Donald W. Parry

I copied a few things that struck my fancy.

Which translation should I read?
With few exceptions, we have used the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (New York: Penguin, 1997), which is responsibly prepared, accepted by the scholarly community, and readily available in libraries and bookstores. Scroll translations included in our book were drawn from Vermes’s work unless otherwise noted. (Preface)

Q 28:
Recently two fine English translations of the nonbiblical scrolls have been published: Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English (New York: Penguin, 1997), and Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated: The Qumran Texts in English (2nd ed., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994). Designed and priced for the lay reader, both volumes are priced under $30.

Q44:
Furthermore, the Qumran community did not share with the Christians beliefs in the plan of salvation, aspects of church organization, priesthood offices, the Second Coming, a living prophet, the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands, the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues, other gifts of revelation and of the Spirit, and numerous other doctrines that were part of the early Christian church and that are now part of the Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Q58. Do the scrolls contain previously unknown religious writings?
Many of the writings represented among the Dead Sea Scrolls were unknown before the scrolls’ discovery in the years 1947 through 1956. These writings include legal texts (Temple Scroll, Community Rule, Some Observances of the Law [4QMMT]), hymns and poems (Thanksgiving Hymns, Apocryphal Psalms, Noncanonical Psalms), calendrical texts (Phases of the Moon, Calendars of Priestly Courses, Zodiacal Calendar with a Brontologion), biblical commentaries (Commentary on Micah, Commentary on Habakkuk, Commentary on Psalms), apocryphal works (Prayer of Enosh and Enoch, Elisha Apocryphon, Joshua Apocryphon), biblically related or based works (New Jerusalem, Prayer of Nabonidus, Words of Moses, Book of Noah, Ages of the Creation), prayers and liturgical works (Liturgical Work, Purification Ritual, Blessings, Benedictions, Prayers for Festivals), and other miscellaneous texts.
These texts provide significant information regarding the Hebrew and Aramaic languages, how some Jews worshipped during the centuries before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, and the religious views of the Jews of the Qumran community.

70. Where can I learn more about the scrolls?
We have prepared a suggested reading list of articles and books on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The list includes studies by Latter-day Saint scholars, English translations of the scrolls, and general studies.… (more)

An interesting collection of essays that discuss the scrolls from various angles. It is short enough that it is not a difficult read. Hebrew terms are often introduced with their meaning. Read this book to gain a broader perspective. The following article titles and samples of the text will give you the flavor of the book.

It looks like the book was written in 1997 and digitized in 2013, thus the dual copyright dates. I read the WordCruncher edition, which sometimes has page numbers, but not for this book.

1 The Ancient People of Qumran: An Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls
Andrew C. Skinner

"The Qumran covenanters viewed their community or congregation (yahad in Hebrew) as a link in the historical chain that snapped when Judah was conquered by the Babylonians. This self-identification as the sole legitimate representative of biblical Israel distinguishes the community from their opponents, who regarded the biblical period as a closed chapter, and their authorities—the rabbis—as leading a new phase in the history of Israel.71"
"I find it interesting that clear back then there were people contending that the cannon of scripture is closed. The Essenes believed in continuing revelation."

2 The Contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Biblical Understanding
Donald W. Parry"

"We have gained a great deal of knowledge concerning ancient scribal practices, including paragraphing, scribal corrections, and various other marks and notes in the text.4 We have gained greater appreciation for the archaic practices of orthography (spelling practices), morphology (form of words), and epigraphy (inscriptions). Our knowledge of the development of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages and scripts has increased considerably. Perhaps most significantly, the discovery of the DSS biblical texts enables us to reconstruct portions of the Old Testament."

"Although the DSS biblical texts bring us one thousand years closer to the original words of the prophets, we still do not have the so-called autograph texts, that is, those which were penned by the prophets (or the scribes of the prophets) themselves. We possess copies of the apograph texts, which were created several hundred years after the autograph texts. Throughout the history of the various biblical texts, both the Old and the New Testaments, various errors have crept in—a fact that scholars have been aware of for centuries. The Jewish Talmud, which dates to the fifth century AD, lists eighteen occasions when the scribes intentionally altered the Old Testament because they thought certain ideas showed disrespect for God, or because certain ideas disagreed with the scribes’ theological notion of who or what God is. These textual changes, called tiqqune sopherim (errors of the scribes) may be found in the following verses: Genesis 18:22; Numbers 11:15; 12:12; 1 Samuel 3:13; 2 Samuel 16:12; 20:1; 1 Kings 12:16; Jeremiah 2:11; Ezekiel 8:17; Hosea 4:7; Habakkuk 1:12; Zechariah 2:12; Malachi 1:13; Psalm 106:20; Job 7:20; 32:3; 2 Chronicles 10:16; and Lamentations 3:20.19"

"Variant readings are frequent in the ancient versions and textual witnesses of the Old Testament. Students of biblical Hebrew simply need to look at the footnotes (called the critical apparatus) of the scholars’ edition of the Hebrew Bible (entitled Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia) to discover that variant readings are listed on every page of the Bible."
"The New Testament, like the Old, was contaminated through long centuries of transmission. “There are over 5,200 Greek New Testament manuscripts, no two of which are alike. They come from different areas and communities in antiquity and that accounts for some differences.”23 Bart D. Ehrman points out in his The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture that John Mill’s critical apparatus of the Greek New Testament makes reference to approximately 100 Greek manuscripts and shows “some 30,000 variant readings.”24 As Ehrman demonstrates, many of the variant readings are intentional theological changes."

