War Scroll

The War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, also known as "War Rule", "Rule of War" and the "War Scroll", is a manual for military organization and strategy that was discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The manuscript was among the scrolls found in Qumran Cave 1, acquired by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and first published posthumously by Eleazar Sukenik in 1955. The document is made up of various scrolls and fragments including 1QM, and 4Q491-497. It is possible that The War of the Messiah is the conclusion to this document. The 4Q491-497 fragments were published by Baillet in Discoveries in the Judaean Desert, 7 and comprise a shorter recension of the War Scroll. Thematically, it seems to be inspired by Zoroastrian texts.

Two time periods have been put forward and defended as the most probable time of composition: the Seleucid period and the Roman period. The Seleucid period proposals include the very beginning of the Maccabean Revolt (165 or 164 BCE), the height of Jonathan's military power (143 BCE), and the reign of John Hyrcanus (135-104 BCE). Scholars who believe the scroll was composed during the Roman period propose a date from the middle of the 1st century BCE to the first decade of the 1st century CE. The War Scroll's description of the weaponry and tactics led Yigael Yadin to assign the composition of the scroll to a date between the capture of Jerusalem by Pompey (65 BCE) and the death of Herod (4 BCE). More recently, author Russell Gmirkin in "The War Scroll and Roman Weaponry Reconsidered" disagrees with Yadin's analysis and assigns the weaponry described in the War Scroll to the 2nd century BCE. Lt. Col. Peter Fromm (US Army Ret.) sides with Gmirkin also assigning the army and weaponry described in the War Scroll to the 2nd century BCE.

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