The Temple Scroll

Since the first discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, the faded parchments of Qumran have provided extraordinary insights into the nature of Judaism at the time when Christianity was born. Now, Israeli Archaeologist Yigael Yadin has announced the discovery of a new scroll. Not only is it the longest so far discovered, but it may well prove to be the most important. Unlike the other parchments, which are either copies of Biblical texts or accounts of the history and practices of the Qumran community, the new scroll is a prophetic message, claiming to speak for God himself, that was clearly intended by its author to be incorporated into the Bible.

According to Israeli sources, the scroll was in the possession of a Bethlehem antique dealer for seven years and was seized by the Israeli government after the occupation of the Jordanian city last June. Less than one-tenth of a millimeter thick, the parchment is in extremely fragile condition; insects had begun to gnaw at its fringes, and the outer portion, said Yadin, looked like "melted chocolate." Unrolled, the scroll measures 28 ft. 3 in. in length, more than four feet longer than Qumran's complete scroll of Isaiah.

Law of God. Yadin dates the scroll from 50 B.C. to the beginning of the 1st century A.D., but adds that it might be a copy of a work written earlier during the Second Temple period. "From the external evidence," he says, "it is apparent that the author definitely wanted his scroll to be taken as the law of God." Unlike all other apocryphal writings of the time, the new scroll is written as though the Creator himself is speaking. In other Qumran texts, the word God is written in a distinctive script, a reminder that the sacred name is too holy to pronounce; in the new scroll, the letters for Yahweh are written in the style of the rest of the text.

The new scroll is a series of commands to the people of Israel. Since nearly half of them deal with detailed instructions on the building and ritual maintenance of the temple, Yadin has tentatively named the document the "Temple Scroll." The minute specifications call for the construction of three courts in the form of concentric squares; the two outer courts must each have twelve gates, named for the twelve tribes of Israel. Curiously, it also requires that public toilets should be constructed 1,400 meters northwest of the temple--which, notes Yadin slyly, would situate the lavatories today somewhere near the old Mandelbaum Gate leading to what was Arab Jerusalem.

Wine & Olives. Also contained in the scroll are lengthy statements of halakoth, or religious laws--many of which are found in the Pentateuch, but some new to Biblical scholars. One such regulation, for example, provides for the death penalty for traitors caught spying against the people of Israel. In addition to the annual feast of grains, or Shavuot, the scroll summons the Jewish people to celebrate hitherto unknown feasts of wine and oil following the grape and olive harvests. There are also many sentences insisting upon the need for ritual purity.

Yadin believes that the Temple Scroll was considered part of the Bible by Qumran. The parchment reinforces the scholarly conviction that the Qumran community consisted of ascetic, apocalyptically minded Jews who withdrew from the turmoil of Jerusalem to await the end of the world, and whose zeal to purify their faith in some sense foreshadowed that of Jesus and the early Christians.

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