Biblical Archaeology Review

“A man may marry a beautiful captive woman, but he must first let her mourn a month for her parents.” Temple Scroll (11QT) 63.11–15.

“The formation shall consist of one thousand men ranked seven lines deep, each man standing behind the other” (1QM 5.3–4). “In their hands they shall hold a spear and a sword. The length of the spear shall be seven cubits … The swords shall be made of pure iron refined by the smelter and blanched to resemble a mirror … ” 1QM 5.5–16 (Geza Vermes, trans., The Dead Sea Scrolls in English [Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1990]).

Particularly in the War Rule scroll from Caves One and Four (1QM, 4QM), which describes the battle of the “Sons of Light” against an enemy called the “Kittim,” and the Temple Scroll from Cave Eleven (11QT), which encourages the king to make war against the enemies of his country and gives rules about slaying enemies and taking captives.

De Vaux, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 36.

“In vain would one look among them for makers of arrows, or javelins, or swords, or helmets, or armour, or shields; in short, for makers of arms, or military machines or any instrument of war, or even of peaceful objects which might be turned to evil purpose.” Philo, Quod omnis probus liber sit, in Complete Works, trans. F.H. Colson et al., 10 vols. (London: Heinemann, 1929–1961), p. 78.

Benjamin Mazar and Trude Dothan, “The History of the Oasis of En-Geddi,” Atiqot 5 (1966), pp. 1–12, note 19.

Lynch, Narrative of the United States’ Expedition, p. 294. From the general description of the camp pitched by Lynch, a half mile south of the spring but “immediately in line with, but some little distance from where the fountain stream of Ain Jidy descends the mountain side” (p. 289), we can see that the “Essene caves” were on the southeastern side of the scarp slope of the Shakarat an Najjar (1:100,000–186096), that is, on the northwestern scarp face of the Nahal Arugot.

Lynch, Narrative of the United States’ Expedition, p. 289. This site is at or close to Ras al Muqqadam (Map reference 1:100,000–1855/1001).