Qumran
"Qumran?" you say. "I don't remember coming across that name in my Bible reading."
That's right, you don't. Qumran is not mentioned in the Bible. Yet it was very probably a place known to some of the characters in the New Testament. And almost a century ago, it suddenly emerged as a tremendously important place for students of the Bible. It may be that Qumran was buried in history just a few decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus, only to be rediscovered finally in the late 1940s. It was 1947 when a Bedouin shepherd boy famously happened across a cave containing some clay jars. And within one of those jars were found a few ancient leather scrolls. Thus begins the story of the now-famous collection known as The Dead Sea Scrolls. As news of the discovery spread, biblical scholars and archaeologists began to scour the region, discovering many more caves and scrolls, as well as unearthing the nearby community of Qumran. Qumran was home to a Jewish sect known as the Essenes, and they were the people responsible for the production and preserving of these very important writings. The Essenes are not mentioned in the biblical story, though other ancient texts bear witness to their existence. They were a devout, separatist group. Some scholars conjecture that John the Baptist was associated with the Essenes. A visitor to Israel today can see the remarkable ruins that have been uncovered, revealing much about the life and faith of the Essenes. And, a half-mile inland, we can see evidence of the hills and caves where those ancient peoples stored their written treasures, safely preserved there until modern times. |