| 1947
|
-- [Feb ?] Bedouin
shepherd finds 7 scrolls in jars in cave above Khirbet Qumran. |
|
-- [March] British
barricade Jewish settlements in Jerusalem to contain incidents of violence. |
|
-- [April] Ta'amireh
Bedouin take scrolls to Bethlehem antiquities dealer (Kando)
who shows them to the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem (Athanasius
Yeshue Samuel) who purchases 4 of them (including the Isaiah scroll [above],
Habakkuk commentary, Genesis Apocryphon & the Community Rule) for
about $250. |
|
-- [Nov.] Another Bethlehem antiquities dealer (Feidi Salahi) shows 2
other scrolls to Hebrew University Prof. Eliezer Sukenik. |
|
-- [Nov. 29] United
Nations votes to partition Palestine between Arabs & Jews. |
|
-- [Dec.] Sukenik buys 3
scrolls (another Isaiah scroll, the War scroll, & Hodayoth)
from Salahi. |
| 1948 |
-- [Jan.] Sukenik sees
Archbishop Samuel's scrolls but fails to arrange purchase. |
|
-- [Feb.] Syrian Orthodox
monk shows Isaiah scroll to John C. Trevor at American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) center in Jerusalem who, with
ASOR colleague William Brownlee, photographs &
identifies it . |
|
-- [Mar.] American archaeologist, William F. Albright, confirms
Trevor's identification of Isaiah scroll as the oldest known Hebrew manuscript.
-- Archbishop Samuel gives ASOR director Millar Burrows
rights to publicize scrolls & takes scrolls to Beirut as violence between Arabs &
Jews increases. |
|
-- [Apr. 11] Burrows issues press release
announcing the discovery of the scrolls. |
|
-- [May 15] British leave
Palestine. Jews establish state of Israel & repel Arab attacks. |
|
-- Trevor describes "The
Discovery of the Scrolls" in Biblical Archaeologist 11 (46-68).
-- Prof. Sukenik publishes portions of his scrolls, identifying the authors as Essenes.
-- G. L. Harding, British director of antiquities
for Jordan, launches search for scroll caves with aid of Jordan's Arab Legion. |
| 1949 |
-- [Feb.] Harding
authorizes Roland de Vaux of French Dominican
l'Ecole Biblique to survey Cave 1 where the first 7 scrolls had been discovered. Many
more fragments recovered, including original Hebrew versions of Jubilees &
the Testament of Levi. |
|
-- Archbishop Samuel brings 4
scrolls to U.S. to try to raise money for Palestinian refugees & publishes account of
his purchase in Biblical Archaeologist 12 (26-31). Scrolls displayed in American
museums through 1951. |
| 1950 |
-- French
scholar, André Dupont-Sommer, publishes his Preliminary Views on the
Dead Sea Manuscripts, identifying them as the product of Essenes & suggesting
that they were composed at the still unexcavated site of Khirbet Qumran.
-- Skeptical historian, Solomon Zeitlin, challenges
"The Alleged Antiquity of the Scrolls" & claims they were forgeries (Jewish
Quarterly Review 40-41).
-- W. F. Albright engages Zeitlin in public debate in Philadelphia presenting persuasive
arguments for the authenticity of the scrolls based on external evidence .
-- Trevor publishes photos of Isaiah scroll & a commentary on Habakkuk (1QpHab). |
| 1951 |
-- Burrows & Brownlee
publish text of 1QS as Manual of Discipline (1951).
-- Harding locates Kando & agrees to purchase all scrolls he can get from Bedouin. |
|
-- [Nov.] Fr. R. de Vaux
begins excavation of Khirbet Qumran. |
| 1952 |
-- [Feb.] Bedouin
discover 30 fragments of other scrolls in Cave 2, including Jubilees & the ben
Sirach in the original Hebrew. |
|
-- [March] Teams from
ASOR explore other caves. Copper scroll found in Cave 3. |
|
-- [Sept.] Kando sells De
Vaux a large pile of fragments from another cave.
-- Jordanian consortium seeks funds from foreign museums & universities to purchase
more scrolls.
-- De Vaux locates Cave 4 less than 200 yards from Khirbet Qumran. 15000 of fragments of
574 mss. found including Aramaic versions 1 Enoch & Tobit, a scroll
of Samuel that was closer to the Greek Septuagint than the official Hebrew text &
fragments of a copy of the Damascus Covenant, a text that had been discovered in
1896 in the geniza of old Cairo synagogue.
