Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
The story of the discovery of the first Dead Sea Scrolls has become a part of
Western lore. Who has not heard about the Bedouin shepherd who threw a rock into
a cave, heard a crash, went in to explore, and found the scrolls? The story in
that form may be accurate, but it turns out to be something of a simplification.
As a matter of fact, much remains unknown about the exact circumstances under
which those scrolls were discovered. The story of the discovery at first deals
with just one cave; the other ten were located at later times.
The First Cave
What are our sources of information about the episode? The Bedouin shepherds
(more than one) who are the heroes have told their story, and that story has
been retold and examined by the scholars who first had access to and worked on
the scrolls. But different stories are attributed to the discoverers, who did
not give a very precise indication of when the incident occurred. Also, a
significant amount of time elapsed between the discovery and the first reports
about it, and the cave in which the texts were found was not located by scholars
until perhaps two years after the first scrolls were removed from it.
The best, most complete source of information about the initial discovery is
chapter 12 (supplemented by other parts) in John C. Trever's The Untold Story of
Qumran. Trever was the first American scholar to come into contact with the
scrolls, and he took it upon himself to investigate as carefully as possible the
circumstances under which they were found. His conclusions are based on
interviews with the Bedouin and evidence from others. The following summarizes
the account given by the Bedouin as related by Trever; it is supplemented in
places with other early evidence.
The Bedouin Tell Their Story
The discovery of the first scrolls and the long process of bringing them to
scholarly and public attention took place at a time of great turmoil and
violence in the Middle East. Tensions between Arabs and Jews were high during
the British Mandate, and they grew higher and the mayhem increased as the United
Nations debated the partition of Palestine. In 1946 or 1947, toward the end of
the British Mandate in Palestine, which ended with the partition of the land in
May 1948, three men from the Ta amireh tribe of Bedouin -- Khalil Musa, a
younger cousin, Jum a Muhammad Khalil, and a still younger cousin (fifteen years
of age), Muhammad Ahmed el-Hamed, nicknamed edh-Dhib (the Wolf) -- were tending
their flocks of sheep and goats in the region of Ain Feshkha on the northwestern
side of the Dead Sea. The tribe customarily moved about in that region between
the Jordan River and Bethlehem and had done so for centuries. They had even
proved to be a source of archeological discoveries from time to time. Jum a, we
are told, liked to explore caves in the hope of finding gold, and so, when the
opportunity presented itself, he would check the nearby cliffs for caves. The
key events happened at some point in the winter of 1946-47; Trever reports that
"the Bedouin think it was November or December 1946." He describes what happened
in this way:
Jum a, it was, who happened upon two holes in the side of a rock projection
above the plateau where the flocks were grazing. The lower of the two holes was
barely large enough "for a cat to enter," as Jum?a described it in several
interviews; the one which was somewhat above eye level was large enough for a
slender man to enter. Jum a threw a rock through the smaller opening and was
startled by the strange sound he heard; apparently the rock shattered an
earthenware jar within. Thinking there might be a cache of gold within, he
summoned the two other herdsmen to show them the curious holes. In the gathering
darkness of evening it was too late to attempt an entrance; the next day had to
be devoted to watering their flocks at 'Ain Feshkha, so they agreed to explore
the cave two days later.
The youngest of the three, Muhammad Ahmed el-Hamed, returned to the cave
openings a few days later while his relatives slept in the early morning; there
he climbed into the cave through the larger opening. Returning to Trever's
narrative:
As his eyes became accustomed to the dim light, he saw about ten tall jars
lining the walls of the cave, according to his own description. Several of them
had covers. Some of the jars had small handles which apparently were used in
tying down the covers to seal the contents. In addition, the Bedouins claim that
there was a pile of rocks which had fallen from the ceiling, and much broken
pottery on the floor of the cave. All but two of the jars proved to be empty.
One was filled with reddish earth; from the other one, a jar with a cover,
Muhammed pulled two bundles wrapped in cloth which he described as "greenish" in
appearance. A third, the largest, was a roll of leather without any wrapping.
From his description and hand motions during our interview, as well as from
other evidence, it seems quite probable that the larger scroll was the now-famed
Isaiah Scroll (1QIsaa) and the two smaller ones, the Habakkuk Commentary
(1QpHab) and the Manual of Discipline (1QS). Only these three manuscripts were
taken by edh-Dhib from the cave that morning.
According to Trever, the fact that the older cousins were angry with edh-Dhib
for entering the cave without them and perhaps hiding treasure he may have found
(he did show them the three bundles) accounts for his absence from later events.
At any rate, a few days later Jum a brought the scrolls to a Ta amireh site
southeast of Bethlehem, where the scrolls were reportedly left for weeks in a
bag hanging on a tent pole. During this time, as they were shown to others, at
least some of them suffered some damage: the cover broke off the Isaiah scroll,
and the Manual of Discipline was split in two.
