What are the Dead Sea Scrolls, what do they contain, and what is their significance?
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Large collections of fragments and partial texts made by the Tzadok priests (commonly mistaken for Essenes) who were exiled by the Pharisee takeover. The bulk of the collection comes from the centuries before the time of Christ.
Writings were abandoned if the scribe made any error. But they weren’t allowed to destroy them due to being the word of God. The fragments and partial texts can be collated and cross-examined to rule out the errors.
The finds gave us access to books that were later suppressed. The Book of Enoch, for example, is quoted many times in the bible but was excluded from church canon centuries later.
Significantly, the finds also show that very little was changed in the texts for hundreds and hundreds of years. The level of consistency is remarkable. Think of the Dead Sea Scrolls as a soft reset against the encroachment of Pharisees and later churches.
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