Dr. Gary Gromacki
Associate Professor of Bible and
Homiletics
Baptist Bible Seminary
Clarks Summit,
Pennsylvania
<ggromacki>at <bbc>dot <edu>
Cave 4 is located only a short distance from the building ruins at Qumran. It is an artificial cave hollowed out in the marl overlooking the Wadi Qumran. Many DSS were discovered in Cave 4 by Mohammed edh-Dhib in September of 1952. On September 20, 1952 Harding was contacted by de Vaux who said that the Bedouin had offered him a huge quantity of fragments and that he purchased some of them for 1300 pounds. Harding went to the area of Qumran and caught the Bedouin at work removing some of the DSS. The official excavation of Cave 4 took place from September 22-29, 1952.
DeVaux wrote this about the excavation, "The Bedouin had already removed more than half the fill of the cave and had worked so carefully that only a few small fragments were found in their debris. But the archaeologists themselves explored the lower levels of the cave and a small underground room that the Bedouin had not reached, and they discovered the original entrance. They gathered almost a thousand fragments, belonging to one hundred different manuscripts which are almost all represented among the fragments bought from the Bedouin. This certifies the origin of the lot sold by them. On the other hand this scattering of the parts of the same manuscripts indicates an ancient upheaval." (Roland de Vaux, "Archeologie," Qumran Grotte 4 II, 4 translation by J. VanderKam, "The Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls," in The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002, p. 17).
Schiffman and other DSS scholars believe that Cave 4 was the library for the Qumran Community. Most of the biblical scrolls were found in cave 4.
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Doctrine of God Doctrine of the Bible Doctrine of Man and Sin
Doctrine of Salvation Doctrine of the Community Doctrine of the Messiah
Doctrine of Eschatology Archaeology of Qumran Bibliography on the DSS
Web Sites on the DSS DSS Table of Contents