The Psalms Scroll, designated 11Q5, with transcription.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name. They were specifically located at Khirbet Qumran in what was then the British Mandate Palestine, now the West Bank.

The texts are of great religious and historical significance, as they include the earliest known surviving copies of Biblical and extra-biblical documents and preserve evidence of great diversity in late Second Temple Judaism. They are written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, mostly on parchment, but with some written on papyrus.^[1] These manuscripts generally date between 150 BCE and 70 CE,^[2] although carbon dating indicates this range extends to the third century BCE (see Carbon dating the Dead Sea Scrolls). Bronze coins found on the site form a series beginning with Hyrcanus 1 (135-104 BCE) and continue without a gap until the first Jewish revolt.^[3] The scrolls are traditionally identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, though some recent interpretations have challenged this association and argue that the scrolls were penned by priests in Jerusalem, Zadokites, or other unknown Jewish groups.^[4][5]

The Dead Sea Scrolls are traditionally divided into three groups: "Biblical" manuscripts (copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 40% of the identified scrolls; "Apocryphal" or "Pseudepigraphical" manuscripts (known documents from the Second Temple Period like Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit, Sirach, additional psalms, etc., that were not ultimately canonized in the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls; and "Sectarian" manuscripts (previously unknown documents that speak to the rules and beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism) like the Community Rule, War Scroll, Pesher on Habakkuk (Hebrew: פשר pesher = "Commentary"), and the Rule of the Blessing, which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls.^[6]

Discovery[link]

Qumran cave 4, in which ninety percent of the scrolls were found.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in a series of 12 caves around the site known as Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956 by the Bedouin people and archeologists.^[7]

The initial discovery, by Bedouin shepherd Muhammed edh-Dhib, took place around February 1947. The shepherd discovered 7 scrolls (See Fragment and scroll lists) housed in jars in a cave at what is now known as the Qumran site. John C. Trever reconstructed the story of the scrolls from several interviews with the Bedouin. edh-Dhib's cousin noticed the caves, but edh-Dhib himself was the first to actually fall into one. He retrieved a handful of scrolls, which Trever identifies as the Isaiah Scroll, Habakkuk Commentary, and the Community Rule, and took them back to the camp to show to his family. None of the scrolls were destroyed in this process, despite popular rumor.^[8] The Bedouin kept the scrolls hanging on a tent pole while they figured out what to do with them, periodically taking them out to show people. At some point during this time, the Community Rule was split in two. The Bedouin first took the scrolls to a dealer named Ibrahim 'Ijha in Bethlehem. 'Ijha returned them, saying they were worthless, after being warned that they might have been stolen from a synagogue. Undaunted, the Bedouin went to a nearby market, where a Syrian Christian offered to buy them. A sheikh joined their conversation and suggested they take the scrolls to Khalil Eskander Shahin, "Kando," a cobbler and part-time antiques dealer. The Bedouin and the dealers returned to the site, leaving one scroll with Kando and selling three others to a dealer for £7 GBP ($29 in 2003 US dollars).^[8] The original scrolls continued to change hands after the Bedouin left them in the possession of a third party until a sale could be arranged. (See Ownership)

In 1947 the original seven scrolls caught the attention of Dr. John C. Trever, of the American Schools of Oriental Research, who compared the script in the scrolls to that of The Nash Papyrus, the oldest biblical manuscript then known, and found similarities between them. In March, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War prompted the move of some of scrolls to Beirut, Lebanon, for safekeeping. Soon afterward, on April 11, 1948, Miller Burrows, head of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), announced the discovery of the scrolls in a general press release.

Archeologist Eleazar Sukenik examining one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 1951.

Early in September 1948, Mar brought Professor Ovid R. Sellers, the new Director of ASOR, some additional scroll fragments that he had acquired. By the end of 1948, nearly two years after their discovery, scholars had yet to locate the original cave where the fragments had been found. With unrest in the country at that time, no large-scale search could be undertaken safely. Sellers attempted to get the Syrians to assist in the search for the cave, but they demanded more money than he could offer. In early 1948, the government of Jordan gave permission to the Arab Legion to search the area where the original Qumran cave was thought to be. Consequently, Cave 1 was rediscovered on January 28, 1949, by Belgian United Nations observer Captain Phillipe Lippens and Arab Legion Captain Akkash el-Zebn.^[9]

A view of the Dead Sea from a cave at Qumran in which some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.

