Introduction

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It’s a game everyone can play. You don’t have to be a scholar to decide which arguments are the most convincing. And it’s one of the more tantalizing questions concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls: What was the nature of Qumran, the settlement adjacent to the caves where the scrolls were found? And a related question: What was the connection, if any, between the scrolls and the site?

The authors of the following two articles, Jodi Magness and Edward Cook, play this game particularly well. They note that although the scrolls provide glimpses into the life of the sect whose beliefs and rules are reflected in them, they do not refer directly to Qumran.

Roland de Vaux, the excavator of the site between 1951 and 1956, concluded that Qumran had been the monastery-like home of an isolated Jewish religious community, the Essenes, who deposited the scrolls in the nearby caves. It is somewhat difficult to review de Vaux’s conclusions, however, because he died in 1971 without producing a final excavation report.

More than a decade ago, the École Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem (on whose behalf de Vaux excavated Qumran) retained Belgian scholars Robert Donceel and Pauline Donceel-Voûte to write the final report. Although the Donceels have not yet completed their work, they have come to a radically different conclusion. They believe Qumran was a winter villa where the wealthy found refuge from Jerusalem’s winter chill. Archaeologist Jodi Magness (“Not a Country Villa”) disputes the Donceels’ interpretation that Qumran was a swanky country home—but only after taking us on a tour of other contemporaneous villas and palatial retreats.

So what was Qumran? Edward Cook (“A Ritual Purification Center”) offers a tantalizing suggestion. For Cook, the prevailing theories fail to account for some significant facts about Qumran—and therefore must be rejected. Only one explanation comprehends all the facts, says Cook: The site was a purification center where Essenes headquartered in Jerusalem could remove impurities that prevented them from remaining in the Holy City.

BAR’s readers can judge for themselves. But be warned, this is unlikely to be the end of the debate. Henceforth, however, you will be armed with the necessary background to be a full-fledged participant.

It’s a game everyone can play. You don’t have to be a scholar to decide which arguments are the most convincing. And it’s one of the more tantalizing questions concerning the Dead Sea Scrolls: What was the nature of Qumran, the settlement adjacent to the caves where the scrolls were found? And a related question: What was the connection, if any, between the scrolls and the site? The authors of the following two articles, Jodi Magness and Edward Cook, play this game particularly well. They note that although the scrolls provide glimpses into the life of the sect whose […]