Questions & Answers

There are two main types of documents among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The first type is manuscripts of the books of the Old Testament. Most of these are just fragments of the books, but these manuscripts are of great importance. They are 1,000 years older than the previously known copies of the Hebrew Old Testament. They show that the Old Testament was faithfully and accurately copied and transmitted from the time of Christ to us. During 1,000 years of copying it was faithfully transmitted.

The other type of documents is religious writings of the Jews of that time, some of them perhaps of the sect called the Essenes. The exact nature of these documents is disputed. These documents help us understand the beliefs and practices of some groups among the Jews at the time of the New Testament, but they do not add anything significant to the understanding of the New Testament. Claims to find Jesus, John the Baptist, or Paul in the documents are not well founded. Many extravagant claims have been made for the documents, but their value is limited to providing background to the New Testament period.

The major documents have been available for study for a long time. Some were initially held back to give certain scholars exclusive rights for publication, but all of the documents are now available.