-- Nearby Caves 5 & 6 yield fragments of other copies of the Damascus Covenant. |
| 1953 |
-- R. de Vaux's lectures to the
British Academy on his Qumran excavations support Dupont-Sommer's hypothesis that the
scrolls were written in its "scriptorium" by Essenes.
-- Harding assembles international team of 8 scholars to work on scrolls in east
Jerusalem:
from U.S.: Frank Moore Cross (McCormick) & Patrick Skehan (Catholic U);
from U.K.: John Allegro (Manchester) & John Strugnell (Oxford)
from France: Dominique Barthélemy & Jean Starcky
from Germany: Claus-Hunno Hunziger (Göttingen).
from Poland: Josef T. Milik.
De Vaux named project director. |
| 1954 |
-- Sukenik's son, Yigael Yadin, in the U.S. arranges covert purchase of
Archbishop Samuel's 4 scrolls for $250,000.
-- Chaim Rabin (Oxford) re-edits the fragments of the
Zadokite Document |
| 1955 |
-- [Feb.] Yadin returns
to Israel reuniting the 7 original scrolls. |
|
-- [May] Literary critic Edmund
Wilson publishes article in the New Yorker arguing Dupont-Sommer's
observation of parallels between the figure of the Teacher of Righteousness & Jesus
indicated that Christian ideas were borrowed from the scrolls. |
|
-- Barthélemy & Milik
publish the fragments of Cave 1.
-- Caves 7-10 south of Qumran yield other mss.
-- Allegro (of Manchester U) enlists Manchester College of Science & Technology's aid
in opening the Copper scroll. Sends preliminary transcriptions listing huge buried
treasure to de Vaux. |
| 1956 |
-- Allegro publishes The
Dead Sea Scrolls, announcing that the Copper scroll contained "an inventory of
the the sect's most precious possessions" (183).
-- De Vaux & Harding issue statement to French Academy dismissing the Copper scroll's
buried treasure as a fiction, incompatible with Essene communal economy.
-- Rabin publishes article suggesting that the Copper scroll was written by zealots who
buried the Temple treasure.
-- In BBC broadcast Allegro claims to have found evidence that Qumran sect worshipped a
crucified Messiah & suggests that Christians borrowed this story.
-- De Vaux, Milik, Starcky, Skehan & Strugnell send letter to London Times
challenging Allegro.
-- Allegro retracts claims & admits they were based on his interpretation rather than
on text.
-- Genesis Apocryphon unrolled at Hebrew U & published by Yadin.
-- De Vaux's team of scholars complete reconstruction & photographing of fragments of
scrolls from Cave 4.
-- Bedouin sell Kando 7 scrolls from Cave 11 who sells 6 of them to the Palestine
Archaeological Museum which in turn auctions them to European & American institutions |
| 1957 |
-- Jewish
scholar, Cecil Roth, proposes "A Solution to the Mystery of the
Scrolls" (Commentary 24) identifying the authors as followers of the zealot
leader, Menachem, who was executed in Jerusalem by other Judean rebels in 68
CE.
-- Theodore H. Gaster (Columbia U) publishes English translations of 13
Dead Sea Scriptures from cave 1 claiming that they "furnish a picture of the
religious and cultural climate in which John the Baptist conducted his mission and in
which Jesus was initially reared...and whose religious ideas served largely as the seedbed
of the New Testament" (12). |
| 1958 |
-- Hunziger leaves Dead Sea
scroll team. De Vaux gives his scrolls to Maurice Baillet.
-- De Vaux finishes excavating Khirbet Qumran. |
| 1959 |
-- Allegro returns to Palestine
to launch his own search for the treasure described in Copper scroll, without success. De
Vaux accuses him of disturbing excavations for a treasure hunt.
-- Dupont-Sommer's Essene Writings from Qumran details archaeological,
paleographic & historical evidence supporting classic hypothesis of the scrolls'
origins.
-- Milik's survey of Ten Years of Discovery in the Judean Wilderness suggests
that the "last phase" of the Essene community had militant zealot
characteristics.
-- Milik publishes translation of Copper scroll in Revue Biblique without mentioning
his use of Allegro's transcriptions.. |
| 1960 |
-- Allegro publishes his own
book on The Treasure of the Copper Scroll using unauthorized photos.
-- Death of Archaeological Museum's patron, John D. Rockefeller Jr.,
ends main source of funding for work on scrolls. |
|
-- [June] Transcription
of Cave 4 scrolls completed; workshop dismantled & scrolls locked in safe.
-- Photos of 574 texts divided among remaining scholars:
-- Cross & Skehan take responsibility for editing biblical scrolls; Milik &
Strugnell get 200 others. |
| 1961 |
-- De Vaux reviews Allegro's Copper
Scroll book, attacking it as imprecise & dishonest.
-- Yadin learns that Kando still had largest scroll from Cave 11 but fails to negotiate
purchase. |
| 1962 |
-- New translation of Dead
Sea Scrolls in English by Geza Vermes (Oxford) becomes popular
introduction to Qumran as the center of the Essene sect. |
| 1963 |
-- K.
H. Rengstorf (U of Münster) claims the Dead Sea scrolls originally came from the
Temple library in Jerusalem (Hirbet Qumran and the Problem of the Library of the Dead
Sea Caves).
-- Yadin begins excavation of Masada. Copies of Hebrew ben Sirach &
the Songs of Sabbath Sacrifice found in Cave 4 of Qumran discovered in Masada
synagogue built by zealots. |
| 1965 |
-- British OT scholar, G.
R. Driver, publishes The Judean Scrolls: the Problem & a Solution
challenging the accuracy of De Vaux & Dupont-Sommer's interpretation of archaeological
& paleographic evidence in dating the scrolls & supporting Roth's hypothesis of
the 1st c. CE zealot origins of the scrolls.
-- Shrine of the Book (The Israel Museum, Jerusalem) opens exhibiting major scrolls from
Cave 1 & documents from the bar Kochba revolt. |
| 1966 |
-- [Aug.] Allegro
publishes "The Untold Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls" in Harpers Magazine,
accusing de Vaux's team of deliberately avoiding releasing scrolls because of content
adverse to Christian teaching.
-- Driver & other eminent OT scholars sign letter in London Times criticizing
Allegro's charges.
-- Allegro persuades Jordan government to nationalize Palestine Archaeological Museum. |
| 1967 |
-- [June 5-10] Israel
defeats Arabs in 6 Day War & occupies Palestine to the Jordan, gaining control of
Khirbet Qumran, the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum & all the scrolls (except the Copper
Scroll & some fragments from Cave 1 that had been sent to Amman, Jordan).
-- Yadin searches Kando's property in Bethlehem & finds the Temple Scroll in
a shoe box. |
| 1967-69 |
-- Pro-Arab scholars de Vaux,
Skehan, Starcky & Milik refuse to cooperate with Israelis. Further publication of
scrolls blocked. |
| 1970 |
-- Norman
Golb (U of Chicago) presents paper to ASOR Albright Insitute in Jerusalem,
questioning whether all Dead Sea scrolls were products of an Essene sect based at Qumran,
but is denied authorization to examine unpublished scrolls. |
| 1971 |
-- [Sept.] W.F. Albright
& R. de Vaux die. |
| 1972 |
-- Fr. Pierre
Benoit of Dominican Ecole Biblique becomes project director, vowing to
cooperate with Israeli authorities to bring scrolls to publication.
-- Spanish Jesuit Jose O'Callaghan publishes
article in Biblica 53 interpreting fragments of Greek scrolls from Cave 7 as
remnants of New Testament books (Mark 6:52-53, 1 Tim 3:16-4:1 & James 1:23-24). |
| 1973 |
-- Agreement reached to publish scrolls under
revised title (Discoveries in the Judean Desert) without reference to modern
political jurisdictions. |
| 1975 |
-- Lawrence
Schiffman (NYU), an expert in Jewish law, publishes The Halakah of Qumran based
on the regulations in the Damascus Covenant & the Community Rule. |
| 1976 |
-- Milik publishes long-awaited
Hebrew fragments of Book of Enoch claiming that absence at Qumran of any text
comparable to the "parable" section of the Ethiopic version proved that the
"son of Man" passages in the Ethiopic text were later Christian insertions. |
| 1977 |
-- 30th anniversary of scrolls'
discovery prompts Geza Vermes to warn of "academic scandal" if pace of
publication of scrolls is not accelerated.
