Qumran and the People of the Scrolls
In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd named Muhammed edh-Dhib tossed a stone into a cave opening in the jagged cliffs overlooking the Dead Sea. He wasn't looking for history; he was looking for a lost goat. Instead of a bleat, he heard the sound of breaking pottery. That shattering jar opened the door to the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century: the Dead Sea Scrolls. While the scrolls themselves, comprising the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, rightfully capture the world's attention, the setting in which they were found is equally profound. To understand why these documents exist, we must look at the desolate ruin known as Qumran and the mysterious "Sons of Light" who lived there. The ruins of Qumran sit on a dry plateau on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank. Geographically, it is a place of extremes. It is located roughly 1,300 feet below sea level, making it the lowest point on the surface of the planet. The landsca...