Qumran caves. Qumran manuscripts. Dictionary of rare terms found in manuscripts

• Brockhaus Biblical Encyclopedia
• prot. D. Yurevich
• priest D. Yurevich
• A.K. Sidorenko

Qumran manuscripts- a set of ancient religious manuscripts discovered in the Qumran area, compiled at the end and beginning (for some reasons, this time dates back to the period: 3rd century BC - 68 AD).

Where does the story of the discovery and publication of the Qumran manuscripts begin?

In 1947, two Bedouins, Omar and Muhammad Ed-Dib, herding cattle in the Judean Desert, near the Dead Sea, in the Wadi Qumran region, came across a cave, inside which, to their surprise, they discovered ancient leather scrolls wrapped in linen. According to the explanation of the Bedouins themselves, they came to this cave quite by accident, while searching for a missing goat; according to another version, which seems no less plausible, they purposefully looked for antiquities.

Unable to appreciate the found manuscripts, the Bedouins tried to cut them into leather straps for sandals, and only the fragility of the material, corroded by time, convinced them to abandon this idea and look for a more suitable use for the find. As a result, the manuscripts were offered to antiquarians and then became the property of scientists.

As the manuscripts were studied, their true historical value became clear. Soon, professional archaeologists appeared at the site where the first scrolls were discovered. As part of the systematic excavations of 1951-56, carried out in the Judean Desert, many written monuments were discovered. All of them together received the name “Dead Sea manuscripts”, after the place of discovery. Sometimes these monuments are conventionally classified as Qumran, but often only those that were found directly in the Qumran area are designated as such.

What are the Qumran manuscripts?

Among the Qumran finds, several well-preserved scrolls were identified. Mainly, the finds revealed a mass of scattered, sometimes tiny fragments, the number of which reached approximately 25,000. Through long and painstaking work, a number of fragments were identified by content and combined into more or less complete texts.

As the analysis shows, the overwhelming majority of the texts were compiled in Aramaic and Hebrew, and only a small part - in Greek. Among the monuments, scriptures of biblical, apocryphal and private religious content were discovered.

In general, the Dead Sea Scrolls cover almost all the Books of the Old Testament, with rare exceptions. It is interesting to note that, for example, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah has been preserved in almost its entirety, and a comparison of the ancient text of this Book with modern copies indicates their mutual correspondence.

According to one theory, the Qumran manuscripts originally belonged to the Essev community that lived in that area, known from ancient sources. It was an isolated sect, within which observance of the law and strict (Old Testament) practices were practiced. Among other things, the conclusions from the study and the peculiar scientific interpretation of the ancient ruins found there are in favor of the above-mentioned assumption. It is believed that the Essenes could have lived in this area until it was captured by Roman soldiers in 68.

Meanwhile, there is another point of view, according to which at least some of the documents found are not of sectarian, but of Jewish origin.

This happened in the spring of 1947 in the desert area of ​​Wadi Qumran, near the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea. Muhammad Ed-Dib, a Bedouin youth from the semi-nomadic Taamire tribe, was looking for a lost goat. Finally he saw her and was about to set off after her when a hole in the rock caught his attention. Yielding to boyish curiosity, he threw a stone up, and a second later he heard a sound similar to the ringing of a broken jug. Treasure! - the thought stunned him. Quickly catch the goat and call a friend!

And so Muhammad and his friend Omar squeezed into a narrow crevice. When the dust they raised had settled a little, the young men saw clay jugs. Taking one of them, they tried to move the lid on it. The resin that had frozen around the lid crumbled, and the jug was able to be opened.

Contrary to the young men’s expectations, what was found inside was not silver or gold, but some strange scroll. As soon as Muhammad and Omar touched the darkened crust of the scroll, it turned to dust, and the sealed fabric came to light. Having easily torn it apart, the young men saw yellowed skin covered with written characters. It could never have occurred to them that they were holding in their hands the oldest manuscript of the Bible, the value of which was incomparable to any gold. At first, as they say, Muhammad wanted to cut straps for his leaky sandals, but the leather turned out to be too fragile.

Until 1957, all researchers unanimously considered 1947 to be the year of the discovery of the manuscripts by Muhammad. But in October 1956, Mohammed ed-Dib told a commission of three people about his discovery, one of whom wrote down his story. In 1957, William Brownlee published an English translation of Muhammad's account, accompanied by an Arabic facsimile of the transcript. From the words of Muhammad it is clear that the discovery of the manuscripts was made by him back in 1945. But since other points in the story raised a number of doubts among experts about the accuracy of the information given by Muhammad (see: Vaux, 1959 a, pp. 88-89, note . 3), then the date - 1945 - cannot be accepted with confidence.

For a long time the scrolls lay in the tent, until finally, on one of their trips to Bethlehem, the Bedouins sold them for next to nothing. After some time, a sheikh from Bethlehem sold several scrolls of manuscripts to Kando, an antiques dealer in Jerusalem. And a new chapter of adventure began in the story of the discovery of the Bible.

In November 1947, three scrolls were resold to Jerusalem University professor E. L. Sukenik for 35 pounds. Art. Four scrolls and several fragments were purchased by the abbot of the Syrian monastery of St. Mark by Metropolitan Samuel Athanasius for 50 pounds. Art.

Sukenik immediately established the antiquity of these manuscripts (1st century BC) and their Essene origin and began to read and publish them. These three manuscripts are known by the names: the scroll of Hymns (1Q N), the scroll “Wars of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness” (1Q M) and an incomplete list of books. Isaiah (1Q Isb). The edition prepared by Sukenik was published posthumously by Avigad and Yadin (Sukenik, 1954-1955).

The situation was different with the scrolls that fell into the hands of Metropolitan Athanasius. For a long time and unsuccessfully, he tried to establish the antiquity and meaning of these manuscripts, the language of which was incomprehensible to him. The matter was complicated by the fact that Metropolitan Athanasius initially put forward the version that the manuscripts were discovered in the library of the monastery of St. The brand was not listed in the catalogue. After a series of fruitless conversations and consultations with various people, in January 1948, Metropolitan Afanasy decided to take advantage of Sukenik’s consultation. On behalf of the Metropolitan, his envoy asked for a meeting with Sukenik. Due to the tense political situation, the meeting was scheduled on neutral territory dividing Jerusalem into the old and new cities, and took place under unusual circumstances for scientific research.

Sukenik examined the manuscripts shown to him and immediately identified the text of the biblical book of the prophet Isaiah. Of the remaining two manuscripts, one turned out to be the Charter of an unknown community, and the other contained a kind of commentary on the biblical book of the prophet Habakkuk (Havakkuk). The Metropolitan's envoy, a personal acquaintance of Sukenik, entrusted him with the manuscripts for three days for a more detailed review. Upon returning the manuscripts, they agreed to organize a meeting between Sukenik and the rector of the university with the metropolitan to negotiate the purchase of the manuscripts. This meeting was not destined to take place, and the fate of the manuscripts was decided differently.

In February 1948, two monks brought manuscripts on behalf of the Metropolitan to the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. The young American scientists John Traver and William Brownlee, who were then at the School, correctly assessed the antiquity and significance of the manuscripts. John Traver determined that one of the manuscripts contained the text of the book of Isaiah, and suggested the great antiquity of this scroll. Trever managed to convince the Metropolitan that a facsimile edition would increase the market value of the manuscripts, and he obtained permission to photograph them.

Having received from Trever a photograph of an excerpt from the scroll of Isaiah, the famous orientalist William Albright, who published the Nash Papyrus in the 30s, immediately determined the authenticity of the manuscript and its great antiquity - the 1st century. BC e. In March 1948, Albright cabled Trever and congratulated him “on the greatest discovery of manuscripts in modern times... Fortunately, there can be no shadow of doubt as to the authenticity of the manuscripts.”

Meanwhile, in 1948, the Metropolitan secretly smuggled the manuscripts from Jordan to the United States and in 1949 placed them in a safe deposit box at a Wall Street bank. One Isaiah scroll, advertised as being read by “Jesus himself,” was valued at a million dollars. However, it later turned out that publication in 1950-1951. facsimile publication of manuscripts exported by the Metropolitan reduced their market value.

In 1954, these four scrolls, i.e. the complete scroll of Isaiah (1Q Isa), Commentary on the book. Havakkukah (1Q pHab), the Charter of the Qumran community (1Q S) and the then not yet unrolled scroll, which turned out to be the Apocrypha of the book. Genesis (1Q Gen Apoc), were purchased by the University of Jerusalem for 250 thousand dollars. Today, a special museum has been opened in Jerusalem for the scroll of Isaiah and the history of its discovery. Chemical analysis of the linen bindings of the scrolls... showed that the flax was cut in the period 168 BC. e. and 233 AD

The first Qumran manuscripts, published by Burrows, Trever and Brownlee, were called by their publishers “The Dead Sea Scrolls”. This not entirely accurate name has become generally accepted in scientific literature in almost all languages ​​of the world and is still applied to manuscripts from the Qumran caves. Currently, the concept of “Dead Sea Scrolls” no longer corresponds to the concept of “Qumran manuscripts”. The accidental discovery of ancient manuscripts by Muhammad ed-Dib in one of the caves of Qumran caused a chain reaction of new finds and openings of repositories of ancient manuscripts not only in the caves of the Qumran area, but also in other areas of the western coast of the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert. And now “Dead Sea Manuscripts” is a complex concept, covering documents that differ in location (Wadi Qumran, Wadi Murabbaat, Khirbet Mird, Nahal Hever, Masada, Wadi Dalieh, etc.), in writing material (leather , parchment, papyrus, shards, wood, copper), by language (Hebrew - biblical and Mishnaic; Aramaic - Palestinian Aramaic and Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Nabatean, Greek, Latin, Arabic), by time of creation and by content.