-- Biblical Archaeologist editor, David Noel
Freedman, questions the ethics of a small group of scholars having exclusive
rights to study & publish the scrolls "at their own...discretion" (p. 96). |
| 1979 |
-- Allegro publishes The Dead Sea Scrolls
& the Christian Myth claiming that the gospels were narrative fictions about a
non-existent hero (Jesus) based on the Teacher of Righteousness. |
| 1980 |
-- Burrows & Skehan die. Emanuel Tov & Elisha Qimron (U of
Negev) become first Israeli scholars to work on the Dead Sea scrolls.
-- Philanthropist Elizabeth Bechtel finances a
re-photographing of the scrolls & has a microfilm of the project made for herself. |
| 1983 |
-- Yadin publishes The
Temple Scroll from Cave 11.
-- Ben Zion Wacholder (Hebrew Union College)
publishes The Dawn of Qumran: the Sectarian Torah & the Teacher of Righteousness arguing
that scrolls were written by opponents of Jerusalem Zadokites.
-- Historian Robert Eisenman (Cal State at Long
Beach) publishes Maccabees, Zadokites, Christians & Qumran arguing that the
scrolls were produced by a militant splinter group of Sadducees who who became the zealot
movement out of which John the Baptizer & early Christianity arose. |
| 1984 |
-- Invited to lecture at the
Rockefeller Museum, Golb argues that the absence of autograph letters & legal
documents among Dead Sea scrolls indicated that they were not composed at Qumran.
-- Jerusalem post reports that Strugnell & Qimron had found a "letter from the
Teacher of Righteousness" to the Wicked Priest among Cave 4 scrolls (4QMMT).
-- Yadin & Brownlee die. |
| 1986 |
-- Strugnell invites Schiffman to elucidate the ritual
laws in the Acts of Torah (4QMMT) & sends him photos & transcriptions.
-- Eisenman publishes James the Just in the Habakkuk Pesher (1QpHab) identifying
the Teacher of Righteousness as the brother of Jesus & his opponents -- "the Man
of the Lie" & "the Wicked Priest" -- as Paul & Hanan II.
-- German scholar Carsten Thiede's Earliest
Gospel Manuscript? argues that O'Callaghan's identification of 7Q5 as a fragment of
Mark requires complete revision of many modern assumptions about the composition of the
gospels. |
| 1987 |
-- Fr. Benoit dies; succeeded by
Strugnell.
-- Elizabeth Bechtel donates her private microfilm of the scrolls to the Huntington
Library (Cal) shortly before her death.
-- Vermes convenes London conference on 40th anniversary of discovery of the scrolls &
calls for immediate publication of all photographs without transcription,
commentary or editorial notes. |
| 1988 |
-- Allegro & Starcky die.
-- German scholar G. Wilhelm Nebe identifies 2
fragments from Cave 7 as portions of the epistle of Enoch in Greek (Revue de Qumran 13). |
| 1989 |
-- Royal Dutch Academy grants
Wacholder permission to publish its fragment of a 2nd copy of the Temple scroll. Strugnell
sends Wacholder scroll photos & a concordance of unpublished
scrolls that had been made at his insistence 30 years earlier.
-- Oxford mediates $350,000 grant to expedite publication of the scrolls. |
|
-- [March] Eisenman asks
Strugnell for access to photos of Cave 4 scrolls of Damascus Covenant. Strugnell
refuses since Eisenmann lacked training to interpret paleographic documents. |
|
-- [May-Aug.] Herschel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeological
Review, calls for publication of timetable for release of the scrolls &
characterizes Strugnell's response as a "hoax or fraud." |
|
-- [Sept.] Shanks
publishes correspondence between Eisenman & Strugnell. NY Times & other newspapers
run articles on debate between scholars over issue of access to the scrolls.
-- Colloquium on scrolls in Mogilany, Poland issues resolution calling for immediate
publication of photos of the scrolls. |
|
-- [Oct.] Israelis with
access to scrolls begin to send Eisenman unauthorized photos of the scrolls. |
| 1990 |
-- [June] Schiffman publishes
"The New Halakhic Letter (4QMMT) & the Origins of the Dead Sea Sect" (Biblical
Archaeologist 50), arguing that the Essenes originated as schismatic Sadducees who
withdrew from Jerusalem when leading Sadducees accepted Hasmonean claims |
|
-- [Nov. 9] Israeli
newspaper HaAretz publishes interview in which Strugnell characterized Judaism as
"a horrible religion" & lamented the survival of Jews as a group. |
|
-- [Dec.] Eisenman shows
1700 scroll photos to U of Chicago scroll specialist, Michael
Wise, who immediately begins transcription. |
|
-- [Dec. 30] Emanuel
Tov replaces Strugnell as editor-in-chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls project. |
| 1991 |
-- Wacholder's request for
further scroll photos denied.
