Five things worth knowing about the Dead Sea Scrolls

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are on exhibit at the Art Gallery of NSW until October 15 2000. The scrolls have captured the imagination of many people, Christians and non-believers alike. Do they have anything to offer Christians? Are they in fact dangerous for Christians? What can we say to our non-Christian friends when they ask questions about the scrolls?

1. What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

In 1947, a shepherd boy stumbled across some scrolls in a cave at Qumran, north-west of the Dead Sea. This led to the discovery of thousands of parchment fragments, representing more than 800 different compositions, drawn from some 11 caves in this location. The scrolls are more than 2000 years old, ranging across three centuries. The discovery of the scrolls, their journey into the hands of western scholars, and the long delay that occurred before their complete publication makes for a fascinating story. From the beginning, these ancient texts have captured the imagination of writers, journalists and people at large, and the Art Gallery of NSW apparently perceives a level of public interest that warrants the present exhibition. The interest in the scrolls can be perhaps accounted for in a number of ways. Some have suggested that, after the end of the Second World War, the Holocaust and the atomic bomb, when world events seemed to indicate that religion had no place any more, the discovery of the scrolls testified to the endurance of the biblical tradition despite great odds. This cache of ancient Jewish documents perhaps lent extra credibility to the United Nations' endorsement of the establishment of Israel as the homeland for Europe's Jewish survivors. Interest moved to intrigue as various conspiracy theories arose. Scholars originally commissioned to publish the scrolls consisted mainly of Catholic priests. For a long time, Jewish scholars were excluded from the process. In 1953, a ‘secrecy rule’ was adopted—by which only the authorized editors could have access to the unpublished texts. The French Dominicans involved in the editorial process were, in particular, singled out by others as being responsible for obstructing access to the scrolls for examination in the wider scholarly community. There was an incredible delay in releasing some of the scrolls. This climate contributed to suspicions that the scrolls said something that undermined Christianity. Those sceptical about Christianity in the first place were quick to mount theories that attempted to use the discovery of the scrolls to reconfigure the origins of Christianity in some way. After the seven scrolls were discovered in 1947, research began in Jerusalem. Before long, however, the scrolls ended up in America (after a great deal of money had changed hands). Between 1949 and 1956, other caves were discovered, and the Qumran settlement was excavated. Several other scrolls were published in the next decade, and in 1966, a concordance was released, showing that most of the texts had been identified and decoded. However, it was not until 1992 that the full list of the 1947–56 finds was made available. The scrolls can be grouped into three types: biblical, apocryphal and sectarian. Over 200 manuscripts of Old Testament material were discovered. These are the oldest texts of the Hebrew Bible in known existence. Before they were found, the best manuscripts we had were from 1000 years later. Since the Isaiah scroll, one of the earliest scrolls published, matched the later manuscripts with an astounding degree of correspondence, one early result of scrolls research was to bear testimony to the fact that the scribal copying process was extremely trustworthy. The ‘Chinese Whispers’ view (if this name is politically correct) that the Bible has been changed through time has been disproved by the discovery of the scrolls. The apocryphal scrolls provide other manuscripts of these Jewish writings that were already known. Their discovery at Qumran illustrates that they were read here also, and their preservation suggests that they were regarded with some importance. The sectarian scrolls contain material written from within the community who kept the scrolls. They include rules, ordinances, biblical commentaries, apocalyptic visions, liturgies, calendars and magical texts. They tell us a bit about the people behind the scrolls.

2. Who wrote them?

The short answer is: no-one really knows. The sectarian scrolls reveal a good deal about their authors without precisely identifying them. From these texts, we do learn that the sect had separated itself from Judaism, and practised a strict religion that highly valued moral purity and had its own calendar. They expected a Messiah (perhaps two), and looked forward to a final apocalyptic battle in which the ‘sons of light’ would be revealed. For a long time, scholars connected the Qumran community and the scrolls with a Jewish group called the Essenes, but this is now disputed. The problem facing all scholars of the ancient world is this: the evidence arrives in fragments. The most careful scholars realize that what we know about the sect and the scrolls is vastly outweighed by what we don't know.

