Jesus is not mentioned in the texts, but as Florida International University scholar Erik Larson has noted, the scrolls have “helped us understand better in what ways Jesus messages represented ideas that were current in the Judaism of his time and in what ways [they were] distinctive.” One scroll, for example,
But there is no mention of Jesus, John the Baptist or anyone else associated with the Gospels. The traditional understanding that Jesus was unique began to fade when it was discovered that the community at Qumran practiced baptism, eucharistic meals and the sharing of goods in common.
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain nothing about Jesus or the early Christians, but indirectly they help to understand the Jewish world in which Jesus lived and why his message drew followers and opponents.
Almost all of the Hebrew Bible is represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from every book of the Old Testament except for the Book of Esther.
Dead Sea Scrolls now can be read online.
In the New King James Version of that Biblical passage, the text reads: These are the things you shall do: Speak each man the truth to his neighbor; Give judgment in your gates for truth, justice, and peace.
Qumran, the guides say, was home to a community of Jewish ascetics called the Essenes, who devoted their lives to writing and preserving sacred texts. They were hard at work by the time Jesus began preaching; ultimately they stored the scrolls in 11 caves before Romans destroyed their settlement in A.D. 68.