea Scroll known as The Temple Scroll. In a statement in Interactions titled, “Protons for studying the Dead Sea Scrolls,” they summarized the findings of an analysis they conducted on the chemical composition of The Temple Scroll. This is one of the sectarian scrolls that sheds light on the thinking of the community that produced it. Using a new technology termed “XPIXE,” they reported that they were able to detect and measure chemical elements preserved in the scroll traceable to the water used in its production.
The process of converting animal skins for use as parchment requires copious amounts of water during the laborious washing process. The report explained that by using proton beams generated by their Tandem particle accelerator, the ratio of chlorine to bromine in the water that was originally used is both detectable and measurable. This metric can then be used to identify the water source that supplied the water originally used in the manufacture of the parchment.
As it turns out, there is only one water source in the world that matches the unique ratio of chlorine to bromine used in the production of The Temple Scroll parchment, and that is the waters of the Dead Sea. This supports the idea that the scroll was created in the Qumran area.
And what was that unique water source located near the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls? As explained by one observer,
“At roughly 32% salinity, the water in the Dead Sea is nearly 9 times as saline as the oceanic average. Likewise, the Dead Sea has the highest concentration of bromide ions (Br−) of all bodies of waters on Earth. Because of these distinctive properties, the chlorine and bromine levels of the Temple Scroll’s parchment can be used as a way of determining the origin of the parchment. Because the bromine levels matched those distinctively elevated levels of the Dead Sea, the researchers could confidently conclude that the parchment of the Temple Scroll was manufactured at or near the Dead Sea.”
Paleoscatology Vs. Archaeobiology?
These studies seem to make the connections solid. But there’s more that should be noted. A 2006 study published by Science Daily in cooperation with a research initiative from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte produced some fascinating results. This study seems to have firmly established that the community at Qumran practiced the rigid hygiene and communal toiletry regiments recorded in the sectarian scrolls, and consistent with the Torah (the first 5 books of the Bible). This study answers questions about who the Qumran residents were, how they lived, as well as their motivations.
The impetus for the UNC study occurred when researchers examined the instructions for communal living in the sectarian scrolls, including the Community Rule (Manual of Discipline), as well as the War Scroll, and the Temple Scroll. These contained specific details related to communal toiletry and hygiene practices.
Professor James Tabor, a UNC biblical scholar, reportedly noticed that the instructions for communal toiletry were similar to the practices that Josephus described as characteristic of the Essenes. In a collaboration with Israeli paleopathologist Joe Zias and French parasitologist Stephainie Harter-Lailheugue from the Centre National de la Recerche Scientifique, the team set out to determine whether they could identify the ancient community’s latrine, and hence uncover their identity. (See a previous Thinker article on the identity of the Dead Sea scribes.)
By examining the scrolls, researchers were able to locate an area matching the requirements dictated by the scrolls for the ancient community’s latrine, their version of a ritual sanitation facility. They were then able to document that in addition to its location, it was, in fact, used in a way consistent with the meticulous and unusual instructions in the scrolls. James Tabor explained,
The article in Science Daily opens by stating,
“Recent articles and news stories have questioned long-established scholarship about the Essenes and their relationship to the scrolls, arguing in particular that the inhabitants of the ancient settlement of Qumran, located in the Dead Sea area where the scrolls were found, had no relationship to the religious sect. Now, new scientific findings from the settlement connect Qumran to details in the scrolls, and give direct evidence of Essene culture at the site.”
By “culture,” the article means details of religious life connected to how the community dealt with sanitation and ritual purity. As a result, the team was able to use the instructions in the scrolls to document,
“the presence of unusual and extreme toiletry and hygiene practices in the ancient community. The evidence points to the Qumran inhabitants’ detailed obedience to unique, rigorously demanding precepts that are specified in Dead Sea Scrolls texts and also documented in a Roman-era descriptions of the Essenes.”
Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty at Qumran
The team’s conclusion was based on clear bioarchaeological evidence. After following the directions in the scrolls, they took random soil samples at an area that most lined up with the instructions from the scrolls. They also selected soil samples from other desert locations for control purposes. Amazingly, because of the unique properties of the desert which resist decay, and the prescribed practice of covering one’s own waste with a spade, the samples from the soil from the likely latrine site yielded the preserved remnants of human intestinal parasites.
The report states,
“Three of the four samples from the suspected latrine area yielded four species of preserved worm eggs and embryophores that were all identified as human intestinal parasites — Ascaris sp. (human roundworm), Taenia sp. (a human tapeworm), Trichuris sp. (a human whipworm) and a human pinworm, Enterobius vermicularis, that had not previously been reported in the ancient Near East.”
The grizzly evidence “shows conclusively that the area was a toilet,” explained Israeli paleopathologist Joe Zias. When combined with analysis of the community mikvot (ritual wash basins), and cemetery, the team was even able to postulate theories on the general health of the community that account for the early morbidity rates documented from the cemetery.
Most importantly for questions related to the community’s identity is that the study shows the settlement inhabitants were strictly governed by very specific, rigorous religious restrictions. This is to say, the community was clearly organized around religious ideals. Further, these ideals and actual practice are consistent with historical accounts of Essene practice.
Conclusions
Here is what we know so far. (1) The Qumran community had the capacity to produce scrolls as demonstrated by both the facilities and the material culture discovered at the site. (2) Scrolls that were placed in the caves were found to be inside pottery specific to and sourced at the Qumran settlement, speaking to the issue of custodianship. (3) At least some of the sectarian scrolls were manufactured at the Qumran settlement as evidenced by the use of Dead Sea water in their production. (4) Members of the Qumran community religiously engaged in the ritual practices described in the sectarian scrolls, demonstrating their religious orientation. (5) The practices of the Qumran community were consistent with very specific practices ancient historians attributed to the Essenes.
Some thinkers will no doubt continue to postulate alternative hypotheses. Certainly there are still questions to be answered, such as what connection Qumran may have had to John the Baptist or to early Christianity. But as noted in the UNC study, state of the art “findings from the settlement connect Qumran to details in the scrolls, and give direct evidence of Essene culture at the site.”
It certainly seems that the more knowledge we gain, the more the original theories about the identity and activities behind the Dead Sea Scrolls seem to be supported. Hopefully in the future we can address questions related to the fascinating theology of Qumran, and what connection it may or may not have had to early Christianity. Until then, KEEP THINKING!
TOP PHOTO: Qumran cave 4, where ninety percent of the scrolls were found; (By Effi Schweizer – Own work, Public Domain.)
NOTE: Not every view expressed by scholars contributing Thinker articles necessarily reflects the views of Patterns of Evidence. We include perspectives from various sides of debates on biblical matters so that readers can become familiar with the different arguments involved. – Keep Thinking!