Until 1956, a total of eleven caves were discovered containing hundreds of manuscripts - preserved in whole or in part. They compiled all the books of the Old Testament except the book of Esther. True, not all texts have survived. The most ancient biblical manuscript turned out to be a list of the Book of Samuel (Book of Kings) from the 3rd century BC. All methods of dating archaeological documents used in the study of the Qumran manuscripts gave fairly clear chronological indicators; in general, the documents refer to a period lying between the 3rd century BC. e. and 2nd century AD e. However, there are some suggestions that passages of biblical books were even more ancient.

Almost all Biblical books were discovered in several copies: Psalms - 50, Deuteronomy - 25, Isaiah - 19, Genesis - 15, Exodus - 15, Leviticus - 8, Minor (twelve) prophets - 8, Daniel - 8, Numbers - 6, Ezekiel - 6, Job - 5, Samuel - 4, Jeremiah - 4, Ruth - 4, Song of Songs - 4, Lamentations - 4, Judges - 3, Kings - 3, Joshua - 2, Proverbs - 2, Ecclesiastes - 2 , Ezra-Nehemiah - 1, Chronicles - 1

Along with other places, ruins on a protruding rocky plateau not far from where the finds were discovered were also explored. Archaeologists have come to the conclusion that the Essenes lived in Khirbet Qumran, forming a kind of religious community. Some scrolls of manuscripts tell about their faith, which was somewhat different from the Judaism of that time. Researchers discovered the ruins of the “house of the order” with a large meeting room, a scriptorium with benches, tables and inkwells. Next came utility rooms, cisterns, ablution facilities and a cemetery. Traces of a fire and arrowheads found immediately suggest that the inhabitants of the monastery were most likely expelled by enemies. Based on the coins found here, archaeologists determined the time of existence of the community - 200 BC to 68 AD. e. During the Jewish-Roman War, the Romans turned the monastery into ruins.

Apparently, the Essenes decided to save their library before the Roman attack. They placed the scrolls of manuscripts in clay jars, sealed them with resin so that air and moisture would not penetrate inside, and hid the jars in caves. After the destruction of the settlement, the caches of book treasures were apparently completely forgotten.

The Qumran scrolls are written mainly in Hebrew, partly in Aramaic; there are fragments of Greek translations of biblical texts. Hebrew of non-biblical texts was the literary language of the Second Temple era; some passages are written in post-biblical Hebrew. The main type used is the square Hebrew font, a direct predecessor of the modern printed font. The main writing material is parchment made from goatskin or sheepskin, and occasionally papyrus. Charcoal ink (with the sole exception of the Genesis apocrypha). Paleographic data, external evidence, and radiocarbon dating allow us to date the bulk of these manuscripts to the period from 250 BC. e. before 68 AD e. (late Second Temple period) and consider them as the remains of the library of the Qumran community.

Publishing texts

Documents found at Qumran and other areas are published in the Discoveries in the Judaean Desert (DJD) series, currently numbering 40 volumes, published since 1955 by Oxford University Press. The first 8 volumes are written in French, the rest in English. The chief editors of the publication were R. de Vaux (volumes I-V), P. Benoit (volumes VI-VII), I. Strungel (volume VIII) and E. Tov (volumes IX-XXXIX).

Document publications contain the following components:

— A general introduction describing the bibliographic data, physical description including fragment dimensions, material, list of features such as errors and corrections, spelling, morphology, paleography and dating of the document. A list of variant readings is also provided for biblical texts.

— Transcription of the text. Physically lost elements - words or letters - are given in square brackets.

— Translation (for a non-biblical work).

— Notes regarding complex or alternative readings.

— Photographs of fragments, sometimes infrared, usually on a 1:1 scale.

— Volume XXXIX of the series contains an annotated list of all previously published texts. Some documents were previously published in scientific journals dedicated to biblical studies.

Implications for Biblical Studies

Between 1947 and 1956, more than 190 biblical scrolls were discovered in eleven Qumran caves. Basically these are small fragments of the books of the Old Testament (all except the books of Esther and Nehemiah). One complete text of the book of Isaiah was also found - 1QIsaa. In addition to biblical texts, valuable information is also contained in quotations from non-biblical texts, such as Pesharim.

In terms of their textual status, the biblical texts found at Qumran belong to five different groups:

— Texts written by members of the Qumran community. These texts are distinguished by a special orthographic style, characterized by the addition of numerous matres lectionis, making the text easier to read. These texts make up about 25% of the biblical scrolls.

— Proto-Masoretic texts. These texts are close to the modern Masoretic text and constitute about 45% of all biblical texts.

— Proto-Samarite texts. These texts repeat some features of the Samaritan Pentateuch. Apparently, one of the texts from this group became the basis for the Samaritan Pentateuch. These texts make up 5% of biblical manuscripts.

— Texts close to the Hebrew source of the Septuagint. These texts show close similarities with the Septuagint, for example in the arrangement of verses. However, the texts of this group differ significantly from each other, not forming such a close group as the above groups. Such scrolls make up 5% of the Qumran biblical texts.

— Other texts that have no similarities with any of the above groups.

Before the Qumran finds, analysis of the biblical text was based on medieval manuscripts. The Qumran texts have greatly expanded our knowledge of the Old Testament text of the Second Temple period:

— Previously unknown readings help to better understand many details of the text of the Old Testament.

—The textual diversity reflected in the five groups of texts described above gives a good idea of ​​the multiplicity of textual traditions that existed during the Second Temple period.

—The Qumran Scrolls provided valuable information about the process of textual transmission of the Old Testament during the Second Temple period.

— The reliability of ancient translations has been confirmed, primarily the Septuagint. The found scrolls, belonging to the fourth group of texts, confirm the correctness of the previously made reconstructions of the Hebrew original of the Septuagint.

Language of the Qumran manuscripts

Texts created by the members of the Qumran community themselves play a huge role in studying the history of the Hebrew language. The most important of this group are the "Rule" (1QSa), "Blessings" (1QSb), "Hymns" (1QH), "Commentary on Habakkuk" (1QpHab), "War Scroll" (1QM) and "Temple Scroll" (11QT) . The language of the Copper Scroll (3QTr) differs from that of these documents and can be attributed to the spoken language of the time, a precursor to Mishnaic Hebrew.

The language of the remaining documents created by members of the community, on the one hand, is close in vocabulary to early biblical Hebrew. On the other hand, features common to Late Biblical Hebrew and Mishnaic Hebrew are absent from the language of the Qumran manuscripts (Qumran Hebrew). Based on this, scholars suggest that members of the Qumran community, in written and perhaps spoken language, consciously avoided trends characteristic of the spoken language of the time, such as the increasing influence of Aramaic dialects. To protect themselves from the outside world, sect members used terminology based on biblical expressions, thereby symbolizing a return to the “pure” religion of the Exodus generation.

Thus, Qumran Hebrew is not a transitional link between late biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew, but represents a separate branch in the development of the language.

Unknown scrolls

It is interesting to note that, apparently, not all of the Dead Sea Scrolls have yet fallen into the hands of scientists. After completing the publication of the DJD series, in 2006, Professor Hanan Eshel presented to the scientific community a hitherto unknown Qumran scroll containing fragments of the book of Leviticus. Unfortunately, the scroll was not discovered during new archaeological excavations, but was accidentally seized by the police from an Arab smuggler: neither he nor the police suspected the true value of the find until Eshel, who was invited to the examination, established its origin. This case once again reminds us that a significant part of the Dead Sea Scrolls may pass through the hands of thieves and antiquities dealers, gradually falling into disrepair.

50 years ago, Joseph Amusin’s book “Dead Sea Manuscripts” became a bestseller in Soviet popular science literature. When the intelligentsia read this book, science knew less than a quarter of what we know about Qumran today. Recorded between the middle of the 3rd century BC. e. and the middle of the 1st century AD. e. on thousands of scraps of parchment, the texts form the library of a Jewish sect that influenced the development of Christianity.

In early February 1947, a fifteen-year-old Bedouin, Muhammad ad-Din, nicknamed the Wolf from the Taamire tribe, was herding goats in the desert area of ​​Wadi Qumran (two kilometers west of the Dead Sea, 13 kilometers south of Jericho and 25 kilometers east of Jerusalem) and accidentally found seven parchment scrolls in a cave. ... This is how all the stories about the Qumran epic begin without exception. The version sounds romantic, but somewhat simplifies the reality: manuscripts from the Qumran community had been stumbled upon before. In the 3rd century, the great Christian theologian Origen found them in the vicinity of Jericho in a clay vessel. Around 800, a dog led an Arab hunter to one of the Qumran caves, from where he took out some scrolls and handed them over to the Jews of Jerusalem. Finally, at the end of the 19th century, a Qumran document was discovered in an ancient Cairo synagogue. But these finds did not make a difference in science. Qumran came to the forefront of history at the same time as the entire Middle East - in the middle of the twentieth century.

