What they found allowed them to come to some astonishing conclusions" ("they found fragments and potsherds relating to Graeco-Roman times, dating from 30 B.C. to A.D. 70. Six hundred tiny scraps of leather and papyrus made it possible to recognize Hebrew transcriptions from Genesis, Deuteronomy, and the book of Judges, pieces of linen fabric which had served to wrap up the scrolls completed the meager spoils." (Keller,406-407).
Professor Lankester Harding stated in a journal article for the Society of Oriental Research in 1956 that.
These unexpected discoveries are perhaps the most sensational archeological event .
of our time. There have been 400 manuscripts including 100 Biblical manuscripts.
discovered. These include every book in the Old Testament with the exception of .
Esther. The best known is the complete book of Isaiah. The scrolls and fragments.
Which come from Qumran date from 200 B.C. to A.D. 68. Those from Wadi Murabba"at .
go up to A.D. 132-135. In the Khirbet Qumran near the cave where the first discoveries.
were made there has been found the ruins of a cemetery and a settlement which had been.
the nucleus of a Jewish community which Father de Vaux views as possibly being .
the wilderness retreat of the Essenes. It will take a whole generation of Biblical scholars to.
assess the value of these manuscripts" (Harding, 1956).
.
Introduction.
Indeed, some 50 years have elapsed and many Biblical scholars have assessed the manuscripts.
It will not be the purposes of this paper to debate the validity of the documents nor enter into archeological debate, this paper however will in Section 1, provide further historical evidence in support of the Essenes sect dwelling at Qumran. The writer will present an outline of the monastic lifestyle of the Essenes, their closed community, their laws and beliefs.