Wacholder's assistant, Martin Abegg, uses Strugnell's
unpublished concordance to begin to reconstruct transcription of original texts.
-- Golb & Wise launch Dead Sea Scrolls Project at U of Chicago's Oriental
Institute to decipher fragments from cave 4. |
|
-- [June 24] Oxford announces receipt
of a complete set of scroll photos & formation of Forum for Qumran Research under
direction of Vermes. |
|
-- [Sept. 4] Herschel
Shanks announces publication of Wacholder & Abegg's computer-reconstructed
transcription of scrolls based on Strugnell's unpublished concordance. |
|
-- [Sept. 22] Huntington
Library grants all "qualified scholars" access to the Bechtel microfilm of the
photos of the scrolls. |
|
-- [Oct. 22]
Israeli department of Antiquities announces that it will grant access to official photos
of the scrolls to scholars who agree not to publish their findings. |
|
-- [Nov 20] Shanks
publishes Eisenman's photos in A Facsimile Edition of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
co-edited by James M. Robinson. |
|
-- [Nov 25] At annual
meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Kansas City MO, scroll project director, E.
Tov, announces lifting of all publication restrictions, allowing any scholar to
examine the official scroll photos & publish whatever was discovered.
-- SBL passes resolution affirming the right of all scholars to have access to facsimile
reproductions of all ancient manuscripts without any publication restrictions |
| 1992 |
-- In Jesus & the Riddle of the Dead
Sea Scrolls Barbara Thiering (U of Sydney) interprets the scrolls as
the product of rivalry between the supporters of John the Baptizer (the "Teacher of
Righteousness") & Jesus (the "Man of the Lie"). |
|
-- [Nov.] Eisenman
& Wise publish The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered containing transcriptions &
translations of 50 scrolls. |
| 1993 |
-- [Apr.] Project Judaica Foundation opens Scrolls
from the Dead Sea Exhibit at Library of Congress. |
| 1994 |
-- Qimron & Strugnell
publish the Acts of Torah (4QMMT) but retract their earlier claim that it was
written by the Teacher of Righteousness.
-- Schiffman publishes Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls developing his thesis that
the Qumran sect was founded by schismatic Sadducees, but insisting (like Golb) that many
of the Dead Scrolls were eclectic sources that were not composed at Qumran. |
| 1995 |
-- Golb publishes Who Wrote
the Dead Sea Scrolls? challenging the identification of Qumran as an Essene
settlement & updating Rengstorf's argument that the scrolls came from libraries (of different
groups) in Jerusalem. |
|
-- [Aug.] Israeli
archaeologist Hanan Eshel announces discovery of 4 sealed man-made caves
near cave 4. |
|
-- [Nov.] Bruce
Zuckerman (USC) reports on his use of infra-red photography & digital imaging
to reconstruct the text & lacunae in fragments of 4QDan & the potential of this
technology for restoring the text of other damaged scrolls. |
| 1996 |
-- French scholar Emile
Puech supports Nebe against Thiede in identifying Cave 7's Greek fragments as
portions of 1 Enoch rather than various New Testament books (Revue Biblique 103). |
| 1997 |
-- Ernest Muro uses computer
scans to reassemble Cave 7 fragments, confirming Puech's identification
of text as 1 Enoch 103 in Greek (Revue de Qumran 70) & show that the
controversial 7Q5 is probably not from any OT or NT book. |
| 1998 |
-- Distinguishing the worldview
of sectarian scrolls found only at Qumran from that of non-canonical
works that circulated elsewhere, Gabriele Boccaccini (UMich) goes Beyond
the Essene Hypothesis to argue that Qumran was not the center of the Essene movement
but rather the retreat of an extremist splinter group that had separated from the main
Enochic/Essene party. |
| 2000 |
Steve Mason argues that
the hypothesis identifying the authors of the Dead Sea scrolls as Essenes ignores &
distorts the accounts of Josephus. |
