The scholarly study of the ancient Jewish group of the Essenes during the last hundred years falls into two distinct phases. A major turning point occurred around the middle of the twentieth century with the discovery of what a majority of scholars still believe to be an Essene library and community settlement at Khirbet Qumran by the shores of the Dead Sea. The Qumran library comprises the remains of approximately eight hundred scrolls, some very fragmentary, which were
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