Scrolls From the Dead Sea:
The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship

THE QUMRAN LIBRARY:
RELATED LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MATERIALS

These items were on display in the exhibit at the Library of Congress, May - August 1993. Images of these objects are not included in the online version of the exhibit, but these exhibit captions are included to provide some additional background on the scholarly work surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran Community, and its Library.

BOOK OF ENOCH

The Book of Enoch is a pseudepigraphal work (a work that claims to be by a biblical character). The Book of Enoch was not included in either the Hebrew or most Christian biblical canons, but could have been considered a sacred text by the sectarians. The original Aramaic version was lost until the Dead Sea fragments were discovered.

Józef T. Milik, ed.
The Books of Enoch (Oxford, 1976)
Printed book
General Collections, Library of Congress (150)

TORAH SCROLL

This eighteenth-century Torah scroll was written in North Africa. It is rolled to Leviticus, 23:22-29, which corresponds to the Leviticus Scroll from Cave 4 displayed here (object no. 4). Note the "wandering peh" (a Hebrew letter) which occurs frequently in the displayed column.

Torah Scroll (North Africa, c. 18th century)
Parchment
Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress (116)

LEVITICUS SCROLL

The large paleo-Hebrew fragment of Leviticus on display here was published in 1985 by D.N. Freedman and K.A. Mathews. The authors transliterated the paleo-Hebrew script into modern Hebrew characters.

D. N. Freedman and K. A. Mathews
The Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll (11 Qpaleo Lev)
(Winona Lake, Indiana, 1985)
Printed book
General Collections, Library of Congress (184)

FIRST MACCABEES

Displayed here is the opening page of the First Book of Maccabees from the Walton Polyglot Bible. First Maccabees describes the rule of the early Hasmonean princes who freed Judea from the yoke of the Syrian rulers in 168 B.C.E. It is included in the Roman Catholic scriptural canon, but was removed from the Protestant canon after the Reformation and relegated to the Apocrypha.

First Maccabees
[Walton's Polyglot] (London, 1655-1657)
Printed book
Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress (176)

SAMARITAN BIBLE

The modern descendant of the paleo-Hebrew script of the Leviticus Scroll (object no. 4) is the Samaritan script. This biblical manuscript, written in the Samaritan script, is opened to Leviticus 23:22-29. Note the similarity between the paleo-Hebrew script of the Leviticus Scroll written in the late second century B.C.E. and this Samaritan manuscript from the late nineteenth century.

Leviticus
[Samaritan Pentateuch] (1880)
Manuscript book
Hebraic Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress (175)

THE HOSEA COMMENTARY

In 1979, M. Horgan completed a work on all the "pesharim," or commentaries, which included an extensive treatment of the Hosea Commentary fragments. The "pesharim" interpreted the biblical text in light of events of the late Second Temple Period--seeing within the text prophesies and messages relevant to the community's beliefs and practices.

Maurya Horgan
Pesharim: Qumran Interpretations of Biblical Books (Washington, 1979)
Printed book
General Collections, Library of Congress (154)

THE HOSEA COMMENTARY

The Hosea Commentary Scroll was first published by J. Allegro as the fifth volume of the official publication series, "Discoveries in the Judaean Desert."

John Marco Allegro
Qumran Cave 4. DJD V (Oxford, 1968)
Printed book
General Collections, Library of Congress (153)

SONGS OF THE SABBATH SACRIFICE

The Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, also known as the Angelic Liturgy, is a liturgical work composed of 13 sections, one for each of the first thirteen Sabbaths of the year. This is the definitive translation and analysis of these distinctive hymns.

Carol Newsom
Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice (Atlanta, 1985)
Printed book
General Collections, Library of Congress (148)

DEAD SEA SCROLLS FROM THE THIRD CENTURY C.E.

In his ecclesiastical history, Eusebius relates the story of Origen, who consulted scrolls found in caves near Jericho for his "Hexapla," a comprehensive redaction of the Hebrew Scriptures completed in the first half of the third century C.E.

In the . . . edition of the Psalms . . . [Origen reported] again how he found one of [the translations] at Jericho in a tunnel in the time of Antoninus the son of Severus.

Eusebius
Auncient ecclesiasticall histories . . . (London, 1585)
Printed book
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (112)

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