The rediscovery of Cave 1 prompted the initial excavation of the site from February 15 to March 5, 1949, by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities. The excavation, lead by Lancaster Harding, director of the Palestine Archaeological Museum and Roland de Vaux, the President of the Trustees of the museum. The Cave 1 site yielded discoveries of additional Dead Sea Scroll fragments, linen cloth, jars, and other artifacts.^[10]

In November 1951, Roland de Vaux and his team from the American Schools of Oriental Research began a full excavation of Qumran.^[11] In the mean time, in February 1952, the Bedouin people discovered 30 fragments in what was to become designated Cave 2. These included fragments of Jubilees and ben Sirach written in Hebrew.^[10][11] The following month, in March 1952, the ASOR team discovered Cave 3 and the Copper Scroll. Then, between September and December 1952 the fragments and scrolls of Caves 4, 5, and 6 were subsequently discovered by the ASOR teams.^[11]

With the monetary value of the scrolls rising as their historical significance is made more public, the Bedouins and the ASOR archaeologists accelerated their search for the scrolls separately in the same general area of Qumran, which stretch over 1 kilometer in length. Between 1953 and 1956, Roland de Vaux lead four more archaeologicial expeditions in the area to uncover scrolls and artifacts.^[10] The last cave, Cave 11, was discovered in 1956 and yielded the last fragments to be found in the vicinity of Qumran.^[12]

Significance to the Canon of the Bible[link]

The significance of the scrolls relates in a large part to the field of textual criticism and how accurately the Bible has been transcribed over time. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible were Masoretic texts dating to 10th century CE such as the Aleppo Codex. The biblical manuscripts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls push that date back a millennium to the 2nd century BCE. Before this discovery, the earliest extant manuscripts of the Old Testament were in Greek in manuscripts such as Codex Vaticanus Graecus 1209 and Codex Sinaiticus.

According to The Oxford Companion to Archaeology:

The biblical manuscripts from Qumran, which include at least fragments from every book of the Old Testament, except perhaps for the Book of Esther, provide a far older cross section of scriptural tradition than that available to scholars before. While some of the Qumran biblical manuscripts are nearly identical to the Masoretic, or traditional, Hebrew text of the Old Testament, some manuscripts of the books of Exodus and Samuel found in Cave Four exhibit dramatic differences in both language and content. In their astonishing range of textual variants, the Qumran biblical discoveries have prompted scholars to reconsider the once-accepted theories of the development of the modern biblical text from only three manuscript families: of the Masoretic text, of the Hebrew original of the Septuagint, and of the Samaritan Pentateuch. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the Old Testament scripture was extremely fluid until its canonization around A.D. 100. ^[13]

There are several differences between the Dead Sea Scroll versions of 1-2 Samuel, Jeremiah, and Exodus compared to the Masoretic Text, both major differences and minor. The Dead Sea Scroll version of Jeremiah (such as 4QJer^b) agrees most closely with the Septuagint version of the book, missing several sections and phrases that are found in the Masoretic version. Many Dead Sea Scroll scholars have often assumed that the Septuagint and Dead Sea Scroll versions of Jeremiah reflect an earlier edition of the book of which the Masoretic version is a later, expanded version.^[14][15]

The sectarian texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls, most of which were previously unknown, offer new light on one form of Judaism practiced during the Second Temple period.

Biblical books found[link]

The books ranked according to number of manuscripts found for the top 16 are:^[16]

Fragment and scroll lists[link]

This section may need to be updated. Please update this section to reflect recent events or newly available information, and remove this template when finished. Please see the talk page for more information. (May 2012)

While many of the Dead Sea Scrolls are small fragments of Biblical, apocryphal, or sectarian manuscripts, some of the scrolls have come to be well known and influential to Second Temple Judaism. The following are lists of the Dead Sea Scrolls from the caves near Qumran:^[17]

Qumran Cave 1

The War Scroll, found in Qumran Cave 1.

A portion of the second discovered copy of the Isaiah scroll, 1QIsa^b.

Cave 1 was discovered in the winter or spring of 1947. It was first excavated by Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux from February 15 to March 5, 1949.^[18] In addition to the original seven scrolls, Cave 1 produced jars and bowls, whose chemical composition and shape matched vessels discovered at the settlement at Qumran, pieces of cloth, and additional fragments that matched portions of the original scrolls, thereby confirming that the original scrolls came from Cave 1.

The original seven scrolls from Cave 1 are:^[19]

• 1QIsa^a ("Great Isaiah Scroll", a copy of the book of "Isaiah")
• 1QIsa^b (a second copy of the book of "Isaiah")
• 1QS ("Community Rule") cf. 4QS^a-j = 4Q255-64, 5Q11
• 1QpHab ("Pesher on Habakkuk")
• 1QM ("War Scroll") cf. 4Q491, 4Q493
• 1QH ("Thanksgiving Hymns")
• 1QapGen ("Genesis Apocryphon")

Qumran Cave 2

Cave 2 was discovered in February 1952.^[20] It yielded 300 fragments from 33 manuscripts, including Jubilees and the Wisdom of Sirach in the original Hebrew.

