Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

From the Smithsonian online, Lawler's lengthy article: Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? Resolving the dispute over authorship of the ancient manuscripts could have far-reaching implications for Christianity and Judaism By Andrew Lawler Smithsonian magazine, January 2010 ... [excerpt] Tour guides shepherding the tourists through the modest desert ruins [of Qumran] speak of the scrolls’ origin, a narrative that has been repeated almost since they were discovered more than 60 years ago. Qumran, the guides say, was home to a community of Jewish ascetics called the Essenes, who devoted their lives to writing and preserving sacred texts. They were hard at work by the time Jesus began preaching; ultimately they stored the scrolls in 11 caves before Romans destroyed their settlement in A.D. 68. But hearing the dramatic recitation, Peleg, 40, rolls his eyes. “There is no connection to the Essenes at this site,” he tells me as a hawk circles above in the warming air. He says the scrolls had nothing to do with the settlement. Evidence for a religious community here, he says, is unconvincing. He believes, rather, that Jews fleeing the Roman rampage hurriedly stuffed the documents into the Qumran caves for safekeeping. After digging at the site for ten years, he also believes that Qumran was originally a fort designed to protect a growing Jewish population from threats to the east. Later, it was converted into a pottery factory to serve nearby towns like Jericho, he says. Other scholars describe Qumran variously as a manor house, a perfume manufacturing center and even a tannery. Despite decades of excavations and careful analysis, there is no consensus about who lived there—and, consequently, no consensus about who actually wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. “It’s an enigmatic and confusing site,” acknowledges Risa Levitt Kohn, who in 2007 curated an exhibit about the Dead Sea Scrolls in San Diego. She says the sheer breadth and age of the writings—during a period that intersects with the life of Jesus and the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple in Jerusalem—make Qumran “a powder keg” among normally placid scholars. Qumran has prompted bitter feuds and even a recent criminal investigation. ... Opening on January 22, 2010, the Milwaukee Public Museum is one of a few museums in the United States to present Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures. Limited engagement: Courtesy École biblique et archéologique française de JérusalemDead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures brings together archaeological objects and manuscripts to tell a story 2,000 years in the making. Witness actual Dead Sea Scrolls and other early biblical artifacts to learn how transmission of these early writings has shaped the beliefs of Judaism and Christianity and influenced aspects of Islam. The largest temporary exhibit ever produced by the Milwaukee Public Museum, Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible explores the archaeological history of the Holy Land during the period the Scrolls were written, from the third century BCE through the first century CE. The exhibit also tracks the discovery of the first Scrolls and subsequent realization of their extraordinary significance.