The caves
About nine hundred manuscripts from the Judean Desert, mostly 3rd century BCE to 1st century CE. Every Hebrew Bible book the caves copied is named here, and you can read it in the English already on the shelf. The photographs of the fragments open in the Leon Levy library. This is a resource for study. The Holy Bible on the shelf is still the text.
English of the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Temple Scroll, the hymns, and the Copper Scroll is still under copyright, so it is not copied here. Esther was not in the caves. The New Testament was not either.
1QIsaa · Cave 1 · about 125 BCE
The only nearly complete ancient copy of a biblical book. Fifty-four columns, all sixty-six chapters of Isaiah, a thousand years older than the medieval Hebrew Bibles. It is kept at the Shrine of the Book, so you turn it there.
1QIsaa 53 · The same scroll
The servant song, as it was copied at Qumran. The words you read in Isaiah are this text.
11Q20 · Cave 11 · about the 1st century BCE
The longest of the scrolls. It sets out a temple, its festivals, and a law the community treated as given by God. The English people quote is still under copyright. This photograph is a cave copy; the long scroll turns at the museum.
1Q33 · Cave 1 · late 1st century BCE
A liturgy of the last war, the sons of light against the sons of darkness, set beside Ezekiel 38. The English is still copyrighted.
1QpHab · Cave 1 · later 1st century BCE
Habakkuk 1–2 copied paragraph by paragraph, then explained as the community’s own time. The Teacher of Righteousness and the Wicked Priest are not named outright.
1Q28 · Cave 1 · about 100–75 BCE
How the community took in members, ate, prayed, and understood light and darkness. Often called the Manual of Discipline. The cave copy sits with other rules on the same skin. The English is still copyrighted.
Fragments, not new books. The wording you read is the public-domain English. Each name opens the photographs of one real copy.
Also a paleo-Hebrew Exodus.
Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus, and Greek copies.
Deuteronomy was copied often.
Samuel, both books, on one scroll.
The same Samuel scroll.
Kings, both books.
The same Kings scroll.
Besides the Great Isaiah Scroll.
The Twelve, copied as one scroll.
The Twelve.
The Twelve.
The Twelve.
The Twelve.
The Twelve.
The Twelve. A commentary is below.
The Twelve. The commentary is above.
The Twelve.
The Twelve.
The Twelve.
The Twelve.
The Great Psalms Scroll, and many smaller copies.
Chronicles, both books.
The same Chronicles copy.
No copy from the caves.
No separate copy has been identified. Ezra is.
The community’s own books, and older books the Hebrew Bible later left out. Photographs, not a copyrighted English.
4Q427 · Cave 4
Poems of thanks, often in the voice of a teacher. Called the Hodayot. The English is still copyrighted.
1Q20 · Cave 1 · Aramaic
Stories grown out of Genesis, including Abram and Sarai. One of the first seven scrolls. The English is still copyrighted.
4Q252 · Cave 4
Selected stories from Genesis, with notes. Not a full second Genesis.
4Q266 · Cave 4, and the Cairo Geniza
A rule and a history of a community that left the land of Judah for the land of Damascus.
1Q28a · Cave 1
The order of the assembly in the last days, including women and children. Copied with the Community Rule.
3Q15 · Cave 3 · copper, not skin
A list of hiding places for gold, silver, and vessels. It is the only scroll beaten into copper. The English is still copyrighted.
4Q397 · Cave 4
A letter about what separates the community from the Jerusalem priesthood. Scholars connect its phrase “works of the law” with Paul.
4Q401 · Cave 4, Cave 11, and Masada
Songs for the sabbaths of the first quarter, describing angelic worship.
11Q5 · Cave 11
Most of the last third of the Psalms, plus pieces not in the later Hebrew Bible, including a hymn to Zion.
1Q23 · Several caves · Aramaic
A story of the giants, beside the Book of the Watchers. 1 Enoch, which the caves also copied, is already on the shelf.
4Q216 · Caves 1, 2, 3, 4, and 11
Many copies of Jubilees were in the caves. The book retells Genesis and Exodus in jubilee weeks. Charles’s English, 1917, is on the shelf to read.
4Q201 · Cave 4 · Aramaic
The caves held Aramaic copies of Enoch centuries before the Ethiopic Bible. The English on this shelf is Charles, 1917.
4Q196 · Cave 4 · Aramaic and Hebrew
Several copies. Tobit is in the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, not the Protestant one used on the main shelf.
2Q18 · Cave 2, and Masada
Hebrew of the Wisdom of Sirach, a book the later Hebrew Bible left out and the Greek Bible kept.
11Q18 · Several caves · Aramaic
A guided walk through a measured, ideal city. Read it beside the city in Revelation. The English of the scroll is still copyrighted.
4Q246 · Cave 4 · Aramaic
A short, broken text. Someone is called son of God and son of the Most High. Scholars argue who is meant.
4Q521 · Cave 4
A hope that the messiah’s time brings good news to the poor and the dead raised. Luke 7 stands beside it.
11Q13 · Cave 11
Melchizedek at the end of days, releasing captives in a jubilee. The English is still copyrighted.
4Q175 · Cave 4
A single sheet of verses set in a row: Moses, a prophet, a priest, and a blessing. A chain of scripture, not a new book.
4Q174 · Cave 4
Scripture quoted, then applied to the community’s hope. Sometimes called the Florilegium.
4Q169 · Cave 4
Nahum explained as the community’s own century, including names of rulers.
4Q161 · Cave 4
Pieces of Isaiah, then what the community believed they meant.
4Q166 · Cave 4
Hosea quoted, then applied to the community.
4Q171 · Cave 4
Selected psalms, explained as the story of the Teacher and his enemies.
4Q415 · Cave 4, and Cave 1
Wisdom for a student, including the “mystery of what is to be.” The English is still copyrighted.
4Q504 · Cave 4
Prayers for the days of the week, remembering the wilderness.
4Q525 · Cave 4
A wisdom poem of “blessed is…” lines. Read beside Matthew 5. It is not the Sermon on the Mount.
4Q434 · Cave 4
Hymns that open “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Called Barkhi Nafshi.
1Q27 · Cave 1
A broken wisdom text about what the wicked do not know.
4Q242 · Cave 4 · Aramaic
A king of Babylon, ill for seven years, and a Jewish diviner. Read beside Daniel 4. The English is still copyrighted.
4Q543 · Cave 4 · Aramaic
The father of Moses sees two angels who contend for him.
4Q541 · Cave 4 · Aramaic
A figure, often read as a priest, who atones and is opposed. Called the Apocryphon of Levi.
4Q320 · Cave 4
A 364-day year and the turns of the priestly courses. Called Mishmarot.
1Q34 · Cave 1
Prayers appointed to the festivals.
8Hev1 · Nahal Hever, not a Qumran cave
A Greek scroll of the Twelve, found farther south. The Leon Levy library includes it with the Judean Desert finds.
4Q119–122 · Cave 4
Small Greek copies of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Septuagint, in scraps.