Qumran Cave 3

Cave 3 was discovered on March 14, 1952.^[20] The cave yielded 14 manuscripts including Jubilees and the curious Copper Scroll, which lists 67 hiding places, mostly underground, throughout the ancient Roman province of Judea (now Israel). According to the scroll, the secret caches held astonishing amounts of gold, silver, copper, aromatics, and manuscripts.

Qumran Cave 4

Cave 4 was discovered in August 1952, and was excavated from September 22–29, 1952 by Gerald Lankester Harding, Roland de Vaux, and Józef Milik.^[21] Cave 4 is actually two hand-cut caves (4a and 4b), but since the fragments were mixed, they are labeled as 4Q. Cave 4 is the most famous of Qumran caves both because of its visibility from the Qumran plateau and its productivity. It is visible from the plateau to the south of the Qumran settlement. It is by far the most productive of all Qumran caves, producing ninety percent of the Dead Sea Scrolls and scroll fragments (approx. 15,000 fragments from 500 different texts), including 9–10 copies of Jubilees, along with 21 tefillin and 7 mezuzot.

The Damascus Document Scroll, 4Q271D^f, found in Cave 4

Qumran Cave 5

Cave 5 was discovered alongside Cave 6 in 1952, shortly after the discovery of Cave 4. Cave 5 produced approximately 25 manuscripts.^[21]

Qumran Cave 6

Cave 6 was discovered alongside Cave 5 in 1952, shortly after the discovery of Cave 4. Cave 6 contained fragments of about 31 manuscripts.^[21]

List of groups of fragments collected from Wadi Qumran Cave 6^[24][25] :

Qumran Cave 7

Cave 7, along with caves 8 and 9, was one of the only caves that is accessible by passing through the settlement at Qumran. Carved into the southern end of the Qumran plateau, archaeologists excavated cave 7 in 1957.

Cave 7 yielded fewer than 20 fragments of Greek documents, including 7Q2 (the "Letter of Jeremiah" = Baruch 6), 7Q5 (which became the subject of much speculation in later decades), and a Greek copy of a scroll of Enoch.^[26][27][28] Cave 7 also produced several inscribed potsherds and jars.^[29]

Dead Sea Scroll fragments 7Q4, 7Q5, and 7Q8 from Cave 7 in Qumran, written on papyrus.

A view of part of the Temple Scroll that was found in Qumran Cave 11.

List of groups of fragments collected from Wadi Qumran Cave 7^[30][31] :

Qumran Cave 8

Cave 8, along with caves 7 and 9, was one of the only caves that is accessible by passing through the settlement at Qumran. Carved into the southern end of the Qumran plateau, archaeologists excavated cave 8 in 1957.

Cave 8 produced five fragments: Genesis (8QGen), Psalms (8QPs), a tefillin fragment (8QPhyl), a mezuzah (8QMez), and a hymn (8QHymn).^[32] Cave 8 also produced several tefillin cases, a box of leather objects, tons of lamps, jars, and the sole of a leather shoe.^[29]

List of groups of fragments collected from Wadi Qumran Cave 8^[33][34] :

Qumran Cave 9

Cave 9, along with caves 7 and 8, was one of the only caves that is accessible by passing through the settlement at Qumran. Carved into the southern end of the Qumran plateau, archaeologists excavated cave 9 in 1957.

There was only one fragment found in Cave 9:

Qumran Cave 10

In Cave 10 archaeologists found two ostraca with some writing on them, along with an unknown symbol on a grey stone slab:

Qumran Cave 11

Cave 11 was discovered in 1956 and yielded 21 texts, some of which were quite lengthy. The Temple Scroll, so called because more than half of it pertains to the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem, was found in Cave 11, and is by far the longest scroll. It is now 26.7 feet (8.15 m) long. Its original length may have been over 28 feet (8.75 m). The Temple Scroll was regarded by Yigael Yadin as "The Torah According to the Essenes." On the other hand, Hartmut Stegemann, a contemporary and friend of Yadin, believed the scroll was not to be regarded as such, but was a document without exceptional significance. Stegemann notes that it is not mentioned or cited in any known Essene writing.^[35]

Also in Cave 11, an escatological fragment about the biblical figure Melchizedek (11Q13) was found. Cave 11 also produced a copy of Jubilees.

