Qumran and Related Topics

Dead Sea Scrolls

Then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea.

Qumran cave 4, where ninety percent of the scrolls were found

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

The Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) contains almost the whole Book of Isaiah.

The Damascus Document Scroll, 4Q271Df, found in Cave 4

4Q7, a fragment of the book of Genesis found in Cave 4

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.

Fragments 1 and 2 of '7Q6' from Cave 7 are written on papyrus.

Two of the pottery jars that held some of the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran.

Two Dead Sea Scrolls jars at the Jordan Museum, Amman

A previously unreadable fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls photographed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory using digital infrared technology. Translated into English it reads: "He wrote the words of Noah."

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

Scholars assembling Dead Sea Scrolls fragments at the Rockefeller Museum (formerly the Palestine Archaeological Museum).

Visitors examining Dead Sea Scrolls displayed at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem.

Strip of the Copper Scroll from Qumran Cave 3 written in the Hebrew Mishnaic dialect, on display at the Jordan Museum, Amman

Advertisement in The Wall Street Journal dated 1 June 1954 for four of the "Dead Sea Scrolls"

Dead Sea Scroll 175, complete, Testimonia, from Qumran Cave 4, the Jordan Museum in Amman

Dead Sea Scroll 28a from Qumran Cave 1, complete, the Jordan Museum in Amman

A portion of the second discovered copy of the Isaiah Scroll, 1QIsa{{sup|b}}.

Part of Dead Sea Scroll 28a from Qumran Cave 1. The Jordan Museum, Amman

Dead Sea Scroll, Pesher Isaiah, from Qumran Cave 4. The Jordan Museum, Amman

Dead Sea Scroll 175, Testimonia, from Qumran Cave 4. The Jordan Museum, Amman

Dead Sea Scroll 109, Qohelet or Ecclesiastes, from Qumran Cave 4. The Jordan Museum, Amman

Dead Sea Scrolls at the Jordan Museum in Amman

Strips of the Copper Dead Sea Scroll at the Jordan Museum, from Qumran Cave 3, 1st century CE

Strip 11 of the Copper Dead Sea Scroll, from Qumran Cave 3, Jordan Museum

Strip 15 of the Copper Dead Sea Scroll, from Qumran Cave 3, Jordan Museum

Strip 13 of the Copper Dead Sea Scroll, from Qumran Cave 3, Jordan Museum

Strips 1 and 2 of the Copper Dead Sea Scroll, from Qumran Cave 3, Jordan Museum

Dead Sea Scroll 109, Qohelet or Ecclesiastes, from Qumran Cave 4, the Jordan Museum in Amman

Dead Sea Scroll 109, Qohelet or Ecclesiastes, from Qumran Cave 4, at the Jordan Museum in Amman

Dead Sea Scroll, Pesher Isaiah, from Qumran Cave 4, the Jordan Museum in Amman

Dead Sea Scroll 175, Testimonia, from Qumran Cave 4, the Jordan Museum in Amman

Detail, Dead Sea Scroll 175, Testimonia, from Qumran Cave 4, the Jordan Museum in Amman

Dead Sea Scroll 28a from Qumran Cave 1, the Jordan Museum in Amman

Part of Dead Sea Scroll 28a from Qumran Cave 1, the Jordan Museum in Amman

Part of Dead Sea Scroll 28a from Qumran Cave 1, at the Jordan Museum in Amman

Dead Sea Scroll fragment 5/6HEV PS found in the Cave of Letters at Nahal Hever

The 11 Qumran Caves lie in the immediate vicinity of the Hellenistic-period Jewish settlement at Khirbet Qumran in the eastern Judaean Desert, in the West Bank.

Cave 4Q with other caves in the background

Qumran Caves

Caves 4Qa right & 10Q left of upper center, seen from Wadi Qumran to the south

Qumran Caves are a series of caves, both natural and artificial, found around the archaeological site of Qumran in the Judaean Desert of the West Bank.

Remains of part of the main building at Qumran.

The Essenes (Modern Hebrew:, Isiyim; Greek: Ἐσσηνοί, Ἐσσαῖοι, or Ὀσσαῖοι, Essenoi, Essaioi, Ossaioi) were a mystic Jewish sect during the Second Temple period that flourished from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE.

The Genesis Apocryphon, part of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Gabriele Boccaccini implies that a convincing etymology for the name Essene has not been found, but that the term applies to a larger group within Judea that also included the Qumran community.

Roland de Vaux

French Dominican priest who led the Catholic team that initially worked on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

His team excavated the ancient site of Khirbet Qumran (1951–1956) as well as several caves near Qumran northwest of the Dead Sea.

Yigael Yadin

Israeli archeologist, soldier and politician.

The Israeli delegation to the 1949 Armistice Agreements talks. Left to right: Commanders Yehoshafat Harkabi, Aryeh Simon, Yigael Yadin, and Yitzhak Rabin (1949)

IDF Chief of Staff Yigael Yadin presenting a decoration to actor Edward G. Robinson (1950)

Yigal Yadin with General Riley, UN Chief of Staff, Middle East Area, Jerusalem

As an archeologist, he excavated some of the most important sites in the region, including the Qumran Caves, Masada, Hazor, Tel Megiddo and caves in Judean Desert where artifacts from Bar Kokhba revolt were found.

Lawrence Schiffman

Professor at New York University (as of 2014); he was formerly Vice-Provost of Undergraduate Education at Yeshiva University and Professor of Jewish Studies (from early 2011 to 2014).

