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ZEV RADOVAN/BIBLELANDPICTURES.COM

THE TEMPLE SCROLL. Discovered in Cave 11, the Temple Scroll is the longest non-biblical scroll among the Qumran texts. Its modern name reflects the fact that most of its content relates to the Jerusalem sanctuary. In its prescriptive presentation of purity laws and ritual practices, it echoes the biblical legislation of the books of Numbers and Leviticus. With them, it states that impure ceramic vessels cannot be purified and must be broken, but it also says that firstfruits were to go directly to priests. If Qumran’s inhabitants saw the Jerusalem Temple as corrupt, it would explain why the already tithed date honey would not be transferred to the Temple but rather buried at Qumran.