The Dead Sea Scrolls found in the Qumran Caves date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD. The scrolls include entire books of the Hebrew Scriptures, Apocryphal books of the Bible and extra-biblical manuscripts some of which relate to the Essene community. They throw light on Rabbinic Judaism of the Second Temple era and the emergence of Christianity. It is thought that the Jewish sect called the Essenes conserved the scrolls and hid them.
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain parts of all books belonging to the Hebrew Bible (the Tanakh) except the book of Esther. (Esther was married to a Persian king and the festival of Purim which this book describes did not feature in the Qumran calendar). The Apocryphal or Deuterocanonical books found among these scrolls were Tobit, Baruch 6 (the letter of Jeremiah), Sirach and Psalm 151.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are labelled ‘Apokryphos’, ‘Apokalypsis’ or ‘Pseudepigrapha’:
‘Apokryphos’ means hidden. This word was used by Hellenized Jews for the deuterocanonical books which means ‘second canon’. Thus, the Apocrypha was a hidden second canon.
Other books found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls were those labelled ‘Apokalypsis’ which means the revelation of secrets. Apocalyptic writings include the book of Daniel.
In Judaism the ‘Apokryphos’ books called the ‘outer books’ were not canonized in the Hebrew Bible. Many of them were written by Jews during the Second Temple period after the Hebrew Bible had been compiled.
The Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church accept the books of the Apocrypha as part of their Biblical canon in various degrees, whereas all the Protestant churches that came after the Reformation do not have them in their Bibles. Some Protestants accept that some of these books have value, but they would not give them the status of books of the Bible.
The Dead Sea Scrolls also contained books labelled ‘Pseudepigrapha’ which means writings under false names. These books include the Book of Enoch, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the Assumption of Moses written with pseudonyms.
References in Jude in the New Testament to the Assumption of Moses and the book of Enoch (Jude chapter 9; Jude 14:15) shows that these books were read at the time of Jesus.
Merry and True 