The Sectarian Scrolls
The distinctively Qumran-community writings — rules of communal life, liturgy, eschatology, and scriptural interpretation produced by the movement most scholars identify with the Essenes. These are not biblical books but the community’s own literature.
CONTENTS & SIGNIFICANCE
- The Community Rule (1QS)c. 1st c. BCE
The constitution of the Yahad — the sect’s discipline, initiation, and shared life.
- The War Scroll (1QM)c. 1st c. BCE–1st c. CE
The eschatological "War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness."
- The Hodayot / Thanksgiving Hymns (1QHᵃ)c. 1st c. BCE
First-person hymns of thanksgiving in the voice of the community’s teacher.
- The Temple Scroll (11QTemple)c. late 1st c. BCE
A rewrite of Torah presenting an ideal temple and law-code as though spoken by God.
- The Damascus Document (CD / 4QD)c. 1st c. BCE–1st c. CE
Rules and history of a branch of the movement living in "the land of Damascus."
- The Pesharimc. 1st c. BCE
Running commentaries on the prophets (Habakkuk, Nahum, Hosea, Micah) read as predicting the community’s age.
Source citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qumran_sectarian_manuscripts