According to former chief editor of the DSS editorial team John Strugnell, there are at least four privately owned scrolls from Cave 11, that have not yet been made available for scholars. Among them is a complete Aramaic manuscript of the Book of Enoch.^[36]

List of groups of fragments collected from Wadi Qumran Cave 11:

Fragments from unknown caves at Qumran

Origin of the Scrolls[link]

There has been much debate about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The dominant theory remains that the scrolls were the product of a sect of Jews living at nearby Qumran called the Essenes, but this theory has come to be challenged by several modern scholars. The various theories concerning the origin of the scrolls are as follows:

Christian Origin Theory Spanish Jesuit Josep O'Callaghan-Martínez has argued that one fragment (7Q5) preserves a portion of text from the New Testament Gospel of Mark 6:52-53.^[37] In recent years, Robert Eisenman has advanced the theory that some scrolls describe the early Christian community. Eisenman also attempted to relate the career of James the Just and the Apostle Paul / Paul of Tarsus to some of these documents.^[38]

Jerusalem Origin Theory Some scholars have argued that the scrolls were the product of Jews living in Jerusalem, who hid the scrolls in the caves near Qumran while fleeing from the Romans during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Karl Heinrich Rengstorf first proposed that the Dead Sea Scrolls originated at the library of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.^[39] Later, Norman Golb suggested that the scrolls were the product of multiple libraries in Jerusalem, and not necessarily the Jerusalem Temple library.^[5][40] Proponents of the Jerusalem Origin theory point to the diversity of thought and handwriting among the scrolls as evidence against a Qumran origin of the scrolls. Several archaeologists have also accepted an origin of the scrolls other than Qumran, including Yizhar Hirschfeld^[41] and most recently Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg,^[42] who all understand the remains of Qumran to be those of a Hasmonean fort that was reused during later periods.

Qumran-Essene Theory The prevalent view among scholars, almost universally held until the 1990s, is the "Qumran-Essene" hypothesis originally posited by Roland Guérin de Vaux^[43] and Józef Tadeusz Milik,^[44] though independently both Eliezer Sukenik and Butrus Sowmy of St Mark's Monastery connected scrolls with the Essenes well before any excavations at Qumran.^[45] The Qumran-Essene theory holds that the scrolls were written by the Essenes, or perhaps by another Jewish sectarian group, residing at Khirbet Qumran. They composed the scrolls and ultimately hid them in the nearby caves during the Jewish Revolt sometime between 66 and 68 CE. The site of Qumran was destroyed and the scrolls were never recovered by those that placed them there. A number of arguments are used to support this theory.

• There are striking similarities between the description of an initiation ceremony of new members in the Community Rule and descriptions of the Essene initiation ceremony mentioned in the works of Flavius Josephus — a Jewish-Roman historian of the Second Temple Period.
• Josephus mentions the Essenes as sharing property among the members of the community, as does the Community Rule.
• During the excavation of Khirbet Qumran, two inkwells and plastered elements thought to be tables were found, offering evidence that some form of writing was done there. More inkwells were discovered in nearby loci. De Vaux called this area the "scriptorium" based upon this discovery.
• Several Jewish ritual baths (Hebrew: miqvah = מקוה) were discovered at Qumran, which offers evidence of an observant Jewish presence at the site.
• Pliny the Elder (a geographer writing after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE) describes a group of Essenes living in a desert community on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea near the ruined town of 'Ein Gedi.

The Qumran-Essene theory has been the dominant theory since its initial proposal by Roland de Vaux and J.T. Milik. Recently, however, several other scholars have proposed alternative origins of the scrolls.

Qumran-Sectarian Theory Qumran-Sectarian theories are variations on the Qumran-Essene theory. The main point of departure from the Qumran-Essene theory is hesitation to link the Dead Sea Scrolls specifically with the Essenes. Most proponents of the Qumran-Sectarian theory understand a group of Jews living in or near Qumran to be responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls, but do not necessarily conclude that the sectarians are Essenes.

Qumran-Sadducean Theory A specific variation on the Qumran-Sectarian theory that has gained much recent popularity is the work of Lawrence H. Schiffman, who proposes that the community was led by a group of Zadokite priests (Sadducees).^[46] (This view has also been proposed by numerous Israeli scholars, including Rachel Elior, Moshe Goshen-Gottstein, and Chaim Menachem Rabin). The most important document in support of this view is the "Miqsat Ma'ase Ha-Torah" (4QMMT), which cites purity laws (such as the transfer of impurities) identical to those attributed in rabbinic writings to the Sadducees. 4QMMT also reproduces a festival calendar that follows Sadducee principles for the dating of certain festival days.

Physical characteristics[link]

This section requires expansion.

