In 1947, in caves along the shore of the Dead Sea, a cache of documents was found which dated back to the time of Jesus. These documents were apparently written by a community of Essenes who had lived in the area. The documents had been hidden in the caves, presumably, in case the Romans were to overrun the Holy Land during one of the many Jewish revolts.
Unlike the Nag Hammadi texts which were discovered only two years earlier, the Dead Sea scrolls were not turned over to a scientific team for translation, but a team of clergy and academics who seemed to want the respect and admiration that they would recieve from possessing the texts more than they wanted to translate and share them. As a result, by 1977, the Nag Hammadi Library had been translated and published. By 1987, ten years later, the world was still waiting on the Dead Sea Scoll team, with only occasional publications of certain documents or fragments during the previous 40 years.
In addition to the parchments, there were also 450 bronze coins (dating from 135BC to 136AD), an urn of annointing oil (made from a plant which has been extinct for hundreds of years), and a metal roll which has become known as the Copper Scroll.
These texts show a very different proto-Christian religion being formed than what is today the Roman Catholic Church. From those that have studied the texts, it has been proposed that the Essenes followed the teachings of Jesus and his brother James, who may be the one referred to as the "Teacher of Righteousness" in the texts. The Pauline Catholic movement was viewed as a perversion of traditional Jewish teachings, as well as those of Jesus and James.
It has also been proposed that the original research team suppressed the translation of the texts because some of the writing were in direct conflict with Roman Catholic dogma. In the Son of God Scroll, the writer explains that "Son of God" is a title used to represent the true Davidic bloodline heir to the throne of Israel. A title that could be applied to either Jesus or James, yet very different from the meaning assigned to that title in Roman Catholocism.
Probably the most profound discovery among the Dead Sea scolls was the Copper Scroll. A rolled scroll actually made from a sheet of copper, it was so badly oxidized it had to be sliced into strips to be opened. The Copper Scroll was a treasure map, listing various precious metals and religious relics that had been buried throughout the Holy Land to keep them out of Roman hands in case of revolution. Some believe this list of treasures to be a forgery,a s none of the treasures have been found. Others believe carving instructions into a sheet of metal using technology of 2000 years ago and then rolling the item into a tube seems to be a little far to go for a joke.
The Copper Scroll ends by mentioning another copy of itself, possibly hidden in the ruins of the Temple of Solomon. Excavations at the ruins of the Temple of Solomon in the 1950's revealed that the Knights Templar also excavated under the temple while stationed there during the Crusades, possibly for the purpose of building their stables there. Its possible that the Templars located not only the second copy of the scroll, but also managed to locate a good portion of the treasures described within it. This would explain not only the order's great wealth, but possibly some of the strange rituals and traditions the order supposedly had. Maybe they discovered some other Essene documents and were moved enough to incorportate their ancient rituals into their own. If the Knights Templar did indeed evolve into the Freemasonic organization, this could also be the source for some of the Masonic rituals based on characters and situations from the Old Testament which do not appear in the Bible.
Recommended Reading :
Baigent, Michael, and Richard Leigh. The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
Eisenman, Robert, and Michael Wise. The Dead Sea Scolls Uncovered. Element Books, 1992.
Martinez, Florentino Garcia. The Dead Sea Scolls Translated : The Qumran Texts in English. New York: E. J. Brill, 1996.