060097 VO Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls (2008W)

At different sites in the Judean Desert, fragments of ca.1500 manuscripts were found which provide information about the history of Second Temple Judaism from the 4th cent. BCE to the early 2nd cent. CE. Most important are the ca. 1000 manuscripts found in the caves in the vicinity of Khirbet Qumran. They date paleographically from the 3rd cent. BCE to the 1st cent. CE. The biblical manuscripts from Qumran attest to a plurality of text-forms of the different books of the Hebrew Bible and provide new insights to their redactional history. The non-biblical manuscripts from Qumran attest to a medley of Essene and non-Essene literature, which was mostly unknown before the finds of Qumran. These manuscripts provide new insights into the religious history of Second Temple Judaism and are of crucial importance to understand how both Christianity and post Second Temple Judaism developed. The Dead Sea Scrolls can be described as a crossroads leading to both Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.