A sectarian calendar that synchronizes with the days of the week.

“Part of the underlying fabric of contemporary Western culture.”

Rabbis say “yes,” Sadducees “no.”

Did the scribes of the Dead Sea scrolls insert their own ideas into the texts?

According to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, the Essenes, an ascetic sect living in Qumran, wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. But Josephus is far from reliable.

Minuscule scrolls from Second Temple-era phylacteries, discovered at Qumran, may reveal much about an ancient ritual practice.     

Twenty years ago, a scholarly consensus identified the Dead Sea Scrolls with the ascetic Essene community at Qumran. Now the picture is more complicated.