The longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, recovered from Cave 11 near Qumran and running to roughly eight and a half metres, presenting itself as divine speech to Moses that supplements and in places rewrites Pentateuchal law. It sets out detailed architectural instructions for an ideal Temple far larger than either Solomon's or Herod's, its courts and purity regulations, a festival calendar including festivals not attested in the Hebrew Bible itself, and a law of the king governing royal conduct and military levy. Its relationship to the wider Qumran sectarian corpus is debated: some scholars read it as a distinctively sectarian composition, others as an older text the community preserved rather than authored.
Facts
Origins
Era of CompositionThe surviving manuscript dates paleographically to the late Herodian period, roughly the first half of the first century CE, though the text it copies is generally judged older, with composition estimates ranging across the second century BCE. 1 Status
Canonical StatusNever part of the Hebrew Bible or any later Jewish or Christian canon; its status among the Qumran community that preserved it is itself a subject of scholarly debate. Structure
StructureThe longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, presenting rewritten Torah material in the first person voice of God, covering the architecture of an idealized Temple, purity law, festival calendar and a law code drawn largely from Deuteronomy. 1 Text
Literary Form Transmission
Manuscript TraditionPreserved in one substantially complete copy (11Q19) plus fragments of at least one further copy (11Q20) from Qumran Cave 11, and a possible related fragment from Cave 4; acquired by Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin in 1967 and published in full in 1977. 1 Connections
Associated With
This source names Qumran directly: "Scrolls, recovered from Cave 11 near Qumran and running to roughly eight and a half metres, presenting itself as divine speech to Moses that supplements and in places rewrites Pentateuchal law."
Source The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in EnglishGeza Vermes
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in EnglishGeza Vermes
In Language
Originates in Language
Source The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in EnglishGeza Vermes
Sources
1. The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English
Geza Vermes, Penguin, 2004Originates in Language: Biblical Hebrew, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: biblical-hebrewView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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