Qumran

Relation to the Bible

"Qumran" is an Arabic place name, and the site is commonly called Khirbet Qumran ("the ruins of Qumran"). The name does not occur in the Bible. However, Joshua 15:61–62 lists Secacah and "the city of Salt" among the wilderness towns of the tribe of Judah, and some scholars identify Qumran with one of these. This identification is not settled.

Background

Qumran lies in the arid hills along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, east of Jerusalem. Around 1947 a Bedouin shepherd discovered scrolls in a nearby cave, and many more manuscript fragments were later recovered from a number of caves. These are the Dead Sea Scrolls. Excavations in the 1950s led by the French scholar Roland de Vaux uncovered the remains of a communal settlement.

The settlement is generally thought to have been occupied from the later part of the intertestamental period into the first century and to have been destroyed during the war between Rome and the Jews. Scholars differ, however, on the precise dates.

Significance for the Bible as a Whole

The Qumran texts reportedly include manuscript fragments of nearly every book of the Old Testament except Esther. Among them, a scroll containing the entire book of Isaiah is especially well known. Because these manuscripts are far older than the previously known manuscripts of the Masoretic Text, they have become important evidence for studying how the text of the Old Testament was transmitted.

Readings close to the Septuagint were also found, indicating that several forms of the text were in use at the same time. Besides biblical manuscripts, the finds include works such as a community rule, a war text, and biblical commentaries. These writings serve as background for understanding the diversity of Judaism in the time of Jesus and its apocalyptic expectations.

Interpretations and Debates

• Identity of the community: Many scholars regard the Qumran community as a group connected with the Essenes. A frequently cited basis for this view is the statement by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder that the Essenes lived on the western side of the Dead Sea. Other scholars, however, understand the relationship between the site and the scrolls differently, and the debate continues.
• Relation to John the Baptist: Because of shared features such as life in the wilderness, purification rites, and the use of Isaiah 40:3, some have speculated that John had a connection with Qumran. The Gospels, however, say nothing of this. It remains a scholarly hypothesis and should be distinguished from what the text itself states.
• Textual reliability: Conservative scholars emphasize that the Qumran manuscripts largely agree with the Masoretic Text. Other scholars focus on the differences and diversity among the texts.

In the Korean Church

In preaching and Bible study in the Korean church, the Qumran scrolls are frequently cited as evidence that the text of the Old Testament was faithfully transmitted over many centuries. Qumran is also a common stop on pilgrimages to the Holy Land in Israel.