tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/early-christians-61632/articlesEarly Christians – The Conversation2021-08-05T12:40:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1655122021-08-05T12:40:30Z2021-08-05T12:40:30ZWhat is a cult?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414690/original/file-20210804-19-trstz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5710%2C3815&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many religious groups often get labeled as cults.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/local-tourist-office-employees-prepared-to-place-a-sign-to-news-photo/528950560?adppopup=true">David Howells/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The word “cult” is used a lot nowadays.</p>
<p>Former President Donald Trump has been likened to a cult leader. Democratic California congresswoman <a href="https://speier.house.gov/">Jackie Speier</a> recently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2021/08/01/jackie-speier-jim-jones-donald-trump-gop-cult-like-rs-vpx.cnn">compared Trump to Jim Jones</a>, the infamous leader of <a href="https://theconversation.com/before-the-tragedy-at-jonestown-the-people-of-peoples-temple-had-a-dream-103151">Peoples Temple</a>, an American religious group of which nearly 1,000 members died by mass murder-suicide in Guyana in 1978. A congressional staffer at the time, Speier was seriously wounded by temple members during an ambush that killed <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jonestown-bio-leo-ryan/">Congressman Leo Ryan</a> of San Francisco.</p>
<p>Then there’s NXIVM, a “<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-hollywood-followers-of-nxivm-a-women-branding-sex-cult">sex cult</a>” based in Albany, New York. Media reports and evidence at trial revealed that NXIVM’s female members recruited “slaves,” who were <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-branded-albany.html">branded</a> with the initials of the group’s leader, <a href="http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/the-dark-cult-with-billionaires-stars-and-sex-slavery-allegations/news-story/0c72130a835a6d708b7f0b98cf1f310e">Keith Raniere</a>. Raniere, also called the “Vanguard,” was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/nyregion/nxivm-cult-keith-raniere-sentenced.html">sentenced to 120 years</a> in prison for sex trafficking. </p>
<p>One of the defenses put forward by NXIVM’s lawyers has been that <a href="https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Law-Beat-Attorneys-for-ex-NXIVM-member-claim-16350259.php">media “hit-pieces” on the group led to an unfair trial</a>.</p>
<p>It’s certainly true that the word cult grabs our attention. But what exactly does it mean when we use words like cult or “cult leader”?</p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article-abstract/39/3/228/1618594?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Scholars</a> sometimes use the term “cult” to describe groups that have distinctive beliefs and high levels of commitment. The problem is the popular use of the word is often used to describe authoritarian groups that practice mind control or brainwashing. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/mathew-schmalz">As an academic</a> who teaches and writes about religion, I believe that the label “cult” gets in the way of understanding new religions and political movements.</p>
<h2>Early Christians and cult</h2>
<p>First, cult is a vague category. </p>
<p>Authoritarian leaders and structures can usually be found in groups that have a clear mission and identity. From the Catholic Church to the U.S. Marine Corps, many organizations rely on strict discipline and obedience. Using the word cult is an easy way to criticize a group, but a poor way to describe one.</p>
<p>Second, mind control or brainwashing theories have problems. </p>
<p>In popular understanding, the leaders of cults use mind control or brainwashing to remake the personalities of recruits by forcing them to do and believe things that they normally wouldn’t accept. </p>
<p>Brainwashing was associated with the <a href="https://familyfed.org/">Unification Church</a>, or “<a href="https://www.signaturebooks.com/books/p/the-unification-church">The Moonies</a>,” founded by South Korean <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/world/asia/rev-sun-myung-moon-founder-of-unification-church-dies-at-92.html">Rev. Sun Myung Moon</a>. The Moonies would isolate new recruits and shower them with attention, a process called “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1978/02/20/moon-church-love-bomb-fall-out/7c3b0eba-5e59-45e6-a5f8-812a2a5d1894/?utm_term=.850248272e01">love bombing</a>.” </p>
<p>But, as sociologist <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/sociology/people/eileen-barker">Eileen Barker</a> showed in <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/50886/">her research</a> on <a href="https://familyfed.org/">the Unification Church</a>, recruitment rates were still very low. If a sure mark of a cult is using love bombing, mind control or brainwashing, the results weren’t very impressive. </p>
<p>Third, the label “cult” is negative. </p>
