# Dead Sea Scrolls community at Qumran (c. 150 BCE)

URL: https://christianity-history.com/timeline/-150-dead-sea-scrolls-community-at-qumran
Location: Qumran, Judean Desert
Themes: Scripture

A Jewish sectarian community near the Dead Sea copies and composes the texts later known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. At this point in the timeline (c. 150 BCE), there was not yet a Christian church; the Jewish people lived under a succession of Seleucid, Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman rulers, and religious life centred on the Temple in Jerusalem and its high priests.

## Why it matters
The scrolls illuminate the Jewish world into which Christianity was born and the text of the Old Testament.

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Dead Sea Scrolls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Sea_Scrolls)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica topic lookup — Dead Sea Scrolls community at Qumran](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Dead+Sea+Scrolls+community+at+Qumran)
- [Wikipedia — Second Temple Background (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Temple_period)