"Indiana Jones"

In April 1947, the Bedouin Wolf offered the find to the Bethlehem antiquarian Ibrahim Ijha, who showed no interest in it. Another merchant, Kando, agreed to look for a buyer for a third of the future profits. The scrolls were offered to the monastery of St. Mark - and again unsuccessfully. Only in July, Metropolitan Samuel of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Jerusalem agreed to buy four manuscripts for 24 pounds ($250). A month later, a certain Egyptian businessman brought another manuscript to US intelligence agent in Damascus Miles Copland. He agreed to photograph it and find out if anyone would be interested in this rarity. They decided to shoot on the roof to make it brighter - a strong gust of wind blew the scroll into dust. In November, three scrolls were purchased by archeology professor Eliezer Sukenik from Hebrew University. In February 1948, the scrolls purchased by Christians were delivered to the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. Their antiquity was recognized there. Following the Americans, Sukenik made a similar statement, who previously did not want to make a fuss so as not to inflate the price. But the Arab-Israeli war that began in May interrupted all contacts between sellers and buyers, and scientists with each other. Sukenik lost his son on it and forgot about the scrolls for a while.

Metropolitan Samuel transported the manuscripts that were purchased by Syrian Christians to New York, where he went to raise funds for the needs of Palestinian refugees. The scrolls were displayed at the Library of Congress. In 1950, a public debate took place in Philadelphia, in which supporters of the authenticity of the scrolls won a decisive victory over those who considered them to be fakes. Meanwhile, Jordan outlawed Samuel as a thief, and he decided to sell the scrolls. For $250,000, they were bought for Israel by Professor Sukenik’s second son, the hero of the Arab-Israeli war, Yiggael Yadin, for whom this was the fulfillment of his father’s dying will. Of course, he acted through dummies: the Metropolitan would not have sold it to an Israeli for anything!

As a result of the war, the territory of Qumran went to Jordan, and all research there was carried out by French Catholic archaeologists, who sought to find the most ancient roots of Christianity in Palestine. In November 1951, Bedouins from the Taamire tribe brought the found scroll to the director of the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem, Joseph Saad. When they refused to reveal the place where the discovery was made, the director, without thinking twice, took one of them hostage and thus learned about the new cave of scrolls. But he was still ahead of the priest Roland de Vaux, who was already on the spot. In 1952, five caves were opened and 15,000 fragments from 574 manuscripts were found - they were collected at the French Biblical and Archaeological School in East Jerusalem. That same year, after the end of the archaeological season, the Bedouins found another cave near the excavation site - from there they sold thousands of scraps from 575 manuscripts. All this moved to the Rockefeller Museum. In the spring of 1955, four more caves with scrolls were discovered.

In January 1956, the era of new caves ended: in total, about 40 of them were discovered near the Dead Sea, but manuscripts were found in only 11. In the “team competition” of the competition between scientists and Bedouins, the first ones won with a score of 6: 5. The number of finds reached 25,000, but of these there were only 10 whole scrolls, and the rest were scraps, many of which were no larger than a postage stamp. Some of the scrolls were torn to pieces by the Bedouins, who earned a Jordanian pound for every square centimeter.

Copper scroll

Undoubtedly, the most sensational discovery at Qumran was not scraps of parchment, but two large scrolls of pure, although highly oxidized, copper. They were excavated in 1953 at the entrance to the Third Cave. Some ancient Hebrew text was engraved on the inner surface of the metal, but it was impossible to read: it turned out to be impossible to unroll the scrolls without breaking them. Then the scientists obtained permission to take them to Manchester, where they were carefully cut into strips and finally read. And here the scientists were in for a real sensation: the scroll (it was a single object 2.4 meters long, about 39 centimeters wide, broken in half) contained indications of specific 60 places in Palestine where gigantic treasures were buried, totaling from 138 to 200 tons of precious metals !

For example: “In the fortress that is in the valley of Achor, forty cubits under the steps leading to the east, a chest of money and its contents: seventeen talents in weight” (No. 1); “Sixty cubits from “Solomon’s Ditch” in the direction of the great watchtower are buried for three cubits: 13 talents of silver” (No. 24); “Under the tomb of Absalom, on the west side, there is buried twelve cubits worth: 80 talents” (No. 49). The first thought was: where did the poor Qumranite community get such wealth? The answer was quickly found: it was the priests of the Jerusalem Temple who put the temple treasures into hiding places on the eve of the Roman siege of 70, and hid the key to the treasures in a cave. In 1959, hastily, before treasure hunters found out about the secret, archaeologists organized an expedition, guided by the instructions of the Copper Scroll... In vain! Everything turned out to be a scam. But who would want to engrave such lies on expensive metal? Apparently, the text is allegorical in nature and it is about mystical, and not about real, wealth. Be that as it may, during the 1967 war, the Copper Scroll became the only Qumran item that was evacuated to Amman as a strategic object.

Shortening Goliath

Radiocarbon dating has shown that the Qumran parchments date back to the period between 250 BC. e. and 70 AD e. They are exactly a thousand years older than all (with the exception of one) physically preserved biblical manuscripts. For example, a fragment of the copy of the Book of the Prophet Daniel is only 50 years away from the moment when, according to scientists, this book itself was written! From the fragments obtained, through complex analysis and comparison, it was possible to identify about 900 fragments of ancient texts, mainly in Hebrew and Aramaic, with only a few in Greek. A fourth of the finds were excerpts from the biblical canon - all parts of the Old Testament, with the exception of the Book of Esther. The discovery of lists so close to the time of the original writings forces us to reconsider the traditional textual criticism of the Bible in some ways. For example, Goliath’s height of “six cubits and a span” (more than three meters) should be corrected to “four cubits and a span,” that is, the fairy-tale giant simply turned into a two-meter basketball player.

In addition to biblical texts and commentaries on them, there were also apocryphal texts, that is, adjacent in content to the canonical ones, but not included in the canon for various reasons. For example, the Book of Giants in the 3rd century AD. e. became the sacred text of Manichaeism, a religion that almost won the competition with Christianity. And also the Book of Jubilees, the Apocrypha of the Book of Genesis, the Book of Enoch. But still, the most interesting was the third section of the “library” - the Qumran community’s own texts: statutes, liturgical instructions, horoscopes. The names alone can turn your head: The Book of Fires, Hymns of the Poor, The Book of the Watchers, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, The Astronomical Book of Enoch, The Rule of War, The Songs of the Admonisher, The Instruction of the Sons of the Dawn, Curses of Satan, The Hymn of Washing, The Book of Secrets, Songs of the Sabbath Burnt Offering, Servants of Darkness, Children of salvation and, most intriguingly, the tricks of a dissolute woman.

For a long time it was unclear who the inhabitants of Qumran were. The first hypothesis (which eventually became established) was that the Qumran library belonged to the Essenes sect. A lot is known about it from written sources: dissatisfied with the fact that official Judaism was adapting to the Hellenistic fashion, the sectarians retired to caves to literally carry out the instructions of the Bible. Their customs were so strange that Josephus, trying to give an idea of ​​them to the Greek reader, said that they “practice the mode of life which Pythagoras exhibited among the Greeks.” Not far from the caves, archaeologists discovered the remains of a settlement. The coins found there date from the same period as the scrolls. Water tanks, meeting rooms and even... two inkwells were discovered. But the problem is that hundreds of different handwritings can be traced in the scrolls found, and in general it is not clear how a huge scriptorium could exist in a small settlement? Therefore, the scrolls were brought from somewhere else, maybe there was not even a library in the caves, but just a hiding place? But does this mean that the totality of texts found there does not necessarily reflect the sectarian views of the Essenes? The mystery of Qumran is that, unlike several other places nearby, where scrolls were also found, there are no non-religious texts here: the Qumranites did not leave us a single economic inventory or private letter, not a single promissory note or court verdict, and yet such documents usually provide evidence of community life. That is why various hypotheses appear up to the present time. Thus, in 1998, one researcher suggested that Qumran was not the capital of the Essene community, but a temporary refuge for extremists who had broken away from it. In 2004, several archaeologists hypothesized that the settlement at Qumran was actually a pottery factory, and that the scrolls in the caves were left by refugees from Jerusalem destroyed by the Romans. Another mystery of the Qumran caves: not a single human bone was found there. But most of the caves discovered in the Judean Desert served as the last refuge for refugees seeking salvation from Macedonian and later Roman terror. One even got the name Cave of Horrors - 200 skeletons were found in it.

Bargaining is inappropriate

In 1960, General Yiggael Yadin, son of Professor Sukenik, retired and took up archaeology. One day he received a letter from the USA from an anonymous person who volunteered to mediate the sale of a scroll of incredible value. For $10,000, the intermediary sent Yadin a fragment torn from the manuscript, but then the connection was interrupted. As soon as the salvoes of the “Six Day War” died down, Yadin, using his army connections, organized a raid on Bethlehem: he rightly judged that the anonymous seller could only be the antique dealer Kando, with whom the Qumran epic began 20 years earlier. And indeed, in the basement of his house, in a shoe box, lay a large, almost complete scroll (the fragment received by mail immediately fell into place in it), which received the name Temple. The antique dealer was paid $105,000, but was not allowed to bargain.

