The Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran - Library in a Cave

A project I am currently working on had me doing a little research about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Found in caves near Qumran (on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea), the first scrolls were discovered by a Bedouin sheep/goat herder in early 1947. According to the most frequently told account of the discovery of these ancient religious texts, he threw a rock into a cave into which one of his animals had wandered. The sound that echoed out of the cave was that of breaking pottery. When he went inside to investigate, he discovered the first set of scrolls. They were wrapped in linen and stored in clay pots.

Over the next 9 years, additional scrolls were found in eleven different caves. Most of the scrolls had decayed leaving behind little more than fragments of what had once been a large collection of texts. In total the fragments represent portions of more than 800 texts.

According to scholars who have studied the scrolls, 30% of the texts are from books of the Hebrew Bible. Other fragments are from religious texts and commentaries not included in the Hebrew Bible Canon, and about 15% are from documents that cannot be identified. Those 11 caves were a giant library of sacred texts. A Giant Library Of Ancient Religious Texts

The library nature of this collection of texts was what caught my interest. Modern people are familiar with the Bible in its post-printing press form. In the minds of the contemporary reader, it is a single entity: neatly organized into books, chapters, and verses. Because of this, many people misunderstand the nature and history of the texts that come together to form the Bible. Add to this the fact that nearly everyone's exposure to the Bible is in a translated version, and the opportunities for confusion grow.