Qumran, Israel
“In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan… to the house of the Lord saying, “Go up to Hilkiah the hight priest….And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, ‘I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord’ ”. 2 Kings 22: 3, 4, 8
The rediscovery of the sacred texts in the Temple under the direction of the youngest ever king of Judah Josiah led to gathering of all the people for reading of the scripture and re-dedication to following the laws of God. Even today, discovery of any portion of scripture surviving from ancient times is a source of awe and celebration.
In 1947, Bedouin merchants sold unusual artifacts in Bethlehem - ancient scrolls stored in clay jars. It took the Israeli government nearly 10 years to recover all that had been sold on the open market and begin searching for more in the caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. Eventually 15,000 scrolls / scroll fragments were discovered and are now mainly held at the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book. The scrolls from 3rd c BC to 1st C AD include books in our biblical cannon and documents describing a sectarian group and their rules / practices… most agree referring to the Essenes. Below the caves is the excavation of the Qumran settlement believed by most to be a settlement of Essenes. Of the caves above the settlement, cave 4, the keyhole cave, is the most famous and most often pictured. Although it’s not confirmed beyond all doubt, these people likely used the caves to store their sacred texts and thus preserved for us some of the earliest written copies of portions of the Bible.
We visited in 2020 and the day was rainy, so we opted not to climb up to any of the caves (what a great excuse!).
The keyhole cave, cave 4, above the settlement of Qumran. Locationof many of the dead sea scroll finds.