"The Da Vinci Code"

In essence, no matter how curious the Qumran manuscripts are, no matter how valuable they are for science, interest in them would not have lasted at its original level for half a century now if historians had not seen in them a possible clue to the origin of Christianity. In 1956, one of the main researchers of the scrolls, the Englishman John Allegro, unveiled his own theory in a speech on the BBC that the Qumran community worshiped a crucified Messiah, that is, that Christians were simply plagiarists. Other scientists published indignant retractions in The Times, but the genie of public hype was already out of the bottle. Subsequently, Allegro became an “enthusiast” of Qumran studies: in 1966, he published “The Untold Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls” in the venerable Harper’s magazine, where he argued that the clergy were maliciously concealing the unpleasant truth about Christ for them. Allegro was no longer taken seriously after the scandalous monograph “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross” (1970), which stated that all religions, including Christianity, developed from the cult of hallucinogenic mushrooms. (The discovery of Sergei Kuryokhin, memorable to many, made in 1991, that the mushroom was V.I. Lenin, cannot be considered completely original.) So no one was surprised by Allegro’s book “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Christian Myth” (1979), where he insisted that Jesus was a fictional character, copied from the Qumran Teacher of Righteousness.” Allegro, of course, exaggerated the degree of politicization and clericalization of Qumran studies, but there is no smoke without fire. Indeed, the texts were published extremely slowly, no one wanted to share with others, people who had access to the scrolls did not allow their competitors to access them, the impression was created that someone was hiding something or deliberately distorting something in the translation. And the place where the conflict between scientists unfolded was not conducive to calm. In 1966, Allegro convinced the Jordanian government to nationalize the Rockefeller Museum, but his triumph was short-lived: the “Six Day War” that soon broke out brought East Jerusalem under Jewish control. The Temple Scroll fell into the hands of Israeli researchers.

However, the Israelis, in order not to aggravate the situation, left the collection of the Rockefeller Museum in the hands of Catholic researchers - Roland de Vaux and Joseph Milik. They had not allowed Jews to see the scrolls before, and now they have completely refused to cooperate with the occupiers. In 1990, the head of the publishing project, Catholic John Strugnell, gave an interview to an Israeli newspaper in which he called Judaism a “disgusting religion” and expressed regret that Jews survived at all. After this, however, he lost his post.

By 1991, barely a fifth of the texts found had been published! That same year, the sensational book The Dead Sea Scrolls Hoax was published, the authors of which, Michael Baigent and Richard Lee, insisted that there was a Catholic conspiracy to hide the shameful secrets of Christianity. As always, the conspiracy theory underestimated smaller but no less important factors, such as personal ambition. Be that as it may, the situation became unbearable, and finally the new management of the project announced a policy of complete openness of all texts for everyone (which was facilitated by the spread of personal computers). This made it easier to work with old texts: in 1993, photographs of all the surviving fragments were published. But the situation with new ones has only worsened: back in 1979, Israel decreed that every ancient find is a state property. This immediately made any legal acquisition of scrolls from treasure hunters impossible. In 2005, Professor Canaan Eshel was arrested for buying scroll fragments on the black market, but was later released without charge. The fragments were confiscated by the Israel Antiquities Authority and were later found to have died during testing as officials tried to prove they were fake. The problem of legalizing finds remains extremely acute for Qumran studies. But there are also reasons for optimism. For example, the advent of new methods such as DNA analysis will make it easier to put together a puzzle of thousands of scraps: first, it will become clear which of them are written on parchment made from the skin of the same animal. Secondly, it will be possible to establish the hierarchical significance of different scrolls: after all, a cow or a domestic goat was considered more “ritually pure” animals than a gazelle or a wild goat. And finally, 38 volumes of the academic series “Texts of the Judean Desert” have already been published, and another volume is in the works. New discoveries may await us.

Tema non grata

For obvious reasons, Soviet scientists could not participate in the search and deciphering of the scrolls, but their colleagues kept them in the know. Already in 1956, information about Qumran was published in the “Bulletin of Ancient History” by the wonderful St. Petersburg Hebraist Claudia Starkova. But the true intellectual sensation was produced by Joseph Amusin’s book “Dead Sea Manuscripts” (1960), which outlined the detective story of the finds. Its entire circulation was immediately sold out, and the second factory immediately released the same edition. It was the height of the “thaw”, and still the appearance of such a book during the Khrushchev offensive on religion looks like a complete miracle. After all, Amusin somehow managed to mention Jesus in it as a real person. However, the documentary publication “Texts of Qumran” prepared by Starkova was stopped by censorship due to the “Six Day War” and the outbreak of the “fight against Zionism.” The book appeared only 30 years later.

Gemini rivals

In addition to scandals and rivalries, the very essence of the Qumran texts literally provoked scholars to jump to conclusions. The scrolls spoke of a certain Teacher of Righteousness who died at the hands of former followers. The Man of Lies, who betrayed the Teacher, is also mentioned in these texts. In addition to the obvious identifications with Jesus and Judas, scientists have proposed the most surprising identifications. For example, in 1986, American biblical scholar Robert Eisenman announced that the Teacher of Righteousness is the New Testament James, the brother of the Lord, and the Man of Lies is the Apostle Paul. In 1992, Australian theologian Barbara Thiering published the book Jesus and the Mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, in which she argued that the Teacher of Righteousness is John the Baptist and the Man of Lies is Jesus. True, the publication of the complete corpus of Qumran texts finally convinced everyone that the community arose long before Christianity, around 197 BC. e., and that the Teacher lived about 30 years later.

All the circumstances of the creation of the sect and the internal struggle in it are set out in the scrolls in an extremely vague and allegorical form; much can be reconstructed with the greatest difficulty. However, now we can be sure that the teachings of the Qumranites were very far from the postulates of early Christianity; there are simply typological similarities between sects. For example, the supernatural resilience of the Essenes is very reminiscent of early Christian martyrs. According to Josephus, the Romans “screwed and stretched the Essenes, their members were burned and crushed; All instruments of torture were tried on them in order to force them to blaspheme the legislator or taste forbidden food, but nothing could persuade them to do either one or the other. They steadfastly withstood the torment, without making a single sound and without shedding a single tear. Smiling under torture, laughing at those who tortured them, they cheerfully gave up their souls in full confidence that they would receive them again in the future.” But such exaltation is characteristic of followers of many other sects in different eras, and here both relied on the same Old Testament and acted in the same area. It is clear why the “Christian” interpretation was literally on the researchers’ tongues. For example, the first publisher, using infrared scanning, deciphered one very damaged passage as “When God gives birth to the anointed one.” But then about a dozen other readings were proposed, and in the end the passage was declared unreadable.

Fragment of the Aramaic text of the apocryphal Testaments of the twelve Patriarchs. Photo: EYEDEA/EAST NEWS

Yet the Qumran texts help us understand a lot about early Christianity, restoring the atmosphere of intense anticipation of the Messiah that reigned in Judea during the era of crisis. For example, in the Old Testament Melchizedek is mentioned only twice, in a very vague context, and therefore the popularity of this image in New Testament literature, especially the fact that Christ is compared to him, seemed completely inexplicable. Now this has become clear: in the Qumran document, Melchizedek is a celestial being, the head of a host of angels, the patron of the “sons of light,” an eschatological judge and evangelist of salvation. If Jesus cruelly polemicizes in the Gospel with the main two currents of Judaism - Pharisaism and Sadducees, then the third most important movement, Esseneism, is not mentioned even once. Can we conclude from this that Jesus did not know about him? This is unlikely. Some expressions, like “Holy Spirit”, “Son of God”, “sons of light”, “poor in spirit”, were clearly borrowed by Christians from the Qumranites. The phrase “New Testament” was also introduced by them. By the way, the Temple Scroll was apparently written by the Teacher of Righteousness and declared by him to be part of the Torah, its divinely inspired addition. There are striking similarities between the Essene communal meal of bread and wine and the Eucharist. And the most paradoxical call of Jesus - not to resist evil - finds a parallel in the Essenes’ charter: “I will not repay anyone with evil, but I will pursue a man with good.” And why be surprised here if John the Baptist “was in the deserts until the day of his appearing to Israel” and “preaching in the wilderness of Judea,” and Jesus “was there in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the beasts,” and later again he “went to a country near the desert,” and in general the desert was (and always remains!) - just a stone’s throw from the flowering gardens of Judea. When John the Baptist sent to Jesus to ask, “Are you the one who should come, or should we expect another?”, he declared: “Go, tell John what you have seen and heard - the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor hear the good news.” These words are a montage of many Old Testament quotes. And only one motive is missing from the Bible - it does not say anywhere about the resurrection of the dead. But this is a direct quote from the Qumran essay “On the Resurrection.” There is strong speculation that the Essenes inhabited an entire neighborhood in the southwestern part of Jerusalem, and it was there that Jesus stayed and the Last Supper took place there. There are also motifs in the Gospel that, in the light of the Qumran scrolls, look like a polemic with the Essenes. For example, Christ asks: “Which of you, having one sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take it and pull it out?” This may be a direct objection to the Essene tenet: “And if an animal falls into a pit or ditch, let no one pick it up on the Sabbath.”

However, the main difference is rooted in the very essence: the Essenes turned to only the Jews, the Christians switched to propaganda among the pagans; the Essenes considered the Teacher a prophet, but not God; the Essenes hoped for a real earthly victory over the “sons of darkness”; as for Christians, their religion acquired so many followers precisely because after the destruction in 70 AD. e. Emperor Titus of the Jerusalem Temple made it impossible to dream of any real victory over invincible Rome. There was only one weapon left - the word. Or the Word.

