The Qumran caves at the Dead Sea
Written by Zvika Gasner Koheleth, 12-December-2024 (Originally 04-March 2022). Photography by Angela Hechtfisch
The Qumran caves
The Qumran caves are an archaeological site located on the northwestern side of the Dead Sea, next to the Kalia beach and the kibbutz carrying the same name. The caves served as a residence for a Jewish settlement of an estimated 100 – 150 personals mainly young single men, of believed to be the Judean Desert sect during the period of about 150 BC till approximately the year 68 AD, 2 years before the 2nd Temple destruction and 5 years till the last Jewish front hold of Masada rebel crushed by the Romans. The Qumran caves are famous for finding the “Dead Sea Scrolls.” These scrolls are mostly made of leather and written in 2nd Temple period Hebrew letters that a Hebrew speaker nowadays will be able to read and comprehend. However, some are written in Older Hebrew or Greek laid on papyrus paper. 929 scripts were found altogether with almost the exact canonical copies of the biblical scripts which we are familiar with its version today, therefore making it the oldest written document of Bible known to mankind (Except for a short “(Jewish)priest blessing” (“Cohen blessing”) made of copper dating back to the 7th century BC found in the city of David in Jerusalem). Other types of scrolls were also found that describe the everyday life, routines, and belief of the local community called “Yahad” society. “Yahad” in Hebrew meaning a collective togetherness group. The 3rd part of scripts found was the of mistics, secrets of the universe and the prophecy of the days before and after the “End of Time” where the life which they believed to be predestined include the battle between the sons of light, which they believe to potray themselves, against the evil forces of sons of the darkness.
The “Yahad” society’s daily routine was extremely strict and consist of a self-contained unit logistically, with no body indulging and any private possessions, performing twice a day baptizing in the special bath that receives their rare desert water from special aqueduct they had built (and still exists) to purify their bodies and soul, following the book of Ezekiel Ch. 36, p 25:
“And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.”
These purifying baths called “Mikveh”, for ritual washing which religious Jews still perform nowadays, were taken from the purification custom held in Jerusalem before entering the House of God on the Temple Mount. Studying and writing the Bible was the prime objective, which included a 24-7 day and night rotating shift that follows the biblical phrase found in the book of Jeshua ch.1:
“This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.”
Years later when the scrolls were discovered, only this book, Jeshua, was discovered fully by its 743 centimeters length, which symbolically been the words of the prophet Jeshua who dealt extensively with the notion of the days after the “End of Time” and the Armageddon collusion.
This 2nd Temple period is the earliest switch from Judaism as (an animal) sacrifice procedure exercise to a religion based upon studying & learning of the holy book. Later this signified the Jewish nation as the “People of the Book”. Formore, one of Judaism’s fundamentals of the formulation of a uniform prayer that was said at a fixed time, an idea that has been preserved to this day, started here in Qumran.
The village of Qumran is also important to Christianity since it is traditionally believed that John the Baptist, Jesus’s cousin and mentor was acting in this part of the land on the northwest side of the Dead Sea and was a sub-member of this community for 2 years, and a direct influence of the “baptizing” procedure is clearly to be noticed.
The discovery of Qumran Scrolls
The Qumran caves were accidentally found by a Bedouin shepherd boy who was searching for a lost goat and once throwing a stone into a cave the returning ricochet sound made him realize that there was something there. The 1st 3 scrolls that he had found In 1947 lying inside emporia jugs were filled with sheets, coins, and other archaeological treasures. Once the scrolls revealed their importance to an Arab collector they have been purchased on 29th November 1947 (the same day of UN vote for Israel independence) by Professor Sukenik of the Jerusalem university, and in later years 4 more scrolls were bought in New York City by his son Professor Yigal Yadin( The acting Cheif of staff in the IDF in the 1948 Indepndance war) after they had been smuggled outside of Israel. Altogether later excavations, mostly in the early ’50s, found in 11 caved within exactly 929 scripts in a different state of quality and volume.
Theory on the origins of the Qumran Scrolls
So who were the Qumran village people? Strict Jews of the “Tzadok” sect, members of the Jewish priest family of Jerusalem, or simply a fresh Ishain group that believed in a modest living, or even a young new origin of Christian ministry order?
To support the latter, there are common lines between the words “Jesus” in the New Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Also, Most of the finds in the scrolls refer to Jesus’s life period. Some Biblical scrolls like the “Book of Judith” are part of the Christain gospel and are NOT to be found in the Jewish bible, therefore the theory that some parts or more of the scrolls were written by early Christian believers is also possible.
There are other speculations regarding the origins of the scrolls and their writers whereas some claim that the scrolls were smuggled outside Jerusalem for safety reasons by the Jewish priests to the Qumran caves just few years before the destruction of Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple in the year 70 AD, following the assumption that this vast amount of writings found compare to the (estimated) small numbers of inhabitants, suggesting that the number of residences could NOT produce this volume of scripts.
