It’s a cool, 52 degree day near the West Bank in 1947. A teenage shepherd is playing around with some large rocks he has found after tending to their herds. An opening of a cave looks very inviting for a rock to be thrown. He prodigally hurls a rock into the opening with a stunningly accurate throw. The rock slips right through the crack, and instead of hitting the ground with the typical thud, a sound like glass breaking echoes as the rock hits the ground. The boy goes into the damp cave and uncovers a series of scrolls written in ancient Hebrew. He does not know it yet, but he has uncovered the greatest biblical discovery ever, possibly even the greatest archaeological discovery of all time. Over the next ten years, hundreds more would be found by archeologists and locals alike. These scrolls would go on to be known by their famous name, the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In 1947, the teenage boy discovers the first of the scrolls. In 1949, a French archeologist, Roland de Vaux, leads the first expedition to find more scrolls, and is successful. Over the next ten years, many more scrolls are found and shown off in museums across the world. Over the years, even to this day, many books are published about theories on the scrolls, and though one theory in particular has become popular among the scholastic community, nobody really knows all of the answers to the mystery of the writers and history of the scrolls, as will be discussed in the next paragraph.
After the initial discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, archeologists found even more scrolls. Throughout the years after the discovery, many biblical scholars, archeologists, Hebrew language scholars, and history scholars studied the scrolls, and made many important discoveries about the scrolls (as will be seen in a later paragraph about the contents of the scrolls). The most important question at the time even before the research into the contents of the scrolls began is who wrote the scrolls? Many a theory have came up about the authors of the scrolls over the years, some widely considered and accepted, others not. One theory, proposed by tourist guides of the area, is that the scrolls were written and protected by a heavily religious community within Israel, and apparently their settlements were destroyed by the Romans in 68 A.D. These theories are largely rejected by the scholastic community, however. One outlandish theory that is largely rejected by the scholastic community is that it was the sight of an early Christian community. The evidence for this lies in the mention of baptism and vows of poverty found in some scrolls. The most convincing theory and the most believed is that Jews escaping the fury of the Roman campaign through Israel stored the scrolls in the caves so they would not be destroyed, hoping that one day in their lifetimes they would come and reclaim their promised land. However, history tells us that these poor wretched souls would not come back to reclaim their land, that in fact, it took thousands of years for there to be another Jewish state in the region. Reality is an unfortunate plight of those who cannot see the future being shaped before their eyes. Whatever the reason and whenever the scrolls were hidden, the people who hid them certainly did a great job hiding them. Maybe, just maybe, these caves were chosen as a hiding spot for the scrolls due to the fact that they are hard to find.
Quite possibly the most important part of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls are the contents of the scrolls. Every book of the Old Testament besides the book of Esther have been found in the scrolls. Not only have they been found in the ancient Hebrew language, but copies have been found in Aramaic (the language spoken by Jesus Christ himself) and Greek, offering crucial information regarding the true translations of the Old Testament. Ritualistic objects, called tefillin, containing bible verses have been found alongside the scrolls themselves. Many non-biblical documents have been found as well. Apocryphal texts, or scriptures of the Old Testament that are considered canon in the Catholic Church but not canon in the official Hebrew Scriptures and in some Protestant sects, have also been found. Stunningly accurate calendrical scrolls have been found. They are stunningly accurate in the way that they break up seasons into 4, 13 weeks each, for a total of 364 days in a year. Other texts found include Exegetical texts (texts that interpret the word of god in the Old Testament, such as commentaries on Genesis), Pesher (stories of the end of days), historical texts (on wars, rebellions, certain historical figures, etcetera), legal texts (civil matters, festival matters, temple services, physical purity, concerns of ethics, etcetera), parabiblical texts (texts that go into more detail about laws and biblical stories), poetical texts, liturgical texts (instructions about worship on the sabbath), sapiential texts (expansions on content of the wisdom books), sectarian texts (texts pertaining to the theology of certain priestly sects, particularly the Essenes), the Bar Kokhba Letters (fifteen military letters sent during the Bar Kokhba revolt), the archive of Babatha (personal documents of a man named Babatha, presumably a refugee from the Bar Kokhba revolt. These documents include land deeds and marriage contracts), the archive of Eleazer ben Shmuel (contains five documents), and other documents allegedly produced by the Qumran (the community mentioned in one of the theories presented earlier).
Never in history had such a major biblical discovery been made. Historians now had a more vivid idea of how people of ancient Israel lived day to day, and the scrolls gave the people of Israel an even prouder history. The scrolls give more context to relating to the time of Christ and help some of the most confusing parts of the Old Testament make a little bit more sense.
It’s 2018, a biblical scholar is working on a theory about the ancient Israelites. He hunches over his desk, looking intently at one of the scrolls on the online database. He worries that even though these scrolls are so detailed and have so much evidence for his theory, that the public will not agree with his theory. A chill comes through the window on this cold London’s night, right as he reads a passage mentioning ruah, the Hebrew word for wind. He gets a chill down his spine. The Holy Spirit has given him a sign that his theory is correct, and he realizes that the public doesn’t need to have proof or to believe his theory. God has accepted it, and that’s all he needs. “Thank you lord”, he says as he gets up from his desk, slips into bed, and shuts off the light. He slips into a deep sleep, getting a much needed rest. He later states in his biography that this was the most important moment of his life