Indeed, there is debate about the authors’ identity, but many connect them with the Essene community, another Jewish sect, who lived at Qumran. We have answered the questions “What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?” and “Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls important?” but who wrote the scrolls? This question is particularly important when discussing those scrolls discovered at Qumran. A few other texts date as far back as the eighth century B.C.E., during the time of the First Temple, while some are as late as the Islamic conquest of the region in the seventh century C.E. Most of these texts were written when the Second Temple still stood in Jerusalem when Jewish sects, including the Pharisees and Sadducees, argued about the correct interpretation of the law and when the Greeks, Hasmoneans, and then Romans-with Herod as a client king-ruled over the region. The scrolls did not just rewrite the history of the Hebrew Bible’s development they rewrote the history of Judea in the late Second Temple period. Third, they provide a window into the world of their authors. Courtesy Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, IAA. To date, more than 25,000 fragments have been discovered, and extensive work has gone into combining, preserving, translating, and studying these various fragments.ġ1Q5 Psalms: One of the Dead Sea Scrolls records a passage from the Book of Psalms.

While some scrolls are several feet long, many smaller fragments are no larger than a fingertip. These were written on various materials, from leather to papyrus. Other scrolls are Jewish sectarian writings, administrative documents, deeds of sale, and even divorce and marriage records.ĭespite the name, the majority of the scrolls are preserved as fragments, small scraps of what were once larger scrolls and documents. Perhaps the most interesting are the biblical scrolls, which include texts from every book of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), with the possible exception of Esther.

The scrolls cover a wide range of topics and genres. While the scrolls from Qumran are in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, other scrolls are written in Latin, Arabic, and even Nabatean. and record the life and activities of the people who lived in and passed through these regions. These texts date from the eighth century B.C.E. While the Qumran scrolls are the most numerous, hundreds of scroll fragments have been found at several other sites in the Jordan Valley and the Judean Desert. One of the scrolls found at Masada, left behind by the Roman Legion.

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