The theory of “Covenant Renewal Ceremony” by Daniel Vainstub
The last theory about the Qumran, proclaimed in August 2021 in “Religions” magazine by Daniel Vainstub of the Department of Bible, Archaeology and Ancient Near East, Ben-Gurion University Beer Sheva, suggests an update for the origin of people using the facility. Still to be suspected as the “Isian” extreme group (the Jewish “Yahad” sect), but the researcher is trying to tackle the inconsistency with the facts evolving from analysis of the archaeological data of the existence of a huge refinery, 2 gigantic purifying pools ( Jewish Mikva) with the addition of 8 smaller in size, a cemetery founds outside the village walls(Jewish contamination rules) etc’, with the fact that NO public or personal households or barricades where found alongside to support the remains of a constant settlement existence (a village?) of any kind.
Therefore, Prf. Danniel suggests that the Qumran was “the yearly gathering during the festival of Shavuot of all members of the communities that composed the Yaḥad sect (Isian)…the holding of the annual gathering of the “Ceremony of Covenant Renewal” , became the main raison d’être of the site and the factor that dictated its architectural development..”. Thus, Qumran was a gathering point for once a year, only for the short “Shavuot” (holiday) season, and most of the year it was virtually empty of residence.
In any case, these scrolls have a great historical and national value, and luckily they were kept naturally for almost 2,000 years (!!!) thanks to the conditions on spot; The dry air of the Judea desert and the darkness inside the Qumran caves. Nowadays the scrolls are kept in the “Shrine o the book” in Jerusalem, a section of the “Israeli museum”, to a view for the general public in a controlled mini-ecosystem environment.
The Scrolls Trail
Getting to the Qumran site, we highly recommend walking to it. The “Scrolls trail” at the Qumran National, a beautiful desert walk, was recently opened in 2021 and is officially opened for the general public. The trail is in memory of archaeologist Hanan Eshel, an expert in the Second Temple period and Qumran caves export (Caves 1, 11, and 2, north of the national park).
The track is divided into 2 sections: The 2 km. longer trail colored green called the “North” that begins at the North-west border of Kibbutz Kalia, which takes 1 hour plus and a 1 km. shorter version colored blue and called the “South” trail that begins at the Kibbutz Cemetary and takes half of the time. Bost section has view access to Cave #1 (Do NOT climb into), where the entire Qumran excavated scrolls discovery began. We encountered a group of 50 Ibexes on the slopes of the caves, and the view, in general, is breathtaking. Most of the track is flat, with some wooden stairs. Please consider that it is NOT a circular path, so you must walk back to your starting position, resulting in double the distance. Important: Under no circumstances should you enter caves, both because of a safety hazard and to protect the bat population in them.
The “Shrine of the Book” in Jerusalem
It is undoubtedly the 2nd part of the Dead Sea scrolls you can NOT miss, and missing out on a visit to the “Shrine of Book” in Jerusalem where the scrolls are kept and shown is a vital part of processing this story.
1st, the architecture of the hall is symbolic; the white watered hooded top signifying the tension between the sons of light war against the sons of darkness, that focused on water purifying society in a emporia (Jars of wine) hooded top structure like the scrolls were found in, leading to it by an entrance that looks & feels like entering a caves tunnel.
The object themselves are preserved in special dry-cool conditions, rotatably replacing them every 3 months with short light exposure as possible, which a basic level Hebrew reader can understand this 2,000 years remarkable document evidence. the “Book of Shrine” is one part of the Israeli museum located on “Ram hill” in Jerusalem, next to the Israeli Parliament, emphasizing the scroll’s historic & political importance, locally and worldwide.
The “Keter” codex
In the subfloor of the “Book of Shrine” sits the exhibition of the oldest handwritten canonical bible codex in the world, dating to the early 9th century and believed to be the most important original copy of the bible exits in the last millennium. The “Ramba’m” (The Memonaide) was basing its biblical interpretation of the “Tora” (Bible) at the time he lived in Cario(Egypt), one of many stops of “Keter”s (Crown) journey starting in Tiberias -Israel, Cario-Egypt, Haleb-Syria (that is why the codex is also referred to as the “Keter Aram-Tzuba”) until it reached its final destination back in Jerusalem.
General Information
Jerusalem is only 20 minutes drive from the caves of Qumran. Tickets for the Qumran national park for an adult are 45 IL shekels and for the “Israel Museum” are 55 shekels. both places operate 7 days a week. Audio guide in English for the Qumran caves are available for 10 Shekels. A preferable option for overnight in the area could be either one of Ein-Bokek Dead Sea hotels or one of Jerusalem’s finest.
A link to the new sensational discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls announced on March 2021 is attached here.