Isaiah Scroll
[5][6] This seemingly fits with the theory that the scroll(s) was a product of the Essenes, a mystic Jewish sect, first mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History,[7] and later by Josephus[8] and Philo Judaeus.
[9] Further supporting this theory are the number of Essene sectarian texts found in the surrounding Qumran Caves, and the lining up of recorded beliefs to artifacts or structures at the Qumran site (like communal meals and the obsession with ritual purity lining up with rooms with hundreds of plates and many ritual baths found at the site).
[11] The reason for the placement of 1QIsaa in Qumran Cave 1 is still unknown, though it has been speculated that it was placed, along with the other scrolls, by Jews (Essene or not) fleeing the Roman forces during the First Jewish–Roman War (c. 66–73 AD).
[12] The scroll was discovered in Qumran Cave 1, by a group of three Ta'amireh shepherds, near the Ein Feshkha spring off the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between late 1946 and early 1947; initially discovered when one of the shepherds heard the sound of shattering pottery after throwing a rock while searching for a lost member of his flock.
Van der Ploeg identified one of the manuscripts at the monastery as a copy of the Book of Isaiah in Hebrew, but was met with skepticism, as a fellow scholar at the École Biblique believed that the scrolls must be fakes due to their antiquity.
[16] In January 1948, Professor Eleazar Sukenik of the Chair of Palestinian Archaeology in the Hebrew University arranged to meet with a member of the Syrian community in the Y.M.C.A building of Jerusalem to see the scrolls and borrow them for a few days, after hearing of their existence at the monastery.
[17] Early in 1949, Mar Samuel, Syrian Archbishop–Metropolitan of Jerusalem, brought the scroll to the United States, hoping to sell it and the three others he had in his possession.
[17] The scrolls were advertised for sale in the Wall Street Journal in June, 1954 under the "miscellaneous" columns, but were eventually bought by Israeli archeologist Yigael Yadin for $250,000 in 1954 and brought back to Israel, although the purchase was not announced until February 1955.
The digitized scroll provides an English translation alongside the original text,[18] and can be viewed on the museum's website or at the Google Art Project.
A 2021 analysis by researchers at the University of Groningen applied artificial intelligence and pattern recognition tools to determine that it was highly likely that two scribes copied the scroll, each contributing one of the two halves.
[11] Some of the major variants are notable as they show the development of the book of Isaiah over time or represent scribal errors unique to 1QIsaa.
[11] Abegg, Flint, and Ulrich note that there are a number of errors of this nature that may represent a degree of carelessness on the part of the scribe.