Qumran Scrolls - Dead Sea Chronicles The Qumran Scrolls, Jewish religious texts written between the 2nd century BC and 68 AD, were hidden in caves near Qumran by several waves of refugees leaving Jerusalem to escape the Romans. The first scrolls at Qumran were found in 1947 by a Bedouin boy searching for a missing goat. Eleven caves contained hundreds of manuscripts, carefully packed in clay vessels and well preserved in the dry air prevailing in the Dead Sea region. The find was one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries of the century; it consisted of Biblical and other manuscripts almost two thousand years old. Some scrolls were classified or never published.

Preface 2

DEAD SEA SCROLLS (more precisely manuscripts; מְגִלּוֹת יָם הַמֶּלַח, Megillot Yam ha-melakh), a popular name for manuscripts discovered since 1947 in the caves of Qumran (tens of thousands of manuscripts and fragments), in caves in adi Murabba'at (to the south from Qumran), in Khirbet Mirda (southwest of Qumran), as well as in a number of other caves in the Judean Desert and in Masada (for the findings in the last two points, see the corresponding articles). The first manuscripts were discovered by chance in Qumran by Bedouins in 1947. Seven scrolls (complete or slightly damaged) fell into the hands of antiquities dealers, who offered them to scholars. Three manuscripts (Second Scroll of Isaiah, Hymns, War of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness) were acquired for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by E. L. Sukenik, who was the first to establish their antiquity and published excerpts in 1948-50. (full edition - posthumously in 1954). Four other manuscripts fell into the hands of the Metropolitan of the Syrian Church, Samuel Athanasius, and from him to the United States, where three of them (the First Scroll of Isaiah, the Commentary on Havakkuk /Habakkuk/ and the Charter of the Community) were read by a group of researchers led by M. Burrows and published in 1950-51 These manuscripts were subsequently acquired by the Israeli government (with money donated for this purpose by D. S. Gottesman, 1884-1956), and the last of these seven manuscripts (the Apocrypha of Genesis), published in 1956 by N. Avigad, was read in Israel and I. Yadin. Now all seven manuscripts are on display in the Temple of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Following these finds, systematic excavations and surveys began in 1951 in Qumran and nearby caves, which were under Jordanian control at that time. The surveys, which uncovered new manuscripts and numerous fragments, were carried out jointly by the Jordanian government's Department of Antiquities, the Palestine Archaeological Museum (Rockefeller Museum) and the French Archaeological Biblical School; Scientific activities were led by R. de Vaux. With the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, almost all of these finds, concentrated in the Rockefeller Museum, became available to Israeli scientists. In the same year, I. Yadin managed to acquire (with funds allocated by the Wolfson Foundation) another of the famous large manuscripts - the so-called Temple Scroll. Outside Israel, in Amman, there is only one of the significant Dead Sea manuscripts - the Copper Scroll. The Qumran scrolls are written mainly in Hebrew, partly in Aramaic; there are fragments of Greek translations of biblical texts. Hebrew of non-biblical texts is the literary language of the Second Temple era; some passages are written in post-biblical Hebrew. The spelling is usually “full” (the so-called ktiw maleh with particularly extensive use of the letters vav and yod to represent the vowels o, u, and). Often such orthography indicates phonetic and grammatical forms different from the extant Tiberian Masorah, but in this respect there is no uniformity in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The main type used is the square Hebrew font, a direct predecessor of the modern printed font. There are two styles of writing: a more archaic one (the so-called Hasmonean letter) and a later one (the so-called Herodian letter). The Tetragrammaton is usually written in Paleo-Hebrew script, as is one fragment of the book of Exodus. The main writing material is parchment made from goatskin or sheepskin, and occasionally papyrus. Carbon ink (with the sole exception of the Genesis apocrypha). Paleographical data and external evidence allow us to date these manuscripts to the end of the Second Temple era and consider them as the remains of the library of the Qumran community. Finds of similar texts in Masada date back to 73 AD. e., the year of the fall of the fortress, as terminus ad quet. Fragments of tefillin on parchment were also discovered; Tefillin belong to a type that precedes the modern one. Qumran manuscripts, written in the period from the 2nd century. BC e. up to 1st century n. BC, represent invaluable historical material that allows us to better understand the spiritual processes that characterized Jewish society at the end of the Second Temple era, and sheds light on many general issues of Jewish history. The Dead Sea Scrolls are also of particular importance for understanding the origins and ideology of early Christianity. The finds at Qumran led to the emergence of a special field of Jewish studies - Qumran studies, which deals with the study of both the manuscripts themselves and the whole range of problems associated with them. In 1953, the international Committee for the Publication of the Dead Sea Manuscripts was created (seven volumes of its publications were published under the title “Discoveries in the Judean Desert”, Oxford, 1955-82). The main publication of Qumran scholars is the Revue de Qumran (published in Paris since 1958). Rich literature on Qumran studies exists in Russian (I. Amusin, K. B. Starkova and others). According to their content, the Qumran manuscripts can be divided into three groups: biblical texts, apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, and literature of the Qumran community. Biblical texts. Among the Qumran finds, about 180 copies of (mostly fragmentary) biblical books have been identified. Of the 24 books of the canonical Hebrew Bible, only one is not represented - the book of Esther, which is perhaps not accidental. Along with Jewish texts, fragments of the Greek Septuagint (from the books of Leviticus, Numbers, Exodus) were discovered. Of the targums (Aramaic translations of the Bible), the most interesting is the targum of the book of Job, which serves as independent evidence of the existence of a written targum of this book, which, according to the order of Rabban Gamliel I, was seized and walled up in the Temple and under the name “Syrian Book” is mentioned in the addition to the book of Job in the Septuagint. Fragments of the targum of the book of Leviticus have also been found. The Apocrypha of the book of Genesis is, apparently, the oldest targum of the Pentateuch created in Eretz Israel. Another type of biblical material is the verbatim verses quoted as part of the Qumran commentary (see below). The Dead Sea Scrolls reflect the diverse textual variants of the Bible. Apparently, in 70-130. the biblical text was standardized by Rabbi Akiva and his companions. Among the textual variants found at Qumran, along with the proto-Masoretic ones (see Masorah), there are types previously hypothetically accepted as the basis of the Septuagint and close to the Samaritan Bible, but without the sectarian tendencies of the latter (see Samaritans), as well as types attested only in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Thus, copies of the book of Numbers have been discovered, occupying an intermediate position between the Samaritan version and the Septuagint, and lists of the book of Samuel, the textual tradition of which is apparently better than that which formed the basis of the Masoretic text and the text of the Septuagint, etc. In general, however, comparative A study of the textual variants shows that the proto-Masoretic reading established by Rabbi Akiva and his companions is based, as a rule, on a selection of the best textual traditions. Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. Along with the Greek text of Jeremiah, the Apocrypha is represented by fragments of the Book of Tobit (three fragments in Aramaic and one in Hebrew) and Ben Sira of Wisdom (in Hebrew). Among the pseudepigraphal works are the Book of Jubilees (about 10 Hebrew copies) and the Book of Enoch (9 Aramaic copies; see also Hanoch). Fragments of the last book represent all the main sections with the exception of the second (chapters 37-71 - the so-called Allegories), the absence of which is especially noteworthy, since here the image of the “son of man” appears (a development of the image from the book of Daniel 7:13). The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (several fragments of the Testament of Levi in ​​Aramaic and the Testament of Naphtali in Hebrew) are also pseudepigrapha - works preserved in the Greek Christianized version. The fragments of the Testaments found at Qumran are more extensive than the corresponding passages in the Greek text. Part of the Epistle of Jeremiah (usually included in the book of Baruch) was also found. Previously unknown pseudepigrapha include the Sayings of Moses, the Vision of Amram (Moses' father), the Psalms of Yehoshua bin Nun, several passages from the Daniel cycle, including the Prayer of Nabonidus (a variant of Daniel 4), and the Book of Secrets. Literature of the Qumran Community Section 5:1-9:25, in a style often reminiscent of the Bible, sets out the ethical ideals of the community (truthfulness, modesty, obedience, love, etc.). The community is metaphorically described as a spiritual temple, consisting of Aaron and Israel, that is, priests and laymen, whose members, due to the perfection of their lives, are able to atone for human sins (5:6; 8:3; 10; 9:4). Then follow the rules on the organization of the community and its daily life, listing the punishable offenses (blasphemy, lying, insubordination, loud laughter, spitting in the meeting, etc.). The section ends with a listing of the virtues of an ideal, “reasonable” member of the sect (maskil). Three hymns, similar in all respects to those contained in the Hymn Roll (see below), complete the manuscript (10:1-8a; 10:86-11:15a; 11:156-22). The Hymn Roll (Megillat ha-hodayot; 18 more or less complete columns of text and 66 fragments) contains about 35 psalms; The manuscript dates back to the 1st century. BC e. Most of the psalms begin with the formula “I thank you, O Lord,” while a smaller part begins with “Blessed be you, O Lord.” The content of the hymns is thanksgiving to God for the salvation of mankind. Man is described as a being sinful by his very nature; he is created from clay mixed with water (1:21; 3:21) and returns to dust (10:4; 12:36); man is a carnal creature (15:21; 18:23), born of a woman (13:14). Sin permeates the entire human being, even affecting the spirit (3:21; 7:27). Man has no justification before God (7:28; 9:14ff), is