3 Is the Plan of Salvation Attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Dana M. Pike is an assistant professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University.

"Though there are concepts that I have described as corrupted echoes of true doctrines, there are simply too many key points of the plan of salvation absent from the preserved texts. Doctrines such as the fall, the infinite atonement of the Savior, clear indications of a universal, physical resurrection, and eternal ordinances requiring the holy Melchizedek Priesthood are not attested. The Dead Sea Scrolls cannot teach Latter-day Saints anything about the plan of salvation that has not already been revealed by the Lord through his authorized servants. However, our study of the scrolls can help us to understand the beliefs of the Jewish inhabitants of Qumran and, because of the contrasts, such study can help us more fully appreciate the gospel truths restored in the latter days."

4 Praise, Prayer, and Worship at Qumran
David R. Seely

"Note 2.There are two reliable English editions of most of the Dead Sea Scroll texts. The first and most complete is Florentino García Martínez, The Dead Sea Scrolls Translated (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1994). The second is Geza Vermes, The Dead Sea Scrolls in English, 4th ed. (London: Penguin Books, 1995), which will soon be expanded in a 5th edition."

5 Messianic Hopes in the Qumran Writings
Florentino G. Martínez

6 The Book of Mormon and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Steven D. Ricks is professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages at Brigham Young University and chairman of the FARMS Board of Trustees.

7 Putting the Pieces Together: DNA and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Scott R. Woodward

"Results"
"We have begun to extract aDNA from small portions of parchment fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls..."

8 The FARMS-BYU Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Database
Steven W. Booras, Donald W. Parry, and E. Jan Wilson

"Scholars and interested nonscholars can now access the Dead Sea Scrolls on computer. The Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS), in conjunction with Brigham Young University and other parties,1 has developed a computerized reference library of Dead Sea Scrolls materials that includes photographs of the scrolls and scroll fragments, transcriptions of the writings on the scrolls into modern Hebrew characters and English translations of the Hebrew.2 For the first time, students, scholars, and informed laypersons will be able to access the Dead Sea Scrolls quickly and effectively via the computer with the FARMS-BYU Dead Sea Scrolls Electronic Database. The combination of modern computer power and sophisticated text-manipulating software offers the prospect of combining all these materials into a database that can be analyzed simultaneously and instantaneously by scholars and researchers at a relatively low cost."
"The database uses the WordCruncher search engine, a program developed at BYU, and provides the ability to ..."

End Notes to the Book

"Although these scrolls do not contain the records we await, they do help answer some important questions related to the gospel: How has the Bible been transmitted to our day? What did the Jews believe in the years between the end of the Old Testament and the time of Christ? How much of the full gospel was known by these people before the coming of Christ?"

"The essays in this collection help to answer these and other questions. They give an overview of the history of the scrolls, compare the scrolls and their writers to the Book of Mormon and its authors, and discuss what the scrolls teach about topics like the Messiah and the plan of salvation. The collection also includes a description of how high technology is aiding in all aspects of the translation of the scrolls, from DNA analysis to computerization. The essays are written by BYU faculty who are members of the international team of scroll editors, world-renowned scroll scholar Florentino García Martínez, and other researchers at BYU and FARMS."
… (more)

I have immensely enjoyed reading the Book of Mormon text from this volume. It is another way of reading that Book of Mormon that gave me new insight into the literary construction of this book. It couldn't be said better than it is said in the first two paragraphs of the Foreward.

" The Book of Mormon can be read—and should be read—in many ways. Generously, it repays close readers who seek to apply its messages to present-day lives as well as those that delve into its ancient origins. It submits itself openly to all kinds of rhetorical analyses, theological discussions, or comparative literary studies. But above all, no matter how it is read, the Book of Mormon welcomes readers. It invites all readers to meet its prophets and to be transformed by its wisdom. It begs to be read."
" The present volume superbly facilitates one kind of literary reading of the Book of Mormon by reformatting its complete text in order to display as plainly as possible its most skillful and most beautiful uses of virtually all varieties of parallelism. Learning with this aid to read the Book of Mormon with an eye toward its abundant use of parallelism opens new windows of understanding and appreciation for this richly rewarding scripture." (Foreward, p. VII)


This review is of the second edition, published 2016.… (more)