Dead Sea Scrolls: Who Lived at Qumran?

The various theories about who lived at Qumran can be divided into two camps, according to whether or not one believes that an intimate connection exists between the scrolls and the archaeological ruins. This point is particularly important because some of the scrolls are clearly sectarian; that is, they describe both the beliefs and the lifestyle of a separatist Jewish religious community. Was this separatist community living at Qumran?

The methodological question this raises is whether or not one may use the scrolls to illuminate and explain the archaeological findings of Khirbet Qumran or, vice versa, use the Qumran archaeological data to help interpret the scrolls.

Initially, the majority of scholars followed the excavator of the site, Roland de Vaux, who believed that the scrolls and the ruins did in fact reflect a single community. In recent years, however, his position has been increasingly challenged. According to some scholars, de Vaux fell into the trap of allowing his own presuppositions about the scrolls to color and even distort his interpretation of the archaeological data.

On the other hand, it can also be argued that the textual remains found in and around a site constitute an integral part of the archaeological evidence, and one would be just as badly skewing the evidence if such an important part of the data was ignored.