With this essay I am going to deal mainly with the Habbakuk commentary, which is also known as the Habbakuk 'Pesher' or 1Qhab. This well preserved and detailed exposition of the first two chapters of the book of Habbakuk comes from Cave 1 and was published in 1950. The Habbakuk commentary is one of the main sources for the study of Qumran origins, as well as Essene Bible exegesis and the sect's theology regarding prophecy. Habbakuk was a Hebrew prophet of the 7th Century c.e. whose prophecies are found in one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The so-called 'Pesher' is a commentary on Habbakuk's work. It is an extremely detailed, line-by-line examination and translation of the scroll and is a part of the scroll itself. The scroll is damaged and some pieces are missing entirely, so that the Pesher is of necessity incomplete.

The Qumran community completed many other Biblical commentaries, indeed, there are five different types of Biblical commentary that can be found amongst the Qumran literature. The first and least developed form of exegesis is contained in the so-called 'Re-worked Pentateuch' texts, containing quasi traditional Bible texts occ

Content of Pesher. [Web page]. Undated. *http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/habdir.htm*

The Habbakuk Pesher is found in one of these scrolls; the date determined for it is between 104 - 5 B.c.e.. It's important to recognize that radiocarbon dating is not exact, and this figure may be off by as much as 200 years . However, the Carbon dating is backed up by Palaeographical dating which places the manuscript at between 30-1 B.c.e. So, it seems clear that the scrolls are ancient writings, pre-dating the founding of one of the world's great faiths.

The prophecy talks about the Roman rule, the 'Kittim' and how they conquered the entire region. Habbakuk compares them to wolves, and says that they 'possessed the earth with their horses' and that they came from the 'isles of the sea' like eagles. He says they were never sated, and continued to prey on the people.

asionally rearranged and added to. In this category are 4Q158, 4Q364-7, etc. The Temple Scroll can also be placed in this category.

Pesher Habbakuk. [Web page]. Undated. - *http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/habdir.htm*

The third type of commentary reworks Biblical passages into entirely new stories. It relies on one or several texts. Examples in this category are the Words of Moses (1Q22), the New Jerusalem texts (4Q554-5, 5Q15, etc.) and the prayer of Nabonidus (4Q242) inspired by Genesis, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel and Daniel respectively.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sea Scrolls, Habbakuk' Pesher, Pesher Habakkuk, Habbakuk Pesher, Habbakuk' I'm, Jesus Nazareth', Bce It's, Judaism Jerusalem, Genesis Apocryphon, War Scroll, dead sea, 'wicked priest', sea scrolls, dead sea scrolls, 'teacher righteousness', habbakuk pesher, habbakuk commentary, scrolls english geza, geza vermes, scrolls english, complete dead sea, vermes penguin, complete dead, geza vermes penguin, english geza vermes,
Approximate Word count = 2103
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)