Ten years ago, Brigham Young University’s Museum of Art in Provo, Utah, put on display a two-part exhibit titled, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls and The Story of Masada:  Discoveries from the Excavation.  In that same year, 1997, Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies produced a colorful souvenir booklet, Ancient Scrolls from the Dead Sea:  Photographs and Commentary on a Unique Collection of Scrolls, edited by M. Gerald Bradford.

 

I possess this booklet.  And I thoroughly enjoy the high quality pictures and much of the extensive description of this particular exhibit highlighted.  It was the first time that I have ever seen a picture of 5/6Hev 44 Bar Kokhba and the name “Alma” enlarged from the Hebrew scroll.

 

But let me add, in some of the interpretation by the LDS scholars, there is much debate.

 

For instance, M. Gerald Bradford writes, “Some of the biblical texts from Qumran differ significantly from conventional wording and even among themselves.  And there is evidence of additions and deletions in some texts, suggesting that in some instances scribes felt free to alter the texts they were working on.  No list was found in this collection that would indicate which texts the community considered part of the Bible.  Indeed, the evidence suggests that those at Qumran may not have had a clear notion of what constituted an authoritative collection of sacred books” (4).

 

You would find some of Bradford’s premise counter-argued over here in this particular book though I didn’t interact with that subject in the post.

 

Here is a question.  Is the Qumran community similar to early Mormon fundamentalism or current LDS beliefs?

 

Bradford relates, “Certain Qumran scrolls—for example, 1QS Rule of the Community—tell us that the inhabitants of this desert community, like the Essenes, lived in a communal and highly structured social order led by priests, required a probationary period for new members, performed daily acts of ritual purification, allowed common use of property, and ate meals together.  Seeing themselves as the sole possessors of the correct means for interpreting scripture, they prepared themselves for the impending end of the world” (8).

 

In a footnote, he adds, “Stephen E. Robinson see similarities between characteristics of the Qumran community and beliefs and practices associated with early Christianity and reflected currently in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  See his ‘Background for the Testaments,’ Ensign (Dec. 1982), 25-30” (12f8).

 

Even better than this souvenir booklet, I enjoyed reading The Dead Sea Scrolls: Questions & Responses For Latter-Day Saints (FARMS, 2000).

 

With the Dead Sea Scroll materials currently at the Ink & Blood exhibit (a new display added this summer) in Idaho Falls, every Latter-day Saint needs to pick up this slim 93-page paperback authored by Donald W. Parry and Stephen D. Ricks.  It is a handy lay resource not only for LDS but evangelicals like me giving tours, numbering from a couple to almost a half dozen each week, at the Museum of Idaho,  Obviously, there is a HUGE interest.

 

The illustrated book answers seventy LDS questions dispersed throughout eight themes:  Part I:  Description, Discovery, and Disposition of the Dead Sea Scrolls; Part II:  The Writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls; Part III:  Translation and Publication Information; Part IV:  The Dead Sea Scrolls and Modern Technology; Part V:  The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Old Testament; Part VI:  The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament; Part VII:  Specific Texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls; and Part VIII:  Specific Insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 

And if you want to explore more, pick up the book recommended by Don Parry, The Dead Sea Scrolls: What Have We Learned? (Westminster John Knox Press, 2006) by Eileen M. Schuller.  Eileen footnotes the work of Don in the opening introduction.

 

Friends, get over to the Museum of Idaho now.  You won’t regret it.  Give me a call, and I will try to join you if my schedule permits.  Some have driven 600 miles to see this.  The exhibit, Ink & Blood, closes in two weeks and will then be removed from the Intermountain West.  You can’t miss out on this opportunity.