Conclusion

The evidence of the collection of the biblical manuscripts indicates that a strong possibility exists for the Essenes being the group who deposited the manuscripts in the Qumran caves. This has been indicated by two major factors: their concern for the texts of the Bible and their looking for a Messianic figure.

The texts of the Qumran Cave 4, as noted, showed some very interesting peculiarities. Notable among these was the use of paleo-Hebrew, either for entire documents or for the Tetragrammaton. As noted by Cross, there seems to be nationalistic reasons for the use of this ancient script. Charles Fritsch takes Père de Vaux's archaeological evidences of the site of Khirbet Qumran and presents the following chronology:

1. Indications of Israelite occupation, in the eighth century B.C., unrelated to the community

2. The community.

a. Construction under John Hyrcanus I (135-104 B.C.). Abandoned at or before severe earthquake in spring of 31 B.C.

b. Restoration under Herod Archelaus (4 B.C. to A.D. 6). Destroyed in June, A.D. 68.

c. Occupied by Roman forces until about the end of first century after Christ.

3. Reoccupied by Jewish partisans during the Second Jewish Revolt [Bar Kohba] (A.D. 132-135).

4. Sporadic, temporary encampments in later times, indicated by a few Byzantine and Arab coins.¹

The occupation beginning with 135 B.C. follows closely on the heals of the revolt of the Maccabees against the Greek Selucid ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Following a

humiliating retreat from Egypt in the face of Roman might, Antiochus returned to Palestine with the thought of totally subjugating the peoples there. He forbade the Jews to live in accord with their writings and customs, he forbade them to possess scriptures, he forbade them to circumcise their children, and caused the worship at the temple in Jerusalem to cease and required pagan altars to be set up for the worship of pagan gods.² A priest from the village of Modein refused these commands and began the revolt that became known as the Maccabean revolt. This revolt commenced in 166 B.C.E. and played itself out in 143 B.C.E. with the land of Israel allied with Rome and enjoying religious freedom and a fair amount of political autonomy.

It was shortly after this time that the settlement at Qumran was begun. It arose out of a time of great nationalistic fervor and a strong desire for a leader to overthrow the tyranny of foreign domination. At its beginning the foreign power of memory was the Greek Selucid power; at its end the great oppressor was Rome. This was a community born out of a strong sense of religious identity and eschatological hope. This is reflected in the collection of material that has been found in the caves of Qumran.

The first and most obvious indicator is the fact that there are a number of works that utilize Paeleo-Hebrew. As was mentioned, this script represents a time period before Israel was conquered and dominated by a foreign power. Though there may be several possible explanations for their prescence in the Qumran Library collection,³ it is obvious by their presence that there was a desire to identify with a period of time that represented, in their thinking anyway, a purer time of religious practice. An indication of this is the presence of three manuscripts of the book of Samuel. Samuel is the chronicle of the first two kings of Israel, Saul and David. David, in subsequent books (Old Testament and New Testament) is the historic, military, and theological ideal that all refer back to. The fact that there are more copies of Samuel than the later historic books of Kings and Chronicles is an indicator that whoever put the collection together did so with the thought of looking back to the purer past.

In contrast, it is instructive to note that the biblical books that give the history of the time before the captivities of Assyria and Babylon, Kings and Chronicles, are only represented by one manuscript each. These books chronicle the downfall of the two Jewish kingdoms and are evidence that the time before the captivity was not a time of pure religion but one of corruption and defilement. The balance of the collection equation seems to point to people interested in the period of time of their history that represents the pure, good beginning, before the corruption of the kings that led to the Diaspora.

It is for this reason that it is instructive to note that a number of books that speak of the future hope of Israel are found in greater abundance than those that delineate the corrupt past. As mentioned above, Isaiah is one such book. Also found in Cave 4 were several copies of the books of the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel. Both lived under foreign rule and yet spoke of a future hope. Daniel has several passages that depict a coming Messianic figure (chapters 8, 9, 11, 12). The inclusion of these books in a collection would seem to indicate that the promised future was studied and looked for.

All of this evidence accords well with what we know of the Essenses as reported to us by Josephus, Philo, Pliny, the Rule of Discipline and the Damascus Document. The evidence of the collection evaluation of the Library at Qumran seems to meld well with what we know of this community of Jewish believers whose concern was for religious and ritual purity and who looked for a coming one who would free them from foreign domination and return them to their own rule and worship.

² Josephus goes into great detail over this time period in his Jewish Wars, book XII. So too, the 11th chapter of the book of Daniel.

³ One that has been suggested is that they may be extremely ancient documents that date before the Diaspora of 722/586 B.C.E. More work needs to be done on the orthographic aspects of the text to see if they do indeed represent older documents or are in fact anachronistic uses of the ancient script for nationalistic or religious reasons.