Age

Ink and parchment

The scrolls were analyzed using a cyclotron at the University of California, Davis, where it was found that the black ink used was iron-gall ink^[47]. The red ink on the scrolls was found to be cinnabar (HgS, mercury sulfide).^[48]. Black inks found on the scrolls are made up of carbon soot from olive oil lamps^[49]. Gall nuts from oak trees, present in some, but not all of the blank inks on the scrolls, was added to make the ink more resilient to smudging common with pure carbon inks^[50]. Honey, oil, vinegar and water were often added to the mixture to thin the ink to a proper consistency for writing^[51]. In order to apply the ink to the scrolls, its writers used reed pens^[52].

The Dead Sea scrolls were written on parchment made of processed animal hides (Approximately 85.5 - 90.5% of the scrolls), papyrus (Estimated at 8.0 - 13.0% of the scrolls), and sheets of bronze composed of about 99.0% copper and 1.0% tin (Approximately 1.5% of the scrolls)^[53][54]. Tests by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Sicily, Italy, have suggested that the origin of parchment of select Dead Sea Scroll fragments is from the Qumran area itself, by using X-ray and Particle Induced X-ray emission testing of the water used to make the parchment and comparing it with the water from the area around the Qumran site^[55].

Storage and deterioration

Photography and assembly[link]

Najib Albina working on the Dead Sea Scrolls in the photo lab of the Palestine Archaeological Museum, Circa 1955-1960.

Since the Dead Sea Scrolls were initially held by different parties during and after the excavation process, they were not all photographed by the same organization nor in their entirety.

The first photographs by the American Schools of Oriental Research, 1948

The first individual to photograph a portion of the collection was John C. Trever (1916–2006), a biblical scholar and archaeologist, who was a resident for the American Schools of Oriental Research.^[56] He photographed three of the scrolls discovered in Cave 1 on February 21, 1948 soon after their discovery in February, both on black-and-white and standard color film.^[56][57][58]. Although an amateur photographer, the quality of his photographs often exceeded the visibility of the scrolls themselves as, over the years, the ink of the texts quickly deteriorated after they were removed from their linen wrappings.

Infrared photography and plate assembly by the Palestinian Archaeological Museum, 1952-1967

A majority of the collection from the Qumran caves was acquired by the Palestine Archeological Museum. They hired Najib Albina, a local Arab photographer trained by Lewis Larsson of the American Colony in Jerusalem to take photographs of the scrolls.^[59] Between 1952 and 1967, Albina documented the five stage process of the sorting and assembly of the scrolls, done by the curator and staff of the Palestine Archeological Museum, using infrared photography. Using a process known today as broadband, fluorescence infrared photography, or NIR photography, Najib and the team at the museum assembled over 1750 photographic plates of the scrolls and fragments^{[60][61][62][63]}. The photographs were taken on animal skin using large format film, allowing for the text to standout, making the plates especially useful for assembling fragments^[64]. Being the earliest photographs of the museum's collection, the most complete in the world at the time, they recorded the fragment and scrolls before their further decay in storage and are often considered the best recorded copies of the scrolls^[65].

NASA digital infrared imaging, 1993-2005

A previously unreadable fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls photographed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA in the early 1990s using digital infrared technology. The fragment, translated into English, reads "he wrote the words of Noah."

Beginning in 1993, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration used digital infrared imaging technology to produce photographs of Dead Sea Scrolls fragments^[66]. In partnership with the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center and West Semitic Research, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory successfully worked to expand on the use of infrared photography previously used to evaluate ancient manuscripts by expanding the range of spectra at which images are photographed^[67]. NASA used this multi-spectral imaging technique, adapted from its remote sensing and planetary probes, in order to reveal previously illegible text on fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls^[68]. The process uses a liquid crystal tunable filter in order to photograph the scrolls at specific wavelengths of light and, as a result, image distortion is significantly diminished^[69]. This method was used with select fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls to reveal text and details that cameras that take photographs using a larger light spectrum could not reveal^[70].

Israel Antiquities Authority and Google digitization project, 2011-2016 (Estimated)

In partnership with Google, the Israel Antiquities Authority is working to photograph the Dead Sea Scrolls and make them available to the public digitally, although not placing the images in the public domain.^[71] The lead photographer of the project, Ardon Bar-Hama, and his team are utilizing the Alpa 12 MAX camera accompanied with a Leaf Aptus-II back in order to produce ultra-high resolution digital images of the scrolls and fragments.^[72] With photos taken at 1,200 megapixels, the results are digital images that can be used to distinguish details that are invisible to the naked eye. In order to minimize damage to the scrolls and fragments, photographers are using a 1/4000th of a second exposure time and UV-protected flash tubes.^[71] The digital photography project, estimated in 2011 to cost approximately 3.5 million U.S. dollars, is expected to be completed by 2016.^[72]

Publication[link]

Physical publication[link]

Some of the documents were published early. Most of the longer, more complete scrolls were published soon after their discovery. All the writings in Cave 1 appeared in print between 1950 and 1956; those from eight other caves were released in 1963; and 1965 saw the publication of the Psalms Scroll from Cave 11. Their translations into English soon followed. Publication of the scrolls has taken many decades, and delays have been a source of academic controversy. The majority of the scrolls consist of tiny, brittle fragments, which were published at a pace considered by many to be excessively slow.

