’97 Dig Opportunities
000
1988 Excavation Opportunities
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2006 Digs
A Guide to ’98 Digs: The Volunteer's View
Akeldama
Alter vs. Kugel
An Odyssey Debate
Ancient Musical Instruments
Assessing the Jehoash Inscription
BAR's 20th Anniversary
BAR's Tenth Anniversary Section
BAR’s 20th Anniversary
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Battle Over Jericho Heats Up
Battling Over the Jesus Seminar
Caesarea: Herod and Beyond
David’s Jerusalem: Fiction or Reality?
Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea Scrolls Research Council: Fragments
Dead Sea Scrolls Update
Defusing Pseudo-Scholarship
Different Interpretations
Dig 2004
Dig In: A Guide to ’99 Digs
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Digs and Digging 1980
East Meets West: The Uncanny Parallels in the Lives of Buddha and Jesus
Ecclesiastes
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Excavation Opportunities 1995
Forgotten Kingdom
Frank Moore Cross—An Interview
Has Richard Friedman Really Discovered a Long-Hidden Book in the Bible?
In Private Hands
Israel Comes to Canaan
Israel Underground
Issue 200
James
Jerusalem 3
Jerusalem Explores and Preserves Its Past
Jerusalem Update
Jerusalem’s Underground Water Systems
Jonah and the Whale
Megiddo Stables or Storehouses?
Michelangelo’s Sistine Ceiling
New Directions In Dead Sea Scroll Research
One if by Sea…Two if by Land: How Did the Philistines Get to Canaan?
Ossuary Update
Pilate in the Dock
Point/Counterpoint: Pros and Cons of the Contemporary English Version
Portraits In Heroism
Questioning Masada
Qumran
Redating the Exodus—The Debate Goes On
Remembering Ugarit
Rewriting Jerusalem History
Riches at Ein Yael
Roman Jerusalem
Scholars Disagree: Can You Name the Panel with the Israelites?
Sea Peoples Saga
Should the Bible Be Taught in Public Schools?
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Sumer
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The Bible Code: Cracked and Crumbling
the Brother of Jesus
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The God-Fearers: Did They Exist?
The Jacob Cycle in Genesis
The Minoans of Crete: Europe’s Oldest Civilization
The Most Original Bible Text: How to Get There
The Pools of Sepphoris: Ritual Baths or Bathtubs?
The Search for History in the Bible
What Was Qumran?
Where Was Jesus Born?
Where Was the Temple?
Who Invented the Alphabet
Introduction
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.