The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered beginning in 1947 in caves near Qumran, were primarily associated with which ancient sectarian community?
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. The Essenes (Yahad community)
- Step 1: The manuscripts recovered from the 11 caves at Qumran include biblical texts, apocrypha, and sectarian communal rules (such as the Community Rule).
- Step 2: Scholarly consensus links the Qumran settlement and scroll repository to the Essenes, an ascetic Jewish monastic movement that separated from the Jerusalem temple hierarchy.
Answer
The Essenes (Yahad community).
Why not the others: The Pharisees represented the mainstream rabbinic movement centered in urban synagogues; the Sadducees were the aristocratic priestly elite administering the Jerusalem Temple; the Zealots were an armed anti-Roman resistance movement.
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