THE TEMPLE SCROLL WRAPPER

MS 5095/2
MS Short Title THE TEMPLE SCROLL WRAPPER
Text LINEN CLOTH SCROLL WRAPPER
Description Linen cloth, Qumran, late 1st c. BC - 68 AD, ca. 45x60 cm, the upper edge lacking, in a fine weave of 12x12 S-spun threads pr square cm, the warp and weft of fairly same thickness, the lower edge with border of 2 pairs of thicker parallel threads, 2 cm apart; with stains from the scroll, some tiny black gelatinised vellum fragments stitching. The cord to fasten the wrapper around the scroll, 85 cm long, made from 3 linen threads.
Context The Temple Scroll, with the 12 fragments MS 5095/1, the scroll's linen wrapper MS 5095/2, and a palm leaf pen, MS 5095/3, were found together in a large jar with lid (still in Kando's shop in Jerusalem), in Cave 11 in 1956. The Temple Scroll is now in Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum. Smaller parts of the wrapper still stick to MS 5095/1. For similar wrappers from Cave 1, see DJD vol. I, Oxford 1955, G.M. Crowfoot: The linen textiles.
Provenance 1. Community of the Essenes, Qumran (early 1st c. - 68 AD); 2. Qumran Cave 11 (68-1956); 3. Bedouins of the Ta'amireh tribe, Judaean desert (1956); 4. Khalil Iskander Shahin ("Kando"), Bethlehem (1956-1961); 5. Private collection, Switzerland (gift from Kando) (1961-1980) and heirs.
Commentary The Temple Scroll is the longest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with its 9 m. The text was originally written ca. 150 BC, and purports to be the second Torah of the Community of Essenes, giving particularly attention to the way the Temple is to be reconstructed. The purpose of the scroll is to be a New Deuteronomy, a law for the remnant of Israel in the future. With the Manual of Discipline, the most important of the sectarian Dead Sea Scrolls. The common way of keeping books, i.e. scrolls, in the ancient period, was to wrap them up or put them in cases, sometimes both, and then put them in a cupboard. In the later synagogues this cupboard was generally referred to as the Ark of the Law. Representation of it, with the doors open and the ends of the scrolls showing, are seen on Jewish gilt glass vessels found in the catacombs in Roma. To the present day, the Torah is a scroll with a scroll wrapper.
Place of origin Qumran
Dates late 1c BC - early 1c AD