The Temple Scroll—The Longest and Most Recently Discovered Dead Sea Scroll - The BAS Library
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The Temple Scroll—The Longest and Most Recently Discovered Dead Sea Scroll

How it affects our understanding of the New Testament and early Christianity

By Yigael Yadin

On August 1, 1960, I received a letter from a man who identified himself as a Virginia clergyman. The letter stated that the writer was in a position to negotiate the sale of “important, authentic discoveries of Dead Sea Scrolls.” Obviously, he contacted me because of my intimate involvement in Israel’s acquisition of the original Dead Sea Scrolls six years earlier. 034 In a subsequent letter, Mr. Z, as I shall refer to him, indicated the price for an entire scroll would be around one million dollars, since the Jordanian dealer who possessed the material (and here he named […]

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Footnotes

1.

I am still keeping his confidence, however, by not revealing his name. I want all these people—whether they are robbers or not (and it is a cloak-and-dagger business) to know that as far as I am concerned, if they tell me not to reveal their identities, I won’t. Otherwise, we have no chance of getting more scrolls. And I believe there still might be another scroll or some fragments here or there. For the same reason, I don’t call the dealer by name, even though many know who he is.

2.

“Preserving the Dead Sea Scrolls For the Next 2,000 Years,” BAR 07:04. Shenhav also wrote “Loaves and Fishes Mosaic Near Sea of Galilee Restored,” BAR 10:03.

3.

The Temple Scroll, edited by Yigael Yadin (The Israel Exploration Society, The Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, The Shrine of the Book Jerusalem, 1977), 3 volumes. (See review in Books in Brief in this issue.)

4.

The first five books of the Bible, called in Hebrew translation the Torah of Moses.

5.

The tetragrammaton is the ineffable and unpronounced name of God, consisting of the four consonants YHWH, often transcribed in English literature as Yahweh.

6.

“Although Moses is never mentioned by name in the existing columns of the scroll, it is clear that God is speaking to Moses, as we know, for example, by a reference to “Aaron your brother” (column 44, line 5).

7.

This is apparently spelled out in a still unpublished letter from Qumran that, according to the editors, was sent by the Teacher of Righteousness himself. The letter is to be published by John Strugnell and Elisha Qimron. See “Jerusalem Rolls Out Red Carpet for Biblical Archaeology Congress,” BAR 10:04.

8.

The literature on the Essene-Christian relationship is vast; some of the very best discussions are contained in K. Stendhal (ed.), The Scrolls and the New Testament (New York, 1957).

9.

An early collection of Jewish elaborations on scripture.

10.

Jewish Wars XV:372–379.