Zev Radovan

“All are to dine together” prescribes the Dead Sea Scroll known as the Community Rule: The long dining hall at Qumran would have allowed people to adhere—in comfort—to the dictates of this scroll, which describes the fundamental beliefs and rituals of a wilderness sect. But was this dining room for religious communitarians or for commercial travelers, as authors Crown and Cansdale contend? A doorway at the far end of the left wall leads to a small pantry (room 5 on the plan) that helped identify this room as a dining hall.