By now, unless one has been in a coma since 1947, you have heard of the Dead Sea (or better Qumran) scrolls. The day we visited Qumran in May it was 120F…. and humid, as we are near the lowest point on earth— the Dead Sea. Here it is….
You can just see Jordan through the haze in the distance on the far shore. The Dead Sea is rapidly shrinking, mainly because its main source of in-flow is the Jordan, which is increasingly being used for irrigation by Israel and Jordan. And here are the famous caves in which the Qumran scrolls were found. 
And here is the famous Cave 4 where the Isaiah scroll and many other scrolls were found…
Who were the Jews who populated this community until the Romans killed them or ran them off? 
They were probably the Essenes, a sect which broke off from mainstream Judaism because they were convinced the priesthood and temple was hopelessly compromised, and they believed God’s judgment was coming soon on such wickedness. The community seems to have been started by someone called the Teacher of Righteousness, well before the time of Christ. In any case, they were very devout Jews who copied and wrote scrolls and practiced ritual meals and ritual purification over and over again, preparing for Yom Yahweh, the Day of God’s wrath. They practiced communalism… a sharing in common of goods….
There were numerous cisterns and ritual baths here….
Besides the scrolls, there are few remains of the community…..
Where are the scrolls today? All over the place, though most of the important ones are in the Israeli museum, for example the Isaiah scroll. But the other most famous scroll, the Copper scroll is in Amman, in their new archaeology museum, and I finally got to go see it this trip…..
And they have a few other pieces as well….
In America, you can now see a few fragments at the Museum of the Bible in D.C.
Today, no one is left at Qumran, except the animals, such as this gazelle….look carefully as he blends in well.
And there are a few trees….
It is possible that John the Baptizer was a member of this ascetical community for a while. The same Isaianic theme verse, ‘the voice of one crying, ‘in the wilderness prepare a a highway for our God’ is associated with John and Qumran. But apparently John left the community and went out on his own, practicing a different water ritual— baptism in the Jordan. We will get to visit the place where John probably baptized Jesus, at Bethany beyond the Jordan later in these posts.
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