the-bible-and-the-dead-sea-scrolls

GEORGE J. BROOKE 319
V. CONCLUSION
The Qumran Scrolls continue to fascinate. A large part of the ongoing
interest in the Qumran Scrolls surely derives from their connection with
the Hebrew Bible. The biblical scrolls tell us more about the history of the
transmission of the biblical text than was thought possible fifty years ago;
part of that history is exegetical. The scrolls that reflect the life of the
Qumran community and the wider movement of which it was a part are
replete with implicit and explicit references to Israel’s earlier literature.
That authoritative literature provided the very terminology through
which the community expressed its own self-understanding, lived its life,
and described its destiny. More broadly, these ancient scrolls from the
lowest point on earth contain some of humanity’s highest ideals, the very
ideals that were to be enshrined in Jewish and Christian canons, the literary
corpora that have been the most influential in the history of the world.