Qumran: The Synagogue, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Messianic Expectation

The History of Qumran

Qumran first came to life in the Late Iron II period, probably as an military outpost of the Judean monarchy. The site’s deepest and sole round cistern dates to that era. After centuries of abandonment, the site was re-built during the Hellenistic period. While the extent of the earliest renewal of occupation remains unclear, major construction totally re-shaped the site beginning about the time of John Hyrcanus, ca. 135 bce. The withdrawal to Qumran was led by the Teacher of Righteousness within a generation or so of the founding of the sect. Archaeological data correlate with the literary data on the group’s history.

The Identification of the Qumran Synagogue

No synagogue building has been definitively identified at Qumran, though Room 4, 77 or 30 seem the best candidates. At Qumran, they ate their meals in total silence. Qumran Room 77 is proposed by scholars as a place that combined dining and worship activities and thus might have served as a place of worship, i.e. a synagogue. The fact that the pantry with a full array of dishes and bowls was located adjacent to room 77 supports this identification.

Locus 4 with the benches and Locus 30 (the scriptorium) are also associated with assemblies, gatherings, and learning. However, room 4 is very small, thus precluding its use by the entire sect on a daily basis. Room 30 is immediately under the scriptorium and was probably used in connection with the preparation of scrolls.

Potential Location	Archaeological Features	Proposed Function
Room 77	Adjacent to a pantry with dishes and bowls	Combined dining and worship activities
Room 4	Lined with benches	Small-scale assemblies and gatherings
Room 30	Located under the scriptorium	Preparation of scrolls and learning

Literary Evidence and Worship Practices

Prayers, psalms, and hymns found among the Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that worship was an integral part of the Qumran residents' life. In the Damascus Document (CD xi.21–xii.1), a 'house of prostration' is mentioned. It is written: 'everyone who enters a house of prostration [ie prayer] should not enter with impurity requiring washing [Mikveh]; and when the trumpets of the assembly sound, he may advance or retreat, but they should not stop the whole service, [f]or it is a holy house.'

Some believe that Qumran had no synagogue. There may have been a conscious aversion to imitating what was being done in contemporary synagogues—yet another expression of the Qumran sect's desire to maintain biblical precedents while rejecting models that had evolved within the Jewish community. Alternatively, did the ongoing practice of study within the Qumran community render such public readings superfluous? Interestingly, another breakaway group of the Second Temple period, the Samaritans, did not include the reading of Scriptures as part of its communal ritual at this stage either.

Messianic Expectation and Textual Variants

Ancient papyrus documents found at Qum’ran quote Deut 18:18 in expectation of the Messiah. Dead Sea Scroll 4Q44 validates the Septuagint reading that Angels are to worship the Messiah. The key phrase in Deut 32:43 is missing from the Masoretic text which most modern Bibles follow, but the Dead Sea Scroll 4Q44 (100 BC) quotes Deut 32:43 with the key phrase. This reinforces the song of Moses applied to the worshipping of the Messiah.

Large numbers of Jews and Gentiles converted to Christianity in the first century because of the supernatural miracles of healings that were taking place at the hands of the Apostles of Jesus. The honest, spiritual “cream of the first century crop” converted to Christianity because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Deut 32:43 is a messianic “last days prophecy” which uses the exactly same Hebrew phrase “in the last days” as found in Daniel 10:14. The Septuagint therefore preserves the correct reading and the Masoretic reflects a theologically motivated alteration to break the connection with the messianic prophecy of Jesus Christ the Messiah.