<p>As British sociologist <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ces/research/wreru/aboutus/staff/jb/">James Beckford</a> has observed, cults are usually associated with <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcs/article-abstract/29/3/576/884746?redirectedFrom=PDF">beliefs and practices considered to be “unhealthy</a>.” But what is seen as healthy in one culture may be seen as unhealthy in another. </p>
<p>In fact, early Christianity could be called a cult because Christian beliefs and practices – such as not sacrificing for the emperor – were considered strange and dangerous in ancient Rome.</p>
<p>Fourth, the term “cult” does not engage with key parts of a group’s belief system.</p>
<p>For example, religion scholars <a href="https://jamestabor.com/">James Tabor</a> and <a href="https://www.conncoll.edu/directories/emeritus-faculty/eugene-gallagher/">Eugene Gallagher</a> <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520208995">argue</a> that the 1993 <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/waco-siege">Waco siege</a> ended in tragedy, in part, because the FBI ignored the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2013/04/20/178063471/two-decades-later-some-branch-davidians-still-believe">Bible-based beliefs of the Branch Davidians</a>, a <a href="http://www.sociologyguide.com/anthropology/millenarian-movements.php">millenarian</a> Christian sect. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.atf.gov/our-history/fallen-agents">Four agents</a> of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were killed trying to arrest “cult leader” <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/david-koresh-followers-describe-life-inside-apocalyptic-religious/story?id=52033937">David Koresh</a>. After a 51-day standoff, the FBI injected tear gas into the group’s compound. Seventy-five people, including children, lost their lives in the fire that followed. The cause of the fire remains disputed to this day – some argue that the tear gas ignited, and others claim that the Branch Davidians set the fire themselves.</p>
<p>It has been suggested, however, by <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Armageddon_in_Waco.html?id=O45DuPSh1kAC">some scholars</a> that if the FBI had taken the belief system of the Branch Davidians more seriously – instead of seeing members as brainwashed followers of a mad cult leader – deaths might have been avoided. </p>
<h2>Cult politics</h2>
<p>The term “cult” also gets in the way of understanding American politics. There are real differences between isolated religious groups that live together communally and political movements that attract millions of people. </p>
<p>Calling Trump a cult leader is rhetorically powerful. But that language can simplify how and why MAGA and other slogans appeal to many Americans. And Rep. Speier’s <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/rep-jackie-speier-compares-trump-jonestown-cult-leader-jim-jones-merchants-deceit-1615072">fully reported</a> comments about Donald Trump and Jim Jones did recognize that the issue was complex.</p>
<p>To be clear, religious and political movements can be dangerous and criminal beyond simply being strange. It’s also important to carefully examine the relationship between a leader and their followers. </p>
<p>Still, it is tempting to use words like cult or cult leader when talking about a group or a person we don’t like or can’t understand. The problem is that when people hear the word “cult,” discussion often ends before any study has begun.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-label-cult-gets-in-the-way-of-understanding-new-religions-94386">first published</a> on April 10, 2018.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathew Schmalz is a political independent. </span></em></p>A religion scholar explains why the label of ‘cult’ gets in the way of understanding new religions and political movements.Mathew Schmalz, Professor of Religious Studies, College of the Holy CrossLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1401252020-06-05T13:18:09Z2020-06-05T13:18:09ZDear Mr Trump: the Bible has a long history as a symbol of protest, so don’t use it as a sign of repression<p>Amid Black Lives Matter protests taking place in Washington DC and nationwide on the evening of Monday June 1, US president Donald Trump walked the short distance from the White House to St John’s Episcopal Church, where he posed outside while holding a Bible above his head. </p>
<p>The photo-op proved <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/us/politics/trump-bible-st-johns.html">controversial</a> for a number of reasons: tear gas was used on peaceful protestors to clear his path and Trump’s actions seemed to be an incongruous response to the situation at hand.</p>
<p>Trump’s use of the Bible in Monday’s act of political theatre participates in a long history of using sacred texts to legitimise state power. From courtrooms to the US Capitol steps, the Bible is <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/3616">regularly used</a> as a physical symbol of political authority. Such practices in American public life continue a long history of using the Bible as a material object in order to authorise political power – a history that goes back to the late Roman empire.</p>
