Good afternoon sir. How similar are the dead sea scrolls writings to the modern torah? Some texts in the dead sea scrolls were ancient versions of the torah, right?
As per Wikipedia:
The Dead Sea Scrolls are traditionally divided into three groups: "Biblical" manuscripts (copies of texts from the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 40% of the identified scrolls; "Apocryphal" or "Pseudepigraphical" manuscripts (known documents from the Second Temple Period like Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit, Sirach, additional psalms, etc., that were not ultimately canonized in the Hebrew Bible), which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls; and "Sectarian" manuscripts (previously unknown documents that speak to the rules and beliefs of a particular group or groups within greater Judaism) like the Community Rule, War Scroll, Pesher on Habakkuk (Hebrew: פשר pesher = "Commentary"), and the Rule of the Blessing, which comprise roughly 30% of the identified scrolls.
The entire Hebrew Bible (minus the Book of Esther) is represented among the Dead Sea Scrolls -- and therefore the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, are also included.
