Qumran

Pronunciation: koom-RAHN

The Modern Name for Secacah

Qumran is the modern Arabic name for the site the books call Secacah. Qumran means “the unbelievers,” so named because the graves found there do not face Mecca (Handbook, p. 140).

A Place Set Apart for Watches

Qumran was designated for the very specific use as a facility to do holy watches. There the Essenes kept prayer vigils day and night to call forth the birth of Christ. Those in the watch took communion daily and were baptized every day in a Miqveh bath before they entered into the watch session, and the council there was a watch council. Between Mary’s birth and Christ’s birth there was no watch, and archaeology even indicates that in this window of time Qumran was unoccupied (Handbook, pp. 139–140, 145).

Honi’s Gift Found in the Ground

In the Essene settlement of Secacah, called Qumran by Arabs, a piece of shard was found that was a written contract stating that the property at Secacah was donated to the Community of the early church by Honi — John the Baptist’s grandfather on his mother’s side, and a circle drawer (Handbook, p. 241).

The Urim Fragment from Cave 1

In Cave #1 at Qumran a fragment, #29, was found that describes two stones — one “on the left” — coming forth “with tongues of fire” before the whole congregation. There are no lots here. The Handbook points to this fragment as vindicating Lucy Smith’s description of the Urim and Thummim as “two smooth three-cornered diamonds” (Handbook, pp. 584–585).

This fragment is catalogued today as 1Q29 and published together with 4Q376 under the title “Tongues of Fire.” Its translators note that it shares with Josephus the expectation that God would make the answer known by causing the appropriate stone to “shine forth with a brilliant light,” whereas modern scholars generally picture lots drawn from a pouch. (Sources: Wise, Abegg & Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, rev. ed. 2005, p. 144; Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, rev. ed. 2004, p. 578)

A Library of Many Versions

Another High Priest, at the Lord’s command, could take the same tablets and the same Urim and Thummim and receive a very good and inspirational variant that could also be called scripture. Several versions of the same work could be side by side in a library, just like in Qumran (Handbook, p. 601).

Elasah and Khirbet Qazone

Zadok was buried after the manner of the Essenes in Elasah (Moses 15:43). There is an ancient cemetery in the land of Elasah, in what is now Jordan, called Khirbet Qazone, with 3,500 Essene graves — far more than are in Secacah/Qumran. Research there also found that the burial style of the Essenes was widespread on the eastern frontier of Israel clear into the fourth century A.D., “which is what the vision from Urim indicates” (Moses, pp. 468, 550).

A Real Archaeological Parallel

The Copper Scroll, a list of buried treasure found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, names Secacah several times: “the dam of the Secacah Valley,” “the head of the aqueduct [of the] Secacah [Valley],” and “as you go from Jericho to Secacah.” Its translators note that “many scholars think that Secacah was an ancient name for the site of Qumran,” though the identification is disputed. (Source: Wise, Abegg & Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation, rev. ed. 2005, pp. 217–218)

For the full account — its founding by Goker Harim II, the seven pools, Hannah, Elijah, Isaiah, and the Yahad Ostracon — see Secacah.

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