Passage1

The Dead Sea Scrolls

死海古卷

In late 1946 or early 1947, three Bedouin teenagers were tending their goats and sheep near the ancient settlement of Qumran, located on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in what is now known as the West Bank. One of these young shepherds tossed a rock into an opening on the side of a cliff and was surprised to hear a shattering sound. He and his companions later entered the cave and stumbled across a collection of large clay jars, seven of which contained scrolls with writing on them. The teenagers took the seven scrolls to a nearby town where they were sold for a small sum to a local antiquities dealer. Word of the find spread, and Bedouins and archaeologists eventually unearthed tens of thousands of additional scroll fragments from 10 nearby caves; together they make up between 800 and 900 manuscripts. It soon became clear that this was one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made.

在1946年末或1947年初，三个贝都因少年在Qumran的古老定居地附近放牧他们的山羊和绵羊，这地方位于死海的西北海岸，今天被称为西岸。其中一位年轻牧羊人把一块石头丟进了一座悬崖侧面的洞口，惊讶地听到了什么东西被打碎的声音。他和伙伴们后来钻进了洞里，无意中发现了一堆大瓦罐，其中的七个里面装着写了字的卷轴。这几个少年把七幅卷轴拿到了附近的镇子上，以很低的价格卖给了一个当地的古董交易商。关于这个发现的消息传播了开来，贝都因人和考古学家们最终从十个附近的山洞里发掘出了成千上万的其他卷轴残片；它们一共组成了800到900份手稿。世人很快就意识到：这是有史以来最伟大的考古发现之一。

The origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written around 2,000 years ago between 150 BCE and 70 CE, is still the subject of scholarly debate even today. According to the prevailing theory, they are the work of a population that inhabited the area until Roman troops destroyed the settlement around 70 CE. The area was known as Judea at that time, and the people are thought to have belonged to a group called the Essenes, a devout Jewish sect.

死海古卷成书于大约两千年前的公元前150年到公元70年，其起源即使在今天仍是学术界争论不休的话题。按照流传最广的说法，它们是当地居民的作品，这些人一直在此定居，直到罗马军队在公元70年左右踏平了他们的家园。这个地区当时被称为Judea，而其居民则被认为是属于艾赛尼派信徒，这是一支虔诚的犹太教派。

The majority of the texts on the Dead Sea Scrolls are in Hebrew, with some fragments written in an ancient version of its alphabet thought to have fallen out of use in the fifth century BCE. But there are other languages as well. Some scrolls are in Aramaic, the language spoken by many inhabitants of the region from the sixth century BCE to the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE. In addition, several texts feature translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

死海古卷上的大多数内容是以希伯来文写成的，其中一些残卷上的文字使用的是一种古老的字母体系，被认为到公元前五世纪时不再被使用。不过也还有一些其他语言的运用。一些卷轴里写的是阿拉姆语，许多从公元前六世纪开始居住在此地直到公元70年耶路撒冷围城之时的居民讲这种语言。此外，还有几份文本中的内容是将希伯来圣经翻译成的希腊文。

The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments from every book of the Old Testament of the Bible except for the Book of Esther. The only entire book of the Hebrew Bible preserved among the manuscripts from Qumran is Isaiah; this copy, dated to the first century BCE, is considered the earliest biblical manuscript still in existence. Along with biblical texts, the scrolls include documents about sectarian regulations and religious writings that do not appear in the Old Testament.

死海古卷里的内容包括了《圣经·旧约》中每一卷的片段，除了《以斯帖记》。在来自Qumran的所有这些保存下来的手稿中，唯一一部保留完整的希伯来圣经是《以赛亚书》；这部分书稿可以追溯到公元前一世纪，被认为是现存最古老的圣经手稿。除了圣经内容外，卷轴中还包括了教派规章文件和没有出现在《旧约》中的宗教内容。

The writing on the Dead Sea Scrolls is mostly in black or occasionally red ink, and the scrolls themselves are nearly all made of either parchment (animal skin) or an early form of paper called ‘papyrus’. The only exception is the scroll numbered 3Q15, which was created out of a combination of copper and tin. Known as the Copper Scroll, this curious document features letters chiselled onto metal – perhaps, as some have theorized, to better withstand the passage of time. One of the most intriguing manuscripts from Qumran, this is a sort of ancient treasure map that lists dozens of gold and silver caches. Using an unconventional vocabulary and odd spelling, it describes 64 underground hiding places that supposedly contain riches buried for safekeeping. None of these hoards have been recovered, possibly because the Romans pillaged Judea during the first century CE. According to various hypotheses, the treasure belonged to local people, or was rescued from the Second Temple before its destruction or never existed to begin with.