unable to know His essence and His glory (12:30), since the human heart and ears are unclean and “uncircumcised” (18:4, 20 , 24). Human destiny is entirely in God's hands (10:5ff.). In contrast to man, God is an omnipotent creator (1:13ff; 15:13ff), who gave man a destiny (15:13ff) and determined even his thoughts (9:12, 30). God's wisdom is infinite (9:17) and inaccessible to man (10:2). Only those to whom God has revealed himself are able to comprehend His mysteries (12:20), devote themselves to Him (11:10ff), and glorify His name (11:25). These chosen ones are not identical with the people of Israel (the word "Israel" is never mentioned in the surviving text), but are those who received revelation - not of their own free will, but by God's design (6:8) - and were cleared of their guilt God (3:21). Humanity is therefore divided into two parts: the elect who belong to God and for whom there is hope (2:13; 6:6), and the wicked who are far from God (14:21) and who are allies of Bliy'al (2 :22) in his struggle with the righteous (5:7; 9, 25). Salvation is possible only for the chosen ones and, which is very characteristic, is considered as having already taken place (2:20, 5:18): acceptance into the community in itself is salvation (7:19ff; 18:24, 28) and therefore not surprising that there is no clear distinction between entry into the community and eschatological salvation. The idea of ​​the resurrection of the righteous is present (6:34), but does not play a significant role. Eschatologically, salvation does not consist in the deliverance of the righteous, but in the final destruction of wickedness. The Psalms reveal a literary dependence on the Bible, primarily on the biblical psalms, as well as on the prophetic books (see Prophets and Prophecy), especially Isaiah, and are full of numerous allusions to biblical passages. Philological studies reveal significant stylistic, phraseological and lexical differences between the psalms, which suggests that they belong to different authors. Although the manuscript dates back to the 1st century. BC BC, the discovery of fragments of these psalms in another cave suggests that the Roll of Hymns is not the original, but a copy of an earlier manuscript. Damascus Document (Sefer brit Dammesek - Book of the Damascus Covenant), a work that presents the views of the sect that left Judea and moved to the “land of Damascus” (if the name is taken literally). The existence of the work has been known since 1896 from two fragments discovered in the Cairo Geniza. Significant fragments of this work were found at Qumran, allowing one to get an idea of ​​its structure and content. The Qumran version is an epitomized version of a more extensive prototype. The introductory part contains exhortations and warnings addressed to members of the sect, and polemics with its opponents. It also contains some historical information about the sect itself. After 390 years (cf. Ech. 4:5) from the day of the destruction of the First Temple, “out of Israel and Aaron” the “planted seed” sprouted, that is, a sect arose, and after another 20 years the Teacher of righteousness appeared (1:11; in 20 :14 he is called more ha-yachid - “the only teacher” or “teacher of the one”; or, if you read ha-yahad - “teacher of the /Qumran/ community”, who united those who accepted his teaching into the “new testament”. At the same time, the Preacher of Lies appeared, a “mocker” who led Israel along the wrong path, as a result of which many members of the community apostatized from the “new covenant” and left it. When the influence of apostates and opponents of the sect increased, those remaining faithful to the covenant left the holy city and fled to the “land of Damascus.” Their leader was the “lawgiver who expounds the Torah,” who established the laws of life for those who “entered into the new covenant in the land of Damascus.” These laws are valid until the appearance of the “Teacher of Righteousness at the end of days.” The “men of mockery” who followed the Preacher of Lies apparently refers to the Pharisees who “made a fence for the Torah.” The Torah was initially inaccessible: it was sealed and hidden in the Ark of the Covenant until the time of the high priest Zadok, whose descendants were “chosen in Israel”, that is, they have an indisputable right to the high priesthood. Now the Temple has been desecrated, and therefore those who entered into the “new covenant” should not even approach it. “People of mockery” have profaned the Temple, do not observe the laws of ritual purity prescribed by the Torah, and rebel against the commands of God. The second part of the essay is devoted to the laws of the sect and its structure. The laws include regulations on the Sabbath, the altar, the place for prayer, the “temple city,” idolatry, ritual purity, etc. Some of the laws correspond to generally accepted Jewish ones, others are the opposite of them and are similar to those adopted by the Karaites and Samaritans, with a pronounced general tendency to rigorism. The organization of the sect is characterized by the division of members into four classes: priests, Levites, the rest of Israel, and proselytes. The names of sect members must be included in special lists. The sect is divided into “camps,” each of which is headed by a priest, followed in rank by a “supervisor” (ha-mevaker), whose functions include guiding and instructing the members of the sect. There appears to have been a distinction between those who lived in the "camps" as actual members of the community and those who "lived in the camps by the law of the land," which perhaps meant community members living in villages. The work is written in biblical Hebrew, free of Aramaicisms. Sermons and teachings are composed in the spirit of ancient midrashim. The images of the Teacher of Righteousness and the Preacher of Lies are found in a number of other works of Qumran literature. It is possible that the sect described here was an offshoot of the Qumran one and that the composition reflects later events than the Charter of the community. On the other hand, "Damascus" can be understood metaphorically as a designation for the deserts of Judea (cf. Amos 5:27). If the name Damascus is taken literally, then the event of flight could only relate to the time when Jerusalem and Damascus were not under the rule of one ruler, that is, to the time of the Hasmoneans: in this case, the most likely is the reign of Alexander Janna (103-76 BC) . BC), during which, after the defeat in the civil war, Alexander's opponents and many of the Pharisees and circles close to them fled from Judea. The Temple Scroll (Megillat ha-Mikdash), one of the most important Qumran finds, is the longest manuscript discovered (8.6 m, 66 columns of text) and dates from the 2nd-1st centuries. BC e. The work claims to be part of the Torah given by God to Moses: God appears here in the first person, and the Tetragrammaton is always written in full form and in the same square script that the Qumran scribes used only when copying biblical texts. The essay treats four topics: halakhic regulations (see Halacha), religious holidays, the structure of the Temple and regulations regarding the king. The halakhic section contains a significant number of regulations, which are not only arranged in a different order than in the Torah, but also include additional laws, often of a sectarian and polemical nature, as well as regulations similar to, but often divergent from, the Mishnaic ones (see Mishnah). Numerous laws on ritual purity reveal a much more strict approach than that adopted in the Mishnah. In the section on holidays, along with detailed instructions relating to the holidays of the traditional Jewish calendar, there are instructions for two additional holidays - New Wine and New Oil (the latter is also known from other Dead Sea manuscripts), which should be celebrated respectively 50 and 100 days after the holiday Shavu'ot. The section on the Temple is written in the style of the chapters of the book of Exodus (chapter 35 and subsequent), telling about the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, and, in all likelihood, is intended to serve as a filler for the “lost” instructions about the construction of the Temple given by God to David (I Chron. 28: 11 ff). The temple is interpreted as a man-made structure that must exist until God erects His temple not made by hands. The plan of the Temple, the ritual of sacrifice, holiday rites and the rules of ritual purity in the Temple and in Jerusalem as a whole are interpreted in detail. The last section establishes the number of the royal guard (twelve thousand people, one thousand from each tribe of Israel); the task of this guard is to protect the king from an external enemy; it must be made up of “people of truth, fearing God and hating self-interest” (cf. Ref. 18:21). Next, mobilization plans are established depending on the degree of threat to the state from the outside. The commentary on Havakkuk is the most complete and well-preserved example of Qumran biblical interpretation, based on the application of biblical texts to the situation of the “end of times” (see Eschatology), the so-called pesher. The word pesher appears only once in the Bible (Eccl. 8:1), but in the Aramaic part of the book of Daniel the similar Aramaic word pshar is used 31 times and refers to Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and the inscription that appeared on the wall during the feast of Belshazzar (see Belshazzar) , as well as to the angels' interpretation of Daniel's night vision. Pesher goes beyond ordinary human wisdom and requires Divine illumination to reveal the secret, which is denoted by a word of Iranian origin once (occurring nine times in the book of Daniel). Both pesher and raz represent Divine revelation and cannot be understood without pesher: raz is the first stage of revelation, remaining a mystery until the second stage, pesher, comes. These two terms are widespread in Qumran literature (in the Hymn Roll, in the Damascus Document, in numerous biblical commentaries, etc.). Three main principles of the Qumran interpretation: 1) God revealed his intentions to the prophets, but did not reveal the time of their fulfillment, and further revelation was first given to the Teacher of righteousness (see above); 2) all the words of the prophets refer to the “end of times”; 3) the end of times is approaching. The historical context that clarifies Bible prophecy is the reality in which the commentator lived. Havakkuk's description of the Chaldeans (1:6-17) is here appended phrase by phrase to the kittim (apparently Romans) who are seen as God's instruments of punishment for unbelief, particularly the wickedness of the Jerusalem high priests; the kittim will deprive these high priests of the priestly throne they have usurped. Other parts of the Commentary apply the words of the prophet to the religious-ideological conflicts in Judea itself, primarily to the conflict between the Teacher of Righteousness and the Preacher of Lies, or the Unholy Priest. In cases where Hawakkuq's text does not allow direct