<p>Though Christians have been interested in the content of their scriptures from the beginning, the use of the physical presence of Christian scriptures as a symbol of power began in a period when Christians faced legislative pressure, marginalisation and violence. We believe the evidence suggests that Christian interest in and defence of their physical books was a response to the aggressive actions of Roman emperors. </p>
<p>In AD249 – in light of challenges to his legitimacy – the newly proclaimed emperor Decius issued a decree that everyone in the empire should perform a sacrifice to the genius (“divine spirit”) of the emperor. In exchange for this display of loyalty to the state, each subject would be provided with a certificate called a <em>libellus</em> (“little book”) as proof of participation and material evidence of loyalty. </p>
<p>Copies of these certificates demonstrate, as historian James Rives <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/300738?seq=1">has shown</a>, that the decree was not aimed specifically at Christians. Nonetheless, it affected Christians in unique ways, and a number were martyred.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340021/original/file-20200605-176554-172shcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340021/original/file-20200605-176554-172shcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340021/original/file-20200605-176554-172shcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340021/original/file-20200605-176554-172shcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340021/original/file-20200605-176554-172shcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340021/original/file-20200605-176554-172shcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340021/original/file-20200605-176554-172shcw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Saint Reparata prepares to martyr herself before the Emperor Decius.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bernardo Daddi, Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Around this period, and arguably in response to Roman demands that people carry certificates of loyalty to the state, Christians began to use their scriptures as physical manifestations of divine presence and power. Just as individuals who had sacrificed to the genius of the emperor were expected to carry their <em>libelli</em>, Christians might carry Gospels – tokens of allegiance to a different divine being.</p>
<p>By the late third century, the Gospels came to represent Christian identity. According to an <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/NPNF2_01_Eusebius_Pamphilius_Church_Hist/taagmnUcsD8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Marinus+the+divine+Gospels">account</a> preserved by the historian Eusebius of Caesarea, the martyr Marinus had to choose between “the divine Gospels” and sacrifice (with the associated <em>libellus</em>), between Christ and Caesar. Marinus chose the Gospels and was accordingly martyred.</p>
<p>Many Christians thought of their sacred texts as powerful objects, manifestations of divine presence and authority. By the early fourth century, Gospel books and folded-up pieces of papyrus or parchment with scriptural passages functioned as amulets to secure healing or ward off evil, a set of practices attested by both <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36333673/_Magic_and_Communal_Boundaries_The_Problems_with_Amulets_in_Chrysostom_Adv._Iud._8_and_Augustine_In_Io._tra._7_Henoch_39_2_2017_227_46">ancient authors</a> and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/making-amulets-christian-9780199687886?cc=us&lang=en&">archaeological evidence, primarily from ancient Egypt</a>. Before Christians wore crosses around their necks, they wore sacred texts.</p>
<p>In AD303, on the 20th anniversary of his reign, the emperor Diocletian issued his “First Edict” against Christians. Among other things, the edict required destruction of Christian books. Yet a number of Christians throughout the empire defied the imperial command, preferring to die rather than hand over their books.</p>
<p>According to one Latin account, a Sicilian Christian named Euplus <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Scribes_and_Their_Remains/w7KrDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=whoever+gives+up+%5Bthe+scriptures%5D+loses+eternal+life.+euplus&pg=PT63&printsec=frontcover">maintained</a> that “whoever gives up [the scriptures] loses eternal life”. Euplus was executed with his Gospel book hanging from his neck, marking his identity as a Christian.</p>
<p>As a sacred object, the Christian book became <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/714568">a symbol of resistance to imperial power</a>. In one account, a group of Christians from the small North African town of Abitina (modern-day Henchir Chouhoud el Bâtin, Tunisia) defied the imperial decree. This refusal to hand over physical books of scripture was a show of the Abitinian Christians’ loyalty to God over Rome.</p>