3. Do the scrolls discredit Christianity?

Conspiracy theories aside, is there anything in the scrolls that would cause us to doubt our understanding of Christianity? The answer is no. Since Christianity is based on an historical figure and upon historical claims about that person, Christians ought to take history with the utmost seriousness. Whenever there is a new discovery from the ancient past, it ought to be welcomed as further evidence that opens up the world in which our movement began. In principle, at least, new discoveries may show us that Christianity lacks the foundations it needs to commend itself as the truth. The New Testament itself acknowledges this, for it speaks of Jesus of Nazareth rising again from the dead and appearing to chosen eyewitnesses who were then to proclaim what they had seen, heard and touched. This eyewitness testimony is real-world, following the normal ‘rules’ of establishing truth that we operate with in everyday life and in our legal system. If Jesus had not risen from the dead, then there is no point in Christianity at all (see 1 Corinthians 15). This means, therefore, that in principle, Christianity can be overturned by the discovery of new historical evidence. If we found the body of Jesus, for example, then the historical foundation of our movement would disappear, and we should all pack up and go home. Despite the interest in the scrolls, they do not provide new evidence that destroys the foundations of Christianity. One simple observation is worth making: most of the scrolls appear to have been written before Christ's birth. They can't be about Jesus, except in an indirect way. Those who attack Christianity on the basis of the Dead Sea Scrolls are reinterpreting the New Testament in the light of the scrolls. Some suggest that Christianity arose out of the Qumran community itself, and that John the Baptist and perhaps even Jesus himself were part of the sect at some time. The immensely popular Life of Jesus by Ernst Renan, published in 1863, made a connection between Jesus and the Essenes. Controversial University of Sydney scholar Barbara Thiering makes similar connections between Jesus and the sect. However, the vast majority of ancient world scholars disagree with her novel interpretation of the scrolls.

4. Do the scrolls support Christianity?

The scrolls are valuable to Christians because they tell us a lot that we didn't know about the world into which Jesus came in the first century. They have helped to ‘flesh out’ the complex Jewish background to the New Testament. They give us access to some of the beliefs, practices and expectations of a certain segment of first-century Jewish society. The scrolls show that there was an expectation of divine salvation, according to the Scriptures. There was an expectation of a Messiah, or perhaps two. Some of the messianic expectations in the scrolls fit very closely with what the New Testament tells us about Jewish expectations. For example, was there an expectation that the Messiah would heal and raise the dead when he came? A saying found in our Gospels indicates that this may be so. To demonstrate that he was the Messiah, Jesus sent a message to the questioning John the Baptist, which would only have power if such an expectation existed: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matt 11:4–5 = Luke 7:22). Although some of these expectations find their backing in Old Testament messianic prophecy, the cleansing of the lepers and the raising of the dead had given scholars some difficulty. Were there real people who expected such things from the Messiah, or was this saying a case of a little stretching of the truth, so that the expectation conformed to the Gospels' portrait of Jesus? When the early scrolls were published, it seemed like the sect did not have any belief in resurrection; perhaps they were a breakaway from the Sadducees, said some. If this were so, then they would not hold to, nor be in favour of, the Gospel saying. However, in 1992, a scroll from Cave 4, which had been noted in 1956 and then 1978, was finally published. This scroll appears to parallel the Gospel saying very well, revealing not only that there was a belief in resurrection at Qumran, but also that this expectation so perfectly fulfilled by Jesus was a real expectation held by real first-century people:

… freeing prisoners, giving sight to the blind, straightening out the twisted … The Lord will do marvelous acts such as have not existed, just as he said, for he will heal the badly wounded and will make the dead live, he will proclaim good news to the meek … When he makes the dead of his people rise …(4Q521)

There are some telling differences between Christianity and the sect. For example, being a breakaway group from Judaism, it is not surprising to find that the scrolls taught that they should hate their enemies. But being the Saviour of the world, Jesus taught the opposite. One of the scrolls displayed in the Art Gallery of NSW exhibition illustrates another telling difference between the sect and Christianity. Whereas Jesus provided real help to those suffering from various kinds of illness, Qumran excluded such people from full participation in the community because they were unclean. The important 4QMMT, of which several copies have survived, explicitly excludes several classes of those with physical ailments, including the blind, the deaf and lepers. Fragment 3, on display in Sydney, explains that such people have an obstacle preventing them from attaining purity: “concerning the deaf who do not hear the law or the precepts concerning purity and do not [h]ear the laws of Israel, for whoever neither sees nor hears, does not [k]now how to apply (them)”. The strict standards of purity and celibacy (at least for some)—standards that automatically excluded some because of their bodily condition—conform to the picture the New Testament paints of a Judaism burdened by Law and Tradition, in stark contrast to the freedom brought by Christ's fulfilment of the Law on our behalf and his deliverance from the slavery to human tradition. Jesus brought real help to suffering human beings. Now, of course it is true that, however amazing a discovery the scrolls may be, you don't need to read the Dead Sea Scrolls in order to understand God's revelation to us in Christ. The Old and New Testaments give us the full revelation of God. But the scrolls do serve to support the veracity of the Bible against modern attacks upon it, so we can thank God that they were discovered. They also help us to understand the world in which the New Testament arose. This is an important thing, for it was this world that was addressed by the New Testament, and which the New Testament gospel radically changed. The scrolls are therefore an important window into the world of at least some of those who heard the marvellous news of Jesus. By understanding their thought and practice, we can perhaps gain a glimpse at how radical, and how good, the news of the gospel would have been to them.