extrapolation, the commentator resorts to allegorical interpretation. Other Qumran commentaries include: Commentary on verse 1:5 by the prophet Micah, “Who built the high places in Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?", where Jerusalem is interpreted as "a teacher of righteousness who teaches the law to his community and to all who are ready to be included in the list of God's chosen ones"; the so-called Testimonies, in which Ex. 20:21, Num. 24:15-17 and Deut. 33:8-11 are interpreted as referring respectively to the eschatological prophet, prince and high priest, and Yehoshua bin Nun's curse on "the rebuilder of Jericho" is interpreted as referring to the "son of Bliya'al" (apparently one of the Jerusalem high priests) and his two sons . Messianic interpretations of biblical and apocryphal texts are also contained in the so-called Florelegium and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (see above). The War of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness (Megillat milchemet bnei or bi-vnei hosheh; nineteen columns of Hebrew text) - a manuscript discovered in 1947 in cave No. 1; during a survey of the Qumran caves in 1949, two additional manuscript fragments were found in the same cave; Several more fragments of another list were found in cave No. 4. The work presents instructions regarding the coming eschatological war lasting 40 years, which will end with the victory of righteousness embodied in the sons of light over vice, the carriers of which are the sons of darkness. Equally, the work is a midrash to the book of Daniel (11:40ff), which details how the last great enemy of God's people will be crushed (Dan. 11:45). In the first stage of the war, which would last six years, the Kittim (presumably the Romans) would be defeated and expelled first from Syria and then from Egypt, after which the purity of the temple service in Jerusalem would be restored. In the remaining 29 years (since hostilities will be suspended every seventh year) the remaining enemies of Israel will be defeated: first the descendants of Shem, then the descendants of Ham, and finally the descendants of Japheth. War is conceived on the model of the ancient institution of holy wars. The sacred nature of war is emphasized by the mottos inscribed on the trumpets and banners of the sons of light; in particular, on the banner carried at the head of the army, there will be the inscription “people of God” (3:13; cf. the official title of Shim’on Hasmonean “prince of the people of God” - sar ‘am El, I Macc. 14:28). Like Judah Maccabee, who encouraged his soldiers before battle by reminding them of how God helped their ancestors in similar circumstances by destroying the army of Sancherib (II Macc. 8:19), the author of the work recalls the victory of David over Goliath. Just as Judah Maccabee and his soldiers, returning from the battlefield, sang psalms of praise (I Macc. 14:24), the author of the work instructs the high priest, kohanim and Levites to bless those going into battle (10:1 ff.), and the soldiers after battles sing a hymn of thanksgiving (14:4 ff.). As befits a holy war, the priests are given a special role: they are prescribed special vestments during battle, in which they accompany the fighters in order to strengthen their courage; they must give battle signals with their trumpets. Kohens, however, should not be in the thick of battle, so as not to defile themselves by touching the dead (9:7-9). Ritual purity must be observed in the strictest manner: just as physical defect makes a person unfit for temple service, in the same way it makes him unfit for participation in war; During military operations, soldiers are forbidden to engage in sexual intercourse, etc. (7:3-8). Although war is conceived according to the ancient model of holy war, detailed instructions on the method of conducting combat operations, tactics, weapons, etc. partly reflect the author’s contemporary military practice. However, the entire course of the war is completely subordinated to the pattern predetermined by God. At the same time, it is obvious that the author familiarized himself with contemporary manuals on military affairs. The military formation prescribed by him resembles the Roman triplex acies, and the weapons are the equipment of the Roman legionaries of the era of Caesar (from the works of Josephus it is known that the Jewish rebels, when preparing and arming fighters, took the Roman army as a model). The Copper Scroll (Megillat ha-nechoshet) is a document, variously dated by scholars (30-135 AD), written on three plates of soft copper alloy, fastened with rivets and rolled into a scroll (length 2.46 m, width about 39 cm) : During rolling, one row of rivets broke and the remaining part was rolled separately. The text is minted (about ten mints per letter) on the inside of the scroll. The only way to read the document was to cut the scroll into transverse strips; the operation was carried out in 1956 (four years after the scroll was found) at the Manchester Institute of Technology, and with such care that no more than 5% of the text was damaged. The document is written in colloquial Mishnaic Hebrew and contains about three thousand characters. A French translation was published in 1959 by J. T. Milik; transcription and English translation with commentary - in 1960 by D. M. Allegro (Russian translation of the English edition was published in 1967); The official publication of the text with a facsimile, translation, introduction and commentary was carried out by Milik in 1962. The contents of the manuscript are an inventory of treasures with their burial places. The document is of significant interest from the point of view of toponomics and topography of ancient Judea and allows us to identify a number of areas mentioned in ancient historical sources. The total weight of the gold and silver treasures listed in the scroll is about one hundred forty or even two hundred tons, according to various estimates. If the treasures listed are real, it can be assumed that the scroll contains a list of treasures from the Temple and other places rescued by the defenders of Jerusalem in the final stages of the war against the Romans (see Jewish War I). It is typical that among the hidden treasures are incense, valuable wood, tithe jars, etc. The use of such a durable material as copper allows us to conclude that the listed treasures are real (according to Allegro). Just because a document was found at Qumran does not necessarily mean it belonged to the Qumran community. There is an assumption that the Qumran caves were used by the Zealots or their allies, the Edomites, who may have hidden the document here when the Romans approached. Other documents of the Qumran community include the Charter of Blessings (Sereh ha-brakhot), the so-called Angelic Liturgy, or Songs of the Sabbath Burnt Offering (Sereh shirot olat ha-Shabbat), the Priestly Orders (Mishmarot) and other texts, as well as numerous minor fragments. Many materials from Qumran are still being deciphered and awaiting publication. Murabba'at manuscripts. In 1951, a group of local Bedouins invited the Rockefeller Museum to purchase fragments of parchment manuscripts in Hebrew and Greek in its possession. Following these finds, in 1952, under the leadership of R. de Vaux and J. L. Harding, an expedition was equipped to examine four caves where the fragments were found. During the expedition, a significant amount of handwritten materials was discovered. In 1955, local shepherds discovered a scroll in a previously unexplored cave containing a significant part of the Hebrew text from the 12 biblical books of the Minor Prophets. Manuscript materials discovered in the caves of Wadi Murabba'at include texts dating from the 8th to 7th centuries. BC e. and up to the Arab period. The oldest written monument is a papyrus palimpsest (twice used sheet), which was originally, apparently, a letter (`...[name] tells you: I send greetings to your family. Now, don’t believe the words that tell you... .`), on top of the washed-out text is a list of four lines, each of which contains a personal name and numbers (apparently, the amount of tax paid); the document is written in Phoenician (Paleo-Hebrew) script. The most numerous and interesting materials date back to the Roman period, when the caves served as a refuge for participants in the Bar Kokhba uprising. The caves appear to have been the last refuge of the rebels who died here at the hands of the Romans; some of the manuscripts were damaged during the enemy invasion. Manuscripts from this period include fragments on parchment of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy and the books of Isaiah. The biblical fragments belong to the proto-Masoretic text. Among the finds are tefillin of the type that became accepted from the beginning of the 2nd century. n. BC, in contrast to fragments of an earlier type that included the Ten Commandments that were found at Qumran. Fragments of a liturgical nature in Hebrew and a literary nature in Greek were discovered. A significant portion of the manuscript material consists of business documents (contracts and bills of sale) in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, most dating to the years leading up to the Bar Kokhba revolt and the years of the revolt. Of particular interest are the letters from the rebels, including two letters in Hebrew signed by the leader of the uprising, Shim'on ben Koseva (that is, Bar Kokhba). One of the letters reads: “From Shimon ben Koseva to Yehoshua ben Galgole [apparently the leader of the local rebels] and to the people of his fortress [?] - peace! I call heaven to witness that if any of the Galileans who are with you are ill-treated, I will put your feet in shackles... Sh. K. himself.” Second letter: “Peace from Shimon Yehoshua ben Galgole! Know that you must prepare five cows of grain to be sent through [the members of] my household. So prepare a place for each of them to spend the night. Let them stay with you all Saturday. Make sure that the heart of each of them is filled with contentment. Be brave and encourage courage among the locals. Shalom! I have ordered that those who give you their grain should bring it the day after the Sabbath.” One early Aramaic document (55 or 56 CE) contains the name of the Emperor Nero written in such a way (נרון קסר) to form the apocalyptic number 666 (see Gematria). Manuscript materials from the Murabba'ata caves indicate that the population of Judea of ​​this period, as in the Herodian era, was trilingual, using Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek with equal ease. In Khirbet Mirda, as a result of excavations (1952-53), fragments of New Testament and apocryphal literature, business documents, fragments of the tragedy of Euripides and other manuscripts were found, mainly in Greek and Syriac, as well as in Arabic (4-8 centuries) . A number of important manuscripts (biblical fragments, letters of Bar Kokhba) were also discovered in Nahal Hever, Nahal Mishmar and Nahal Tze'elim (see. Bar Kokhba's revolt; Judean Desert caves).

