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Yigael Yadin

The Temple Scroll, found in Cave 11 (see photo of Cave 11) at Qumran, is about 27 feet long, making it the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Although the scroll itself dates to about the last part of the first century B.C.E., the text of which it is a copy probably reached its final form in the Hasmonean period (152–63 B.C.E.), soon after the appearance of the Qumran sect. The author/editor of the Temple Scroll apparently used Sadducean sources from before the Hasmonean period, for some of the laws in the scroll’s text parallel Sadducean laws found in MMT or known from rabbinic literature. In some cases, however, the Temple Scroll gives a scriptural basis for a law, whereas MMT cites just the law. This difference provides an insight into the viewpoint of the early Sadducees, who required their laws to be based on scripture.