死海古卷上的文字大多数是用黑色墨水书写的，偶尔会用红色，卷轴本身的材质几乎全部都是羊皮纸（动物皮革）或是一种称之为“纸莎草”的早期形式的纸张。唯一的例外是编号为3Q15的一部卷轴，由铜和锡混合制作而成。这份稀奇的文件被称为“铜卷轴”，其中文字是錾刻在金属上的——也许，就像有些人提出的理论那样，是为了更好地抵御时光流逝。作为Qumran手稿中最引人入胜的部分之一，这是一份古代藏宝图，列出了几十个密藏金银财宝之处。利用一种不常见的词汇体系和古怪的拼写方式，它描述了64处据传妥善埋藏着财宝的地下藏宝点。这些藏宝地还没有一处被发现过，也许是因为罗马人在公元一世纪洗劫了Judea地区。根据各种各样的假想，这批财宝归属于当地居民，或者在第二圣殿被毁坏前从中抢救了出来，或者也许从一开始就根本不存在。

Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been on interesting journeys. In 1948, a Syrian Orthodox archbishop known as Mar Samuel acquired four of the original seven scrolls from a Jerusalem shoemaker and part-time antiquity dealer, paying less than $100 for them. He then travelled to the United States and unsuccessfully offered them to a number of universities, including Yale. Finally, in 1954, he placed an advertisement in the business newspaper The Wall Street Journal – under the category ‘Miscellaneous Items for Sale’ – that read: ‘Biblical Manuscripts dating back to at least 200 B.C. are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group.’ Fortunately, Israeli archaeologist and statesman Yigael Yadin negotiated their purchase and brought the scrolls back to Jerusalem, where they remain to this day.

有一部分死海古卷曾经踏上过奇妙的旅程。在1948年，一位叫做Mar Samuel的叙利亚东正教大主教从一个耶路撒冷的鞋匠兼业余古董交易商那里买下了最初七个卷轴中的四个，一共花了不到100美元。他接下来去往了美国，试图将它们兜售给包括耶鲁在内的一系列大学而没能成功。最终，在1954年，他在商务报纸《华尔街日报》上打了个广告——放在“杂项物品出售”这个门类下，内容是：“售卖追溯到至少公元前200年的圣经手稿。无论个人还是团队，这将是赠予某个教育或宗教机构的完美礼物。”幸运的是，以色列考古学家及政治家Yigael Yadin协商买下了它们，将这些卷轴带回了耶路撒冷，它们在那里一直被保存到今日。

In 2017, researchers from the University of Haifa restored and deciphered one of the last untranslated scrolls. The university’s Eshbal Ratson and Jonathan Ben-Dov spent one year reassembling the 60 fragments that make up the scroll. Deciphered from a band of coded text on parchment, the find provides insight into the community of people who wrote it and the 364-day calendar they would have used. The scroll names celebrations that indicate shifts in seasons and details two yearly religious events known from another Dead Sea Scroll. Only one more known scroll remains untranslated.

在2017年，海法大学的研究者们复原和破译了最后一批未翻译卷轴中的一部。这所大学的Eshbal Ratson和Jonathan Ben-Dov花费一年时间将60块残片重新拼接在一起构成了完整卷轴。从羊皮卷上的一系列加密文本中破译以后，呈现出来的内容足以供人们一窥那个写下了这些文字的族群以及他们所使用的一年364天的历法。卷轴中提到了昭示季节变化的庆典仪式，并且描述了另一部死海卷轴中所提及的两场年度宗教仪式的细节。目前只剩下了一部已知的卷轴还未翻译成文。