Access to the unpublished documents was severely limited to the editorial committee. In 1991, researchers at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ben Zion Wacholder and Martin Abegg, announced the creation of a computer program that used previously published scrolls to reconstruct the unpublished texts. Officials at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, led by Head Librarian William Andrew Moffett, announced that they would allow researchers unrestricted access to the library’s complete set of photographs of the scrolls. In the fall of that year, Wacholder published 17 documents that had been reconstructed in 1988 from a concordance and had come into the hands of scholars outside of the International Team; in the same month, there occurred the discovery and publication of a complete set of facsimiles of the Cave 4 materials at the Huntington Library, which were not covered by the "secrecy rule". Thereafter, the officials of the Israel Antiquities Authority agreed to lift their long-standing restrictions on the use of the scrolls.^[73]

After further delays, attorney William John Cox undertook representation of an "undisclosed client," who had provided a complete set of the unpublished photographs, and contracted for their publication. Professors Robert Eisenman and James Robinson indexed the photographs and wrote an introduction to A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was published by the Biblical Archaeology Society in 1991.^[74] As a result, the "secrecy rule" was lifted.

Following the publication of the Facsimile Edition, Professor Elisha Qimron sued Hershel Shanks, Eisenman, Robinson and the Biblical Archaeology Society for copyright infringement of one of the scrolls, which he deciphered (MMT). The District Court of Jerusalem found in favor of Qimron in September 1993.^[75] The Court issued a restraining order, which prohibited the publication of the deciphered text, and ordered defendants to pay Qimron NIS 100,000 for infringing his copyright and the right of attribution. Defendants appealed the Supreme Court of Israel, which approved the District Court's decision, in August 2000. The Supreme Court further ordered that the defendants hand over to Qimron all the infringing copies.^[76] The decision met Israeli and international criticism from copyright law scholars.^[77]

In December 2007 the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation commissioned London publisher Facsimile Editions to publish exact facsimiles^[78] of three scrolls,^[79] The Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIs^a), The Order of the Community (1QS), and The Pesher to Habakkuk (1QpHab). Of the first three facsimile sets, one was exhibited at the Early Christianity and the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in Seoul, South Korea, and a second set was purchased by the British Library in London. A further 25 sets including facsimiles of fragments 4Q175 (Testimonia), 4Q162 (Pesher Isaiah^b) and 4Q109 (Qohelet) were announced in May 2009.

Publication accelerated with the appointment of the respected Dutch-Israeli textual scholar Emanuel Tov as editor-in-chief in 1990. Publication of the Cave 4 documents soon commenced, with five volumes in print by 1995. Publication of the scrolls has taken many decades, and as of 2011, one volume remains to be completed, with the whole series, Discoveries in the Judean Desert, running to forty volumes in total.

Digital publication[link]

Israel Antiquities Authority and Google digitization project

High-resolution images, including infrared photographs, of some of the Dead Sea scrolls are now available online at the Israel Museum's website.^[80]

On 19 October 2010, it was announced^[81] that Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) would scan the documents using multi-spectral imaging technology developed by NASA to produce high-resolution images of the texts, and then, through a partnership with Google, make them available online free of charge, on a searchable database and complemented by translation and other scholarly tools. The first images, which according to the announcement could reveal new letters and words,^[81] are expected to be posted online in the few months following the announcement, and the project is scheduled for completion within five years. According to IAA director Pnina Shor, "from the minute all of this will go online there will be no need to expose the scrolls anymore",^[81] referring to the dark, climate-controlled storeroom where the manuscripts are kept when not on display.^[81]

On September 25, 2011 the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls this site went online. Google and the Israel Museum teamed up on this project,^[82] allowing users to examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts from Second Temple times at a level of detail never before possible. The new website gives users access to searchable, high-resolution images of the scrolls, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history. As of May 2012 five complete scrolls from the Israel Museum have been digitized for the project and are now accessible online. These include the Great Isaiah Scroll, the Community Rule Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the War Scroll. All five scrolls can be magnified so that users may examine texts in exacting detail. For details on the photography of the scrolls in this project and photo quality of the images see the Photography and assembly section.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls Project with the Israel Museum enriches and preserves an important part of world heritage by making it accessible to all on the internet," said Professor Yossi Matias, Managing Director of Google’s R&D Center in Israel. "Having been involved in similar projects in the past, including the Google Art Project, Yad Vashem Holocaust Collection, and the Prado Museum in Madrid, we have seen how people around the world can enhance their knowledge and understanding of key historical events by accessing documents and collections online. We hope one day to make all existing knowledge in historical archives and collections available to all, including putting additional Dead Sea Scroll documents online."

The Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project is funded by George Blumenthal and the Center for Online Judaic Studies, which first envisioned the project in order to make these manuscripts widely accessible and to create an innovative resource for scholars and the public alike. Dr. Adolfo D. Roitman, Lizbeth and George Krupp Curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Head of the Shrine of the Book, and Dr. Susan Hazan, Curator of New Media and Head of the Museum's Internet Office, directed the project for the Israel Museum, working in collaboration with Eyal Fink, Technical Lead, and Eyal Miller, New Business Development Manager, at Google's R&D Center in Israel.

Additional electronic publications

The text of nearly all of the non-biblical scrolls has been recorded and tagged for morphology by Dr. Martin Abegg, Jr., the Ben Zion Wacholder Professor of Dead Sea Scroll Studies at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, Canada. It is available on handheld devices through Olive Tree Bible Software - BibleReader, on Macs and Windows via emulator through Accordance with a comprehensive set of cross references [1], and on Windows through Logos Bible Software and BibleWorks.

Museum exhibitions and displays[link]

Temporary Museum Exhibitions^[83]

Exhibition Place	Exhibition City	Exhibition Name	Exhibition Dates	Description	Picture
The National Museum of Natural History	Washington, D.C., United States	"The Torch"	February 27, 1965 - March 21, 1965	The exhibition took place in the Foyer Gallery of the Natural History Building. The exhibit, sponsored by the Government of Jordan, drew 209,643 visitors[84].
The University of Pennsylvania Museum	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States		April 3, 1965 - April 25, 1965	Part of a Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service exhibit[85].
The British Museum	London, England, United Kingdom	"The Dead Sea Scrolls of Jordan"	December 1965	The exhibition aroused great public interest and attracted large attendances. The exhibition involved cooperation between the Palestinian Archeological Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Government of the Heshemite Kingdom of Jordan[86]
The Library of Congress	Washington, D.C., United States	"Scrolls from the Dead Sea: The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship"	29 April 1993 - June 1993	The exhibition featured 12 scrolls and 88 artifacts displayed in the library's Madison Gallery.[87]
The New York Public Library	New York, New York, United States	"The Dead Sea Scrolls: Ancient Civilization-Modern Scholarship"	October 1993 - January 1994	This exhibition featured 12 fragments of the Israel Antiquities Authority Collection and 200 pieces in all[88].
The Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco	San Francisco, California, United States	"Highlights from the Israel Antiquities Authority: The Dead Sea Scrolls and 5,000 Years of Treasures"	26 February 1994 - 29 May 1994	Among others, the exhibition included the Book of Psalms and included 50 total artifacts on display.[89]
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana	Vatican City		4 July 1994 - 16 October 1994
The Franklin Institute	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States	Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times	12 May 2012 - 14 October 2012	This exhibit contains 20 scrolls, four that have never been on display before, as well as artifacts from the time and area.[90]
Israel Museum Jerusalem	Jerusalem, Israel		February 1995 - May 1995
Kelvingrove[91]	Glasgow, England, United Kingdom		1 May 1998 - 30 August 1998
Romisch-Germanisches Museum	Koln, Germany		12 November 1998 - 18 April 1999
Austellungssaal des Regeirungsgebaudes	St. Gallen, Switzerland		7 May 1999 - 8 August 1999
Field Museum of Chicago	Chicago, Illinois, United States		4 February 2000 - 18 June 2000	This exhibit included the Psalms Scroll.[92]
The Art Gallery of New South Wales	Sydney, Australia	"Dead Sea Scrolls"	14 July 2000 - 15 October 2000	The exhibition featured parts of the War Scroll and other fragments along with related artifacts.[93]
The Public Museum of Grand Rapids	Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States		15 February 2003 - 31 May 2003
Museu Historic Nacional	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil		1 August 2004 - 10 October 2004
Houston Museum of Natural Science	Houston, Texas, United States		1 October 2004 - 2 January 2005
Museu Brasileiro da Escultura Marilisa Rathsman	São Paulo, Brazil		27 October 2004 - 15 February 2005
Discovery Place	Charlotte, North Carolina, United States		17 February 2006 - 29 May 2006
Pacific Science Center	Seattle, Washington, United States		23 September 2006 - 7 January 2007
Union Station	Kansas City, Missouri, United States		8 February 2007 - 13 May 2007	Not exclusively a museum exhibition.
San Diego Natural History Museum	San Diego, California, United States	"Dead Sea Scrolls"	29 June 2007 - 6 January 2008	The museum claimed that the exhibition "was the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Dead Sea Scrolls ever assembled." The exhibition displayed 24 sets of fragments, including some from the Copper Scroll[94].
Museum of Natural Sciences	Raleigh, North Carolina, United States	"The Dead Sea Scrolls"	28 June 2008 - 28 December 2008	The exhibition featured 12 sets of scroll fragments on loan from the IAA[95].
Jewish Museum New York	New York, New York, United States	"The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World"	21 September 2008 - 04 January 2009	The exhibition featured six sets of scroll fragments[96].
Royal Ontario Museum	Toronto, Canada	"Words that Changed the World"	27 June 2009 - 3 January 2010	On September 24, 2008 it was announced that the Royal Ontario Museum would be hosting an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls.[97] From June 27, 2009, to January 3, 2010, a collection of over 200 manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls were displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.[97] The exhibition was a joint venture between the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Royal Ontario Museum.[98]
Science Museum of Minnesota	St. Paul, Minnesota, United States	"Words that Changed the World"	12 March 2010 - 24 October 2010	The exhibition featured three sets of five fragments from scrolls[99].

