Qumran Institute and the Dead Sea scrolls

 

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Qumran Institute and Drents Museum: Death Sea Scrolls exhibition

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The Qumran Institute of the University of Groningen is unique in the Netherlands. The internationally renowned institute focuses on early Judaism and the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was founded in 1961 by Prof. Adam Simon van der Woude (1927-2000).

The Qumran Institute studies Jewish history, society, culture and literature from the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman eras. Research sources include excavations, early Jewish literature in general and the Dead Sea Scrolls in particular.

The Qumran Institute:

• plays an important role in Dead Sea Scrolls research and in the research into early Judaism
• edits a number of prominent academic publications
• maintains the website of the International Organization for Qumran Studies (IOQS)
• provides information to the general public about ancient Judaism in general and the Dead Sea Scrolls in particular.

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What are the Dead Sea Scrolls and what is their significance?

• The Dead Sea Scrolls are a set of 2000-year-old Jewish manuscripts from the period before and during the life of Jesus Christ.
• Tens of thousands of fragments of these manuscripts were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in caves surrounding Qumran, near the Dead Sea. All 1000 manuscripts reconstructed from these fragments have finally been published.
• They include both typically sectarian texts and texts that derive from outside the Qumran community, for example biblical manuscripts and apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature.
• They probably belonged to a religious Jewish group that lived in the Qumran settlement in the period around the birth of Christ.
• They not only provide an insight into the Qumran community, they also shed new light on many aspects of Judaism in general during the late Second Temple Period (c. third century BC – first century AD).
• The texts offer a wealth of information about Jewish religion, history, changing customs and rituals and cultural developments in a period during which important characteristics of Judaism and Christianity were formed.

Qumran Institute

Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Groningen
Oude Boteringestraat 38
NL- 9712 GK Groningen, the Netherlands
Telephone: +31 ( 0)50 363 5577 / +31 (0)50 363 8017
Director:      Dr Mladen Popović
E-mail:         m.popovic@rug.nl