Studying Early Judaism: The Dead Sea Scrolls
A Guide to Resources for New Testament Studies
Studying Early Judaism
This is a Substack series studying early Judaism, check out the first post.
In this post, we are recommending resources for studying the Dead Sea Scrolls
What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Widely hailed as the most important archaeological discovering of the 20th century, the preservation, discovery, and translation of the scrolls has enhanced our knowledge of various forms of early Judaism significantly.
The DSS were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in caves near Qumran, on the NW shore of the Dead Sea. Several hundred scrolls have been found, and many more fragments. There are a lot of different types of literature included in this textual library. The scrolls date from ~250BC to ~AD 50.
Reading the DSS
Geza Vermes produced his own translation, which was first published in 1962, but has since gone into a seventh edition. Earlier editions have been made available for free on the website Archive.org. See HERE
The authoritative standard now is Martínez and Tigchelaar (2 vols)
Another handy resource is this The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible, where scholars have reconstructed the text of the Old Testament based on the scrolls.
Studying the DSS
A bit dated, but VanderKam’s The Dead Sea Scrolls Today is a great starting place for getting into the scholarship.
Fitzmyer’s guide is also handy.
And also check out The Oxford Handbook
More recently published is the T&T Clark Companion (2018)
Websites of Note
The Orion Center of the Hebrew University has a website with lots of information, including the ability to take a Virtual Tour of Qumran. HERE
Read the DSS Bible portions in English HERE.
Explore Hi-Res images of the scrolls HERE.
You can read some of the DSS sectarian text in English HERE.