Questions of Canon Viewed through the Dead Sea Scrolls

Abstract

AbstractThe formation of the biblical canon was a gradual one. Questions concerning who, what, when, and how are obscure. The Dead Sea Scrolls indicate that clusters of writings were gathered into recognizable groupings, but that these clusters were not fixed during the time of the Dead Sea community. Indeed, the evidence of Qumran suggests that it was believed that revelation and inspiration continued, at least in the time of the Teacher of Righteousness. The MS evidence of the Scrolls suggests that the text of even the books of Torah was not finally settled. Therefore, it would better fit the ancient evidence from Qumran if we avoided using the words Bible and biblical for this period and this communíty.