Qumran

Most people may not be aware of the name Qumran but most people have heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Russ and I have watched a DVD college course on the Dead Sea Scrolls so we were interested in seeing this place. Although we were hot and sweaty from being up on Masada, we wanted to stop on the way back toward Jerusalem to see Qumran.

 This is a picture of the first cave where a Bedouin sheepherder found the first of what has come to be known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls". They were fragments of animal skin and metal scrolls recorded shortly after the time of the mortal Jesus Christ, including most of the books of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, as well as rules for a community.

 Once the first scrolls were found, there were other caves explored in the area looking for more. As archaeologists found out about them, they examined more of the area and found the ruins of a community most attribute to "Essenes"- a group of Jews who strove to be more pure than the Jews living in Jerusalem. This is just one of the many ritual baths. There were many places where there were steps down to a place that would be filled with water. The members of the community, primarily men, "purified" themselves several times a day in the water. The water was not particularly clean nor did they use any kind of soap as we might think. It was a ritual to be more clean in the sight of God.