What does sectarian literature consist of?
The sectarian works describe the Qumran community’s religious and organizational practices, its theology and halakhic views, its history, and its unique form of biblical interpretation. Which books of the Bible were discovered at Qumran? All of the books of the Bible were represented in the Qumran library with the exception of the Book of Esther. Scholarly opinion is divided on the reason behind the omission—some believe it is coincidental and others maintain that the book was intentionally excluded. Is the Qumran Bible the same as a modern Bible? A large number of the biblical manuscripts in the Qumran Bible closely resemble the Masoretic text, which became the standard Jewish biblical text. Some of the texts were written in a Hebrew dialect used by the Qumran community, and were apparently in use by the sect. A few texts represent the text type from which the Greek Septuagint was translated and a few are similar to the Samaritan Bible.
