BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Teasing the Temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Thinking through the dimensions with Lawrence Schiffman

Comfort, comfort my people!
–Isaiah 40:1

When Cyrus and the Persians brought an end to the Babylonian Exile and decreed that communities exiled by the Babylonians were permitted to go back to their homelands, the Judeans living in Mesopotamia must have been filled with hope and anticipation as they prepared for the return journey to the land of Judah. Their focus surely revolved around the complex challenges of rebuilding and, in particular, the task of restoring the Jerusalem Temple.

Yet, as the book of Ezra tells us, the rebuilt Temple was rather modest. Grandiose descriptions of its splendor, set down at great length in the biblical account of King Solomon’s construction of the First Temple centuries before (1 Kings 5–7), are lacking in Ezra. Consequently, as biblical scholar Lawrence H. Schiffman notes, “the diminished reality of ancient Israel’s exclusive sanctuary to God led the returnees to imagine a far grander and more glorious Temple that would recall the magnificence of Solomon’s Temple and meet the future aspirations of the Judean people.” In the biblical context, the prophet Ezekiel laid out his vision for an idealized Temple, greatly expanded, with the tribes of Israel gathered systematically around their central sanctuary in the coming eschatological age (see Ezekiel 40­–48).

Given this background, it is unsurprising that the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls—some of whom wrote as early as the third century BCE—were intensely interested in this topic. Schiffman examines two detailed plans for the Temple and its environs found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in his article “Sublime Sanctuary: The Jerusalem Temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” published in the Summer 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Plan of the Jerusalem Temple described in the Temple Scroll (11QT). © Ritmeyer Archaeological Design

One of the most complete and best known scrolls from Qumran, the Temple Scroll (11QT), written in the late second century BCE, responds to the eminent Hasmonean order of the time and lays out a detailed plan for reform. The proposed reforms are sweeping, including a restructuring of the political system, but their central focus is rebuilding and reorganizing the Jerusalem Temple according to the author’s interpretation of the Torah.

After detailed instructions for the construction of the Temple and its furnishings, the Temple Scroll turns to a description of the three outer courts that surround the Temple. Overall, the Temple precinct measures about 2,500 feet on a side—a total of about 145 acres, more than four times the size of the Herodian Temple Mount that was constructed in the first century BCE and still stands today. The Inner Court closely surrounds the Temple and is accessed by means of four gates, one on each side, representing the four groups that make up the tribe of Levi (the Aaronide priests and the Levitical groups associated with Kohath, Gershon, and Merari). The Middle and Outer Courts each boast 12 gates, with each gate named for one of the Israelite tribes. Along the inner walls of the Outer Court, between the gates, are extensive series of inward-facing chambers; each of these 16 sections is associated with an Israelite tribe or a portion of the tribe of Levi.

Plan of the Jerusalem Temple described in New Jerusalem (2Q24, 4Q554, 4Q554a, 5Q15, 11Q1). © Ritmeyer Archaeological Design

A second Temple plan is found in the more obscure text known as New Jerusalem (2Q24, 4Q554, 4Q554a, 5Q15, 11Q1). The author of this text appears to be writing before the Maccabean Revolt, in the early portion of the second century BCE. This plan is set down in the form of a tour guided by an angelic figure, much as we see in the biblical book of Ezekiel. Envisioning the Temple precinct and the city as coterminous, the description begins with the outer wall of the city, which measures a staggering 11.5 by 16 miles, nearly four times the size of present-day Jerusalem. The interior of this space is crisscrossed with major avenues, three running north–south and three running east–west; these thoroughfares enter and exit the complex through 12 gates. On the east, the center gate corresponds to the tribe of Levi, with the flanking gates corresponding to Simeon and Judah, signifying the importance of these tribes in the author’s perspective. The large roads divide the space within the city walls into 16 rectangular areas, within which smaller streets and insulae (apartment buildings) are constructed. Each insula is square and consists of 60 apartments—15 per side—around a central court.

The Temple presumably sits at the center of the city, at or near the intersection of the central north–south and east–west roads. Unfortunately, the description of the Temple itself in New Jerusalem is very broken, but it is possible to make out references to gold and precious stones, as well as to components of the Temple such as the courtyard, the Holy of Holies, the altar, and the laver.

Due to the extensive size of the New Jerusalem Temple complex, most scholars have assumed that it is intended to incorporate the whole city of Jerusalem. Schiffman, however, questions this point, proposing instead that the residential areas are intended for pilgrims to the holy city, divided according to their tribal affiliations.

In both plans for the Jerusalem Temple, the authors of these Dead Sea Scrolls present the Temple and its courts as a source of holiness, to be approached with a sense of awe and reverence and in the appropriate state of ritual purity. Schiffman explains that they represent recreations of an idealized image of the Tabernacle and the surrounding Israelite camp during the wandering period (see Numbers 2–4).

For Lawrence Schiffman’s full discussion, see his article “Sublime Sanctuary: The Jerusalem Temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” in the Summer 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article, “Sublime Sanctuary: The Jerusalem Temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls,” by Lawrence H. Schiffman, in the Summer 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament

Pilgrimage to the Jerusalem Temple

A Second Temple in First Temple Jerusalem?

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