Long-Term Museum Exhibitions

Display at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Individuals examining part of the Israeli Antiquities Authority's Dead Sea Scrolls collection on display at the Shrine of the Book, a wing of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

One of the Dead Sea Scrolls displays at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 2005.

Display at the National Archaeological Museum, Amman, Jordan

"The Testimonia," 4Q175, as seen on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Amman, Jordan, in 2009.

One of the pots that some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Amman, Jordan. It is seen displayed next to the Copper Scroll.

Ownership[link]

This section requires expansion.

Past ownership

Arrangements with the Bedouin left the scrolls in the hands of a third party until a profitable sale of them could be negotiated. That third party, George Isha'ya, was a member of the Syrian Orthodox Church, who soon contacted St. Mark's Monastery in the hope of getting an appraisal of the nature of the texts. News of the find then reached Metropolitan Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, better known as Mar Samuel. After examining the scrolls and suspecting their antiquity, Mar Samuel expressed an interest in purchasing them. Four scrolls found their way into his hands: the now famous Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa^a), the Community Rule, the Habakkuk Pesher (a commentary on the book of Habakkuk), and the Genesis Apocryphon. More scrolls soon surfaced in the antiquities market, and Professor Eleazer Sukenik and Professor Benjamin Mazar, Israeli archaeologists at Hebrew University, soon found themselves in possession of three, The War Scroll, Thanksgiving Hymns, and another, more fragmented, Isaiah scroll (1QIsa^b).

The Dead Sea Scrolls went up for sale eventually, in an advertisement in the June 1, 1954, Wall Street Journal.

On July 1, the scrolls, after delicate negotiations and accompanied by three people including the Metropolitan, arrived at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. They were purchased by Prof. Mazar and the son of Prof. Sukenik, Yigael Yadin, for US$250,000 ($2.16 million in present-day terms)[8] and brought to Jerusalem.

Current ownership

Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection is currently under the ownership of the Government of the state of Israel, and housed in the Shrine of the Book on the grounds of the Israel Museum.

A list of known ownership of Dead Sea Scroll fragments:

Ownership disputes

Parties Involved	Party Role	Explanation of Role
Jordan	Disputant	Alleges that the Dead Sea Scrolls were stolen from the Palestinian Archaeological Museum, which was operated by Jordan from 1966 until the Six-Day War when advancing Israeli forces took control of the Museum. Jordan regularly demands their return and petitions third-party countries that host the scrolls to return them to Jordan instead of to Israel, claiming they have legal documents that prove Jordanian ownership of the scrolls.
Israel	Current Owner	After the Six-Day War Israel moved the scrolls to the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum. Israel refutes Jordan's claim and states that they never lawfully possessed the scrolls since it was an unlawful occupier of the museum and region.[101][102][103]
Palestine	Disputant	The Palestinian Authority also holds a claim to the scrolls and the land.
Canada	Neutral Exhibition Host	In 2009, a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection held by the Israeli Antiquities Authority was moved and displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. Both Palestine and Jordan petitioned the international community, including the United Nations,[104] for the scrolls to be seized under disputed international law. Ottawa dismissed the demands and the exhibit continued, with the scrolls returning to Israel upon its conclusion.
United Nations	Supranational Authority	Under Resolution 181 (II), Jerusalem, in particular East Jerusalem, that is the current home to the Rockefeller Museum that originally housed the majority of the Dead Sea Scrolls. East Jerusalem was under Jordanian occupation from 1948 to 1967 has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.