<p>Referring to Christian scriptural books as “the law,” the fourth-century martyrdom account <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=_DdzpSgtXBYC&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=Acts+of+the+abitinian+martyrs+the+law&source=bl&ots=xOksV08OrA&sig=ACfU3U0jjlpkkig3J3adAN9f-pWMGm-MKQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjtlfejrenpAhV0gnIEHcRKAvEQ6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20law&f=false">Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs</a> sets up a question of political allegiance: will one follow the law of Christ or the commands of Caesar? The contest between divine law and imperial edict centred on physical scriptures. </p>
<p>To preserve the physical books of scripture was to profess Christian identity and appeal to a higher, divine authority. By contrast, those who handed over sacred books to be destroyed by imperial functionaries renounced their allegiance to God.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340023/original/file-20200605-176575-zdlbeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340023/original/file-20200605-176575-zdlbeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340023/original/file-20200605-176575-zdlbeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340023/original/file-20200605-176575-zdlbeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340023/original/file-20200605-176575-zdlbeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340023/original/file-20200605-176575-zdlbeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/340023/original/file-20200605-176575-zdlbeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Walters Art Museum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As North African Christians grappled with the aftermath of Diocletian’s edict, figures such as the bishop Petilian of Cirta (in modern-day Algeria) argued that to hand over the sacred book was to condemn Christ himself to the pyre. In these developing theologies of the book, material scriptures manifest divine authority and even embody Christ himself. The Bible as a book was a source of authority that could challenge even the demands of the Roman empire.</p>
<p>The use of the Bible as a material symbol of divine authority began in response to political oppression and violence. In North Africa in particular, some Christians refused to hand over books for destruction or to accept those who had done so as their religious leaders. </p>
<p>While the history of the Bible as symbol expanded from this point – so that Bibles are held aloft in liturgical spaces and used to cement the authority of legal ceremonies – the symbolic power of the Bible began as a form of political resistance. There is a tragic irony to the fact that a mode of resistance developed by disenfranchised and powerless North African Christians is now weaponised against black people by the most powerful man in the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140125/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The history of early Christianity shows the power of the Bible used as a sign of resistance against repression at the hands of the Romans.Jeremiah Coogan, Postdoctoral Scholar of the New Testament and Early Christianity, University of Notre DameCandida Moss, Cadbury Professor of Theology, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1057702018-10-30T10:46:01Z2018-10-30T10:46:01ZThe Dead Sea Scrolls are a priceless link to the Bible’s past<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242793/original/file-20181029-76405-l67pp0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A conservator works with a portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls containing Psalm 145 at The Franklin Institute, in Philadelphia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Dead-Seas-Scrolls/0f2dad3960dc468883fa8ef8722950b7/33/0">AP Photo/Matt Rourke</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., in 2018 <a href="https://www.museumofthebible.org/press/press-releases/museum-of-the-bible-releases-research-findings-on-fragments-in-its-dead-sea-scrolls-collection">removed five Dead Sea Scrolls</a> from exhibits after tests confirmed these fragments were <a href="http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685179-12341428">not from ancient biblical scrolls</a> but forgeries.</p>
<p>Over the last decade, the Green family, owners of the craft-supply chain Hobby Lobby, has <a href="https://lyingpen.com/2018/03/27/the-post-2002-dss-like-fragments-a-price-list/">paid millions of dollars</a> for fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls to be the crown jewels in the museum’s exhibition showcasing the history and heritage of the Bible. </p>
<p>Why would the Green family spend so much on small scraps of parchment? </p>
<h2>Dead Sea Scrolls’ discovery</h2>
<p>From the first accidental discovery, the <a href="https://www.harperone.com/9780060684655/the-meaning-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/">story of the Dead Sea Scrolls</a> is a dramatic one.</p>
<p>In 1947, Bedouin men herding goats in the hills to the west of the Dead Sea entered a cave near Wadi Qumran in the West Bank and stumbled on clay jars filled with leather scrolls. Ten more caves were discovered over the next decade that contained tens of thousands of fragments belonging to over 900 scrolls. Most of the finds were made by the Bedouin. </p>
