Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

The Year: 1947-1956. The Place: Judean Desert. Plausible Origin: Sadducee Sect

The Dead Sea Scrolls, also known as the "Scrolls of the Judean Desert" or if you insist, "Qumran Scrolls," are a collection of ancient scrolls discovered in the Judean Desert in the Qumran caves over a span of ten years from 1947 to 1956. They are considered one of the most significant ancient archaeological discoveries in Israel.

Unsurprisingly, these scrolls comprise fragments from approximately 800 books from the Second Temple period. About one-third of the scrolls are fragments from every book of the Bible, except Esther. There are also external books known from other sources, such as 1 Enoch. Another portion of the scrolls are sectarian writings unique to the people of the Judean Desert sect..

One of the important books found there is the complete text of the Book of Isaiah. Another central text is the Copper Scroll that details the contents of a buried treasure but not its location.

The mystery that divides the scholarly and archaeological communities is the origin of these rare scrolls: Who wrote the Judean Desert Scrolls? This question holds significant archaeological importance and is crucial for understanding the religions that still operate today. It's clear that the scroll authors weren't Pharisaic Jews following the tradition of Israel's ancestors, but to which sect did they belong – were they Christians, Essenes, or simply Sadducees?

The scrolls date back between 1900 to 2000 years and have been relatively well-preserved. This period coincides with the destruction of the Second Temple and the Jewish exile. Most scrolls are written in Hebrew, with a few in Aramaic, indicating their origins in sects closely related to Judaism.

The prevailing theory had attributed the scrolls to the 'Essenes' – an ascetic Jewish group that perhaps broke away from the Hasmoneans and lived a life of seclusion and asceticism in the Judean Desert. According to some researchers, the term 'Essenes' is a distortion of the word 'Hasidim' (pious ones). For decades after the discovery, this theory was the dominant one.

However, a newer theory attributing the scrolls to a group of Sadducee priests has gained momentum since. This opinion is based on laws and customs mentioned in the scrolls that align with the Sadducees' practices at that time. Proponents of this view often emphasize refuting connections between the scrolls and the Essenes, mainly due to recurring contradictions.

The third theory attributes the scrolls to early Christian groups, before Christianity became a dominant and coercive religion, who lived in the Middle East and were Jewish by origin, observing commandments. These groups were ostracized from Judaism due to their beliefs in that man and lived in the caves of the Judean Desert.