Preface 3

The Qumran scrolls are commonly called ancient manuscripts that were found in 1947 on the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea in the caves of Wadi Qumran, Wadi Murabba'ata, Ain Fashkhi and Masada. The first scrolls were discovered in 1947 in one of the Qurman caves; later archaeologists examined 200 caves in the Qumran area and in 11 of them they found about 40 thousand manuscripts of various sizes, written mainly in Old Hebrew and Aramaic. These were the remains of an ancient manuscript library, which numbered about 600 books, of which 11 were preserved almost completely. It has been established that, starting from the 2nd century BC. e. and until the first third of the 2nd century AD. e. A Jewish sect, apparently the Essenes, lived in Qumran, to whom this library belonged. Based on their content, the Qumran manuscripts are divided into biblical books (two versions of the book of Isaiah, the book of Job, Psalms, Leviticus, etc.), documents of the sect itself (“Charter of the community”, “War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness”, Hymns, Commentaries on Habakkuk , Nahum, Hosea, etc.), business documents (letters from the leader of the uprising against Rome in 132-135, Bar Kochba, his notes, etc.)

Thus, in the first half of the twentieth century we had, without a doubt, a highly accurate text of the Old Testament. The differences between the Masoretic texts, the Targums, the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint sometimes seemed quite large at first glance, but overall they had virtually no impact on the general understanding of the meaning of the biblical text. Yet sometimes scholars wished for a clearer guideline by which they could choose among several options, especially where the Masoretic text did not inspire confidence and the Septuagint seemed to offer a more acceptable solution. In 1947, a major event occurred that solved many problems of this kind and provided almost fantastic confirmation of the accuracy of our current Jewish biblical text.

In early 1947, a young Bedouin, Muhammad Ad-Dib, was looking for his missing goat in the area of ​​the Qumran caves, west of the Dead Sea (about 12 km south of the city of Jericho). His gaze fell on a rare-shaped hole in one of the steep rocks, and the happy thought came to him to throw a stone there.

In these caves of Qumran, near the Dead Sea, many ancient biblical manuscripts were found in 1947.

To his surprise, he heard the sound of breaking pottery. Having examined the hole, which turned out to be the entrance to the cave, the Bedouin saw several large jugs on the floor; Later it turned out that they contained very ancient leather scrolls. Although research has shown that the scrolls had been in the jars for about 1,900 years, they were in amazingly good condition because the jars were carefully sealed.

The Qumran scrolls were kept in such clay vessels. Along with the manuscripts of the Essenes sect, fragments and entire scrolls of biblical books were found. These Qumran scrolls confirm the fantastic accuracy of the Hebrew text of the Bible. Fragments of all the books of the Old Testament were discovered except the book of Esther.

Five scrolls from Cave No. 1, as it is now called, were, after many adventures, sold to the archbishop of an Orthodox Syrian monastery in Jerusalem, the other three to Professor Sukenik of the local Jewish university. At first, this discovery was generally kept silent, but by a lucky coincidence, in February 1948, the archbishop (who did not speak Hebrew at all) let scientists know about “his” treasure.

After the end of the Arab-Israeli war, the world quickly learned of the greatest archaeological discovery ever made in Palestine. During subsequent surveys of the area, manuscripts were discovered in ten more caves. It turned out that all of these caves were connected to a nearby ancient fortification, possibly dating back to around 100 BC. was created by the Jewish sect of the Essenes. The Essenes moved with their extensive library into the desert, to the fortification of Khirbet Qumran, probably fearing the invasion of the Romans (which followed in 68 AD). Cave No. 1 alone probably originally contained at least 150-200 scrolls, while Cave No. 4 yielded fragments of more than 380 scrolls. Subsequently, biblical scrolls dating back to the second century AD were also found in the Murabbaet caves, southeast of Bethlehem. Biblical scrolls discovered in 1963-65 during excavations at Massada, a fortification in the Judean Desert, also turned out to be valuable.

The most important of the Qumran finds are the famous scroll of Isaiah A, discovered in cave No. 1, the oldest complete Hebrew book of the Bible that has come down to us, dating back to the second century BC, as well as a commentary on the book of the minor prophet Habakkuk and an incomplete scroll of Isaiah B. In the cave No. 4, among other things, a fragment of the book of Kings of the 4th (!) century BC was discovered. - probably the oldest existing fragment of the Hebrew Bible. From cave No. 11 in 1956, a well-preserved scroll of Psalms, a miraculous scroll with part of the book of Leviticus and the Aramaic Targum of Job were recovered. Overall, the finds are so extensive that the collection covers all the books of the Bible (except Esther)! Thus, scientists got their hands on something they never dreamed of: a large part of the Hebrew Bible, which is on average a thousand years older than the Masoretic texts.

And what came to light? These ancient scrolls provided stunning evidence of the authenticity of the Masoretic texts. In principle, it is even difficult to believe that the text copied by hand has undergone so few changes over a thousand years. Take the scroll of Isaiah A for example: it is 95% identical to the Masoretic text, while the remaining 5% are minor errors or differences in spelling.

Part of an excellently preserved complete scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Today the scroll is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

And where the Qumran manuscripts diverged from the Masoretic text, their coincidence was revealed either with the Septuagint or with the Samaritan Pentateuch. The Qumran scrolls also confirmed various amendments to later texts proposed by scholars. It is not difficult to imagine that as a result of these discoveries, a whole new scientific direction arose, generating a large stream of literature and producing more and more amazing discoveries.

Let us not forget one of the important areas on which the Qumran findings had a serious impact: the camp of Bible critics. We will look at these questions in more detail in chapters 7 and 8. For example, the scroll of Isaiah B simply sweeps off the table many of the arguments that critics have made about the issue of the origin of this book. This concerns both theories about the time when this book was written, and claims that it is a collection of works by many authors. Of course, we must not lose sight of the fact that the books of the Bible, copies of which were discovered at Qumran, were first written down on paper hundreds of years earlier. As a rule, there was a significant period of time between the writing of a book and its widespread popularity and inclusion in the Holy Scriptures. Added to this is the slow pace of text transmission - due to the difficult, time-consuming instructions of the scribes. This also applies to the book of Daniel and some of the Psalms, which some critics once claimed did not originate until the second century B.C. The Isaiah scroll dates back to the second century BC, so the original must have been written several centuries earlier. This will refute a number of theories that claim that certain parts of the book of Isaiah were written in the third or even second century BC. Bernard Doom even wrote in 1892 that the final version of the book of Isaiah did not appear until the first century BC.

The discovery of the Isaiah scroll was also a bitter pill for liberal critics, who believed that chapters 40-66 of this book did not come from the pen of Isaiah, but were added much later by an unknown prophet (Isaiah the Second) or even - in part - by Isaiah the Third, who then he added them to the book of the prophet Isaiah. But it turned out that in the scroll of Isaiah, chapter 40 is not even highlighted with a new interval, although this was quite possible (moreover, chapter 40 begins in the last line of the column!). But such an interval can be found between chapters 33 and 34, i.e. right in the middle of the book. It consists of three blank lines and divides the book into two equal parts. In addition, both parts of the book differ in the structure of the text: either the scribe used different originals to copy the first and second parts of the book, or the work was carried out simultaneously by two scribes with different handwriting characteristics (probably this happened often). Therefore, the complete absence of such a separator between the 39th and 40th chapters is even more striking. Among all the arguments against the “theory of two Isaiahs,” the decisive one is the fact that nowhere among the Jews is there any reference to several authors of this book. On the contrary, even the apocryphal book of Jesus, son of Sirach (about 200 BC), in ch. 48, 23-28 attributes the entire book to the prophet Isaiah, directly pointing to chapters 40, 46 and 48!

The material we have presented again shows the enormous importance of the Qumran scrolls: they are of greatest importance for the study of the texts of the Old Testament. The oldest parts of our current Hebrew Bible are 3,400 years old, perhaps even older. And yet we have sufficient grounds to be confident that the text in our hands completely coincides with the ancient original. We have seen on what this firm confidence is based: (1) on minor differences in the Masoretic texts, (2) on the almost absolute coincidence of almost the entire Septuagint with the Masoretic text, (3) on the coincidence (in general terms) with the Samaritan Pentateuch, (4) on thousands of fragments of manuscripts from the Cairo genitsa, (5) on the clear, pedantic rules of the scribes who copied the texts by hand, and, finally, (6) on the convincing confirmation of the authenticity of the Hebrew text by the Qumran scrolls. The starting point of our reasoning was the question: “Who gave us the Old Testament?” Behind all the people who took part in writing and transmitting this book to descendants, we see the hand of God who created all of humanity (see chapters 5-6).

Until now, we ourselves have spoken about the reliability of the text that has reached us. Of course, the question of the reliability of the content of the text in the light of modern historical, archaeological and natural science discoveries still remains open. We believe that in these areas the Old Testament can delight us with the same wonderful discoveries. We'll talk about this later.

3. Who gave us the New Testament?

Monastery of St. Catherine is located in the very center of the Sinai desert. Here Tischendorff discovered his most famous manuscript, the Codex Sinaiticus.

In previous chapters we saw that the Bible consists of two parts, between which there is a clear distinction: the Old Testament (or Book of the Covenant) contains the story of the creation of the world and the history of the people of Israel up to about the 4th-3rd century BC, and the New Testament - biography of Jesus Christ, the history of the emergence of the first Christian communities and messages addressed to them. Both parts of the Bible have their own history of origin: the lion's share of the Old Testament was written by Jews - the Old Testament is at the same time the holy book of the Jews, and Christians are responsible for the origin and transmission of the New Testament.

In this chapter we want to explore the question of the origin of the New Testament - just as we did in the previous chapter with the Old Testament: how did the books that make it up come about? How were they put together? What manuscripts of the New Testament do we have? Are there other means to confirm the authenticity of its text? How have attempts been made to reconstruct the original text, and how reliable is our New Testament today?