Word: qumran
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Meanwhile, a vast, disorganized combing of the Qumran area was conducted by the Bedouin, inspired with the scholars' enthusiastic appraisal of their first fund. The original Cave One was not relocated until 1949, when the Arab Legion undertook the search. Gradually the discoveries were investigated by trained archeologists. Lankester Harding, of the Department of Antiquities, and Pere de Vaux, of the French School of Archeology in Jerusalem, jointly assumed control. In Cave One alone, they found 600 scroll fragments...
After hostilities had clamed in Palestine, still more interest among tribesmen centered on finding the smelly pieces of parchment. Late in 1951, natives offered deVaux some fragments found eleven miles south of Qumran, at Wadi Muraba'at. The new finds, including second century A.D. Hebrew texts, had no connection with the Essene library. Shortly afterward, another discovery was reported closer to Qumran...
Later investigation thoroughly refuted these charges. De Vaux and Harding first thought the Qumran ruins were simply an insignificant Roman fortress. Further digging disclosed, however, remains of a "monastery", complete with a fifteen-foot tower which was still standing. Its walls were forty feet square and five feet thick. The rest of the building consisted of courts, passages, a scriptorium, and many other rooms. Coins found definitely dated the building, and pottery linked the building with the caves. This provided final proof of the Scrolls' authenticity...
Students of the period note that first century authors--Pliny the Elder, Philo and Jesephus,--describe the Essenes in terms which well fit the Qumran community. Archeologists believe that the settlement was the center of Essene life. The people probably lived communally while establishing their great library, and apparently washed, or were baptized daily, as evidenced by many aquaducts and a lavatory which were unearthed in the excavation. Their leader was a prophet, "The Teacher of Righteousness...
...Allegro, who currently is presenting a weekly series of BBC talks on his conclusions. He said two weeks ago that the historical basis of the Last Supper and part, at least, of both the Lord's Prayer and the New Testament teaching of Jesus can be attributed to the Qumran sect. "The Teacher of Righteousness", he said, "was persecuted and probably crucified by Gentiles at the instigation of a wicked priest of the Jews." Allegro, himself a philologist, claimed that the similarity had caused "a minor revolution in New Testament scholarship...