Schiffman at Dor Excavation, August, 1981

His senior thesis was devoted to the use of Psalms in the Qumran Hodayot.

John the Baptist

John the Baptist (c.

The Preaching of St. John the Baptist by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566

Salome is given the severed head of John the Baptist, Onorio Marinari, 1670s

St. John the Baptist Preaching, c. 1665, by Mattia Preti

The Baptism of Jesus Christ, by Piero della Francesca,

Matthias Grünewald, detail of the Isenheim Altarpiece

Nabi Yahya Mosque, the traditional burial site of John the Baptist, in Sebastia, near Nablus

Monastery of Saint John in the Wilderness

Shrine of John the Baptist in the Umayyad Mosque, which purportedly houses John the Baptist's head

A Kolkata Armenian kisses the hand of St John the Baptist at Chinsurah.

Saint Karapet Monastery, where Armenian tradition holds that his remains were laid to rest by Gregory the Illuminator

Tomb of Saint John the Baptist at a Coptic monastery in Lower Egypt. The bones of Saint John the Baptist were said to have been found here.

Birth of John the Baptist, Cappella Tornabuoni

Serbo-Byzantine fresco from Gračanica Monastery, Kosovo,

The Druze Maqam al-Nabi Yahya (John the Baptist) in As-Suwayda Governorate.

John setting off into the desert, Giovanni di Paolo, 1454

Eastern Orthodox icon John the Baptist – the Angel of the Desert (Stroganov School, 1620s) Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

John the Baptist (right) with child Jesus, in the painting The Holy Children with a Shell by Bartolomé Esteban Perez Murillo

Head of St. John the Baptist on a Plate, Southern Netherlands,, oak

St John (right) in Christ in the House of His Parents by John Everett Millais, 1849–50

Catholic church at his traditional birthplace in Ein Kerem

Wooden statue. Pietro Paolo Azzopardi, 1845, Xewkija.

St. John the Baptist ({{c.|1513–1516}}), Leonardo da Vinci

John the Baptist in the desert (1577–1621), Cristofano Allori

John the Baptist (17th century), Michele Fabris

The Beheading of St John the Baptist, {{c.|1869}}, Puvis de Chavannes

Many scholars believe there was contact between the early church in the Apostolic Age and what is called the "Qumran-Essene community".

A view of the sea from the Israeli shore

Dead Sea

Salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west.

Satellite photograph showing the location of the Dead Sea east of the Mediterranean Sea

The Jordanian shore of the Dead Sea, showing salt deposits left behind by falling water levels.

Halite deposits (and teepee structure) along the western Dead Sea coast

Pebbles cemented with halite on the western shore of the Dead Sea near Ein Gedi

Beach pebbles made of halite; western coast

Dead Sea in the morning, seen from Masada

Mount Sodom, Israel, showing the so-called "Lot's Wife" pillar (made of Halite (mineral) like the rest of the mountain)

A cargo boat on the Dead Sea as seen on the Madaba Map, from the 6th century AD

The southern basin of the Dead Sea as of 1817–18, with the Lisan Peninsula and its ford (now named Lynch Strait). North is to the right.

World's lowest (dry) point, Jordan, 1971

Ein Bokek, a resort on the Israeli shore

Kempinski Hotel, one of the many hotels on the Jordanian shore

The dwindling water level of the Dead Sea

Gully in unconsolidated Dead Sea sediments exposed by recession of water levels. It was excavated by floods from the Judean Mountains in less than a year.

The planned Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance, whose first phase will begin construction in 2021, will work towards stabilizing the falling levels of the Dead Sea

Also in Roman times, some Essenes settled on the Dead Sea's western shore; Pliny the Elder identifies their location with the words, "on the west side of the Dead Sea, away from the coast ... [above] the town of Engeda" (Natural History, Bk 5.73); and it is therefore a hugely popular but contested hypothesis today, that same Essenes are identical with the settlers at Qumran and that "the Dead Sea Scrolls" discovered during the 20th century in the nearby caves had been their own library.

Rockefeller Archeological Museum

Archaeology museum located in East Jerusalem that houses a large collection of artifacts unearthed in the excavations conducted in Mandatory Palestine, in the 1920s and 1930s.

Relief representing Israelite culture, one of ten bas-reliefs by Eric Gill in the inner courtyard at the museum.

Inner courtyard with a view to the tower.

Head of a statue found in Jericho, among the earliest human representations ever found, dating back to 9,000 years ago

Statue of Ramesses III from Beth Shean, 1185-1153 BCE

Sarcophagus from Tel Turmus, 3nd century CE, with Dionysos between the seasons of the year. The lid bears the images of the deceased and his wife.

Amazon sarcophagus, Tel Mevorah, Roman period, early 3rd century CE; depicts battle between Amazons and Greeks

Seven-branched menorah, from the Eshtemoa synagogue, 4th–5th century CE

Lintel from the Nabratein Synagogue, 6th-century CE

Wood panels from the Al-Aqsa Mosque, 8th-century CE

Sem-nude female statue from Hisham's Palace, 8th-century CE

Upon their discovery at Qumran between 1947 and 1956, the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls were housed in the Rockefeller Museum.

Frank Moore Cross

The Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages Emeritus at Harvard University, notable for his work in the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, his 1973 magnum opus Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, and his work in Northwest Semitic epigraphy.

Beginning June 1953, Cross was a member of the international committee responsible for editing the Dead Sea Scrolls, which had been discovered at Qumran.