5. Should I go to see the scrolls?

Why do people go to look at ancient manuscript fragments written in languages they can't read? Perhaps they hope to find evidence against Christianity, as we have discussed. Or perhaps they are seeking a ‘religious experience’. The arrangement of the exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW suggests that this second reason is common. The scrolls are presented in a metaphoric circle of light and, according to one report, “there is nothing to distract from the essential experience, even the translations (in Hebrew and English) being presented outside the circle”. In other words, for a lot of people, these scrolls are just things to look at, like ancient pottery or petrified rocks. The curators placed the translations ‘out of the way’, so as not to interrupt the religious experience of viewing the ancient documents. In fact, there is something to be said for the experience of gazing reflectively upon these texts that most of us cannot read. Let your imagination run wild. When looking at the sectarian scrolls, perhaps we can ask some questions that will help us to enter the world in which Jesus lived. The commentary on Nahum, which is on display (4Q169), reflects on a time of ‘civil war’ in Israel. In 94 BC, the Pharisees led a revolt against Alexander Janneus, king and high priest, whose vicious reign and profligate lifestyle made him unfit for the office of High Priest. In the next six years, he killed 50,000 Jews, before the Pharisees gained the assistance of the Seleucid king Demetrius III, who routed him. When Janneus regathered his forces and drove out Demetrius, he was ruthless on his enemies. While he banqueted and caroused with his concubines, he had 800 of his enemies crucified while their wives and children were killed in front of them. The Commentary on Nahum reflects on this:

… carrying out rev]enge against those looking for easy interpretations, who hanged living men [from the tree, committing an atrocity which had not been committed] in Israel since ancient times, for it is horrible for the one hanged alive from the tree.

Many others fled. We know that 8000 escaped and hid themselves, burning in their hatred for the king and his Sadduceean supporters, until he died. Many scholars believe that this is when the Qumran community began, and Janneus was the ‘Wicked Priest’ mentioned in the scrolls. As well as hearkening back to the origins of Qumran, this passage from 4QpNah is yet another piece of evidence illustrating the horror in which crucifixion was held. Christ crucified was a message that invoked revulsion. This incident was serious enough to burn itself into Israel's cultural memory. Was it also remembered that some of the escapees ended up at Qumran? Had some from Nazareth joined the breakaway movement so long ago? In the first century, was there a present-day concern about the sect? When the people of Nazareth warned the teenagers of the village against the dangers of cults, was it the Qumran community that they had in mind? Or were they in sympathy for the sect that attempted to preserve true Judaism against the foreign invaders? Had some from the village already gone off to join them? Or perhaps more importantly, other questions arise when reading the scrolls, which help us to feel the world in which Jesus lived. Was this the kind of handwriting that Jesus would have seen on letters from his relatives? Was this the kind of material these letters were written upon? Was this biblical scroll like the one from which Jesus read when he made that dramatic sermon in Nazareth (Luke 4:16–30)? Alongside the scrolls, visitors can also see a number of artefacts from the Qumran excavation, which can also help us ‘get into’ the world of Jesus—pottery vessels, leather sandals, wooden nit combs, woven fabric, weaving equipment, a pottery ink pot. Each object is from the time of Christ, and our imagination can help us better to appreciate his humanness. Amongst the artefacts, there are also several phylacteries, tiny containers worn on the forehead or left arm, each containing a miniature scroll inscribed with writing that is difficult for us to see with a magnifying glass, let alone for a first-century scribe. We know that Jesus condemned the showy use of phylacteries (Matt 23:5), and now we can see some from the exact same time. Despite their abuse, the painstaking care taken to write these verses from Scripture, which would never even be read, testifies to a high commitment to the Scripture as the word of God, as well as the dedication and devotion of some scribe from the past. Jesus indicted Israel for being mistaken, but, for some, it was not for the want of trying. Perhaps a moment of quiet reflection at this exhibition might do something important for us all. Perhaps it might remind us of the real world into which the Messiah came. Perhaps it might help to develop an historical sense that seems to be sadly lacking so often. Perhaps it might help to remind us of the Jesus of history, who is both our Lord and the Christ. Very few people will actually read the Dead Sea Scrolls, but Christians might be able to use the opportunity of this public interest in ancient documents to point people towards the ones we carry around in our back pockets. We Christians base our lives on ancient documents; we read them every day. There we find the Messiah that the Jews were waiting for, and real knowledge of God that will last much longer than the aura generated at the Art Gallery of NSW during this exhibition.