Dead Sea Scroll

Since the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls has not been clearly defined, there still have been so many questions to find out who exactly wrote and stored the sectarian scrolls. There are three main groups involved: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. Even though most scholars have agreed that the sectarian scrolls contain the views and outlook of Essenes (Flint 127), there are still some different opinions remained.

Some scholars believe that the scrolls were written by Pharisees. Pharisees were a Jewish religious and political movement (Flint 128). They were well described in the writings of Josephus and the New Testament. Josephus in his writing provides details of their ideology and social structure, saying that they played a significant role, whereas the New Testament describes them in a negative view. However, they were also described as being contrasted against the Essenes and Sadducees in Josephus’ writing. The New Testament describes that Pharisees are the foremost group as the opponents of Jesus.

Even though Essenes and Pharisees shared the views of belief in resurrection and afterlife, they were still different in many ways. For example, several of Essenes’ laws did not agree with positions adopted by the Pharisees (Flint 131).

There is another opinion that Sadducees wrote the scrolls. Sadducees were another Jewish group. However, there is no evidence of their writings since they disappeared soon after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70. Therefore, it is very difficult to confirm that the scrolls were written by Sadducees.

The last opinion that most scholars have believed is that Essenes wrote the scrolls, and have a lot of connections between them. One of the supporting reasons is that “key features of the Essenes in ancient accounts agree with ones found in the sectarian scrolls” (Flint 137). Another point is that “Yahad at Qumran, who deposited most or all of the scrolls in the nearby caves, were a branch