<p>Some of these scrolls were later acquired by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities through complicated transactions and a few by the state of Israel. The bulk of the scrolls came under the control of the <a href="http://www.antiquities.org.il/modules_eng.aspx?menu=10">Israel Antiquities Authority</a> in 1967. </p>
<p>Included among the scrolls are the oldest copies of books in the Hebrew Bible and many other ancient Jewish writings: prayers, commentaries, religious laws, magical and mystical texts. They have shed much new light on the origins of the Bible, Judaism and even Christianity. </p>
<h2>The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls</h2>
<p>Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible dated to the 10th century A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls include over 225 <a href="https://www.harperone.com/9780060684655/the-meaning-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls/">copies of biblical books</a> that date up to 1,200 years earlier. </p>
<p>These range from small fragments to a complete scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther and Nehemiah. They show that the books of the Jewish Bible were known and treated as sacred writings before the time of Jesus, with essentially the same content. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there was no “Bible” as such but a loose assortment of writings sacred to various Jews including numerous books not in the modern Jewish Bible. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=599&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242797/original/file-20181029-76402-gowfpu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two men stand on the foundations of the ancient Khirbet Qumran ruins, which lie on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan, in 1957. The ruins are above the caves in which the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-International-News-Jordan-QUMR-/fd0373fddce6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/138/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, the Dead Sea Scrolls show that in the first century B.C. there were <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4611/the-dead-sea-scrolls-and-the-origins-of-the-bible.aspx">different versions</a> of books that became part of the Hebrew canon, especially Exodus, Samuel, Jeremiah, Psalms and Daniel.</p>
<p>This evidence has helped scholars understand how the Bible came to be, but it neither proves nor disproves its religious message.</p>
<h2>Judaism and Christianity</h2>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls are unique in representing a sort of library of a particular Jewish group that lived at Qumran in the first century B.C. to about 68 A.D. They probably belonged to the Essenes, a strict Jewish movement described by several writers from the first century A.D. </p>
<p>The scrolls provide a rich trove of <a href="https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/the-complete-world-of-the-dead-sea-scrolls-softcover">Jewish religious texts</a> previously unknown. Some of these were written by Essenes and give insights into their views, as well as their conflict with other Jews including the Pharisees. </p>
<p>The Dead Sea Scrolls contain nothing about Jesus or the early Christians, but indirectly they help to understand the Jewish world in which Jesus lived and why his message drew followers and opponents. Both the Essenes and the early Christians believed they were living at the time foretold by prophets when God would establish a kingdom of peace and that their teacher revealed the true meaning of Scripture. </p>
<h2>Fame and forgeries</h2>
<p>The fame of the Dead Sea Scrolls is what has encouraged both forgeries and the shadow market in antiquities. They are often called the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century because of their importance to understanding the Bible and the Jewish world at the time of Jesus. </p>
<p>Religious artifacts especially attract forgeries, because people want a physical connection to their faith. The so-called <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469614571/resurrecting-the-brother-of-jesus/">James Ossuary</a>, a limestone box, that was claimed to be the burial box of the brother of Jesus, attracted much attention in 2002. A few years later, it was found that it was indeed an authentic burial box for a person named James from the first century A.D., but by adding “brother of Jesus” the forger made it seem priceless.</p>
<p>Scholars eager to publish and discuss new texts are <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-dead-sea-scroll-fakes-abound-and-scholars-admit-they-share-the-blame-1.6600900?=&ts=_1540825933778">partly responsible</a> for this shady market. </p>
<p>The confirmation of forged scrolls at the Museum of Bible only confirmed that artifacts should be viewed with highest suspicion unless the source is fully known. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/los-manuscritos-del-mar-muerto-son-un-vinculo-inestimable-con-el-pasado-de-la-biblia-106029"><em>Leer en español</em></a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Falk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The real scrolls are considered priceless. Here’s why.Daniel Falk, Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.