Research and Publication of the Scrolls

The identification of the scrolls commenced immediately upon their discovery. Research has shown that the thousands of fragments found in the caves of Qumran belong to some 900 manuscripts, which have been divided into three categories: biblical scrolls; apocryphal scrolls (some from previously unknown works); and sectarian scrolls.

The first seven scrolls had already been published already in the early 1950s, and since 1955, the Oxford University series Discoveries in the Judaean Desert has produced scientific editions of hundreds of scrolls, with introductions, commentary, and textual variants. Recently, the completion of this ambitious 38-volume publication project has been announced. In addition to the publication of the texts themselves, books and articles devoted to the content of the scrolls and their implications for the fields of religion, language, history, and so forth are continually coming out.

At the same time, much progress has been made in the area of the conservation of the scrolls. Work in this field has been conducted in a number of laboratories, most recently in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority.