Conclusion
The Dead Sea Scrolls have been the subject of avid interest
and curiosity for nearly fifty years. Today, scholars agree on
their significance but disagree on who produced them. They debate
specific passages of individual scrolls and are still assessing
their impact on the foundations of Judaism and Christianity. For
the public in this country and throughout the world, the scrolls
have an aura of reverence and intrigue which is reinvigorated
periodically by the media--journalists who report serious
disagreements among well-known scholars, as well as tabloids which
claim that the scrolls can predict the future or answer life's
mysteries.
This Library of Congress exhibition presents a significant
sampling of scrolls and explores both their history and their
meaning. It is the Library's hope that visitors will leave both
satisfied in having seen these remarkable survivors of a far-off
past and in having learned something of the challenges facing
scroll scholars and intrigued by questions that surround the
scrolls and the community that may have produced them.
Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls? How did the Qumran library
come to be? Whose scrolls were they? Why were they hidden in the
caves? Today, with specialists and scholars throughout the world
poring over the newly released scroll texts, solutions to these
mysteries undoubtedly will be proposed. But these solutions will
themselves raise questions--fueling continuing public interest and
scholarly debate.
- Thank you for visiting the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. If you like, you may
return to the Exhibit's Introduction. Or, you may use the
Outline to revisit any part of the exhibit.