Around the time of Jesus, the lands of Judea and Galilee were home to a variety of Jews. One group of Jews known as the Essenes (the name in Hebrew means "Saints") was critical of the temple in Jerusalem, believing it to be operated by an illegitimate priesthood and in need of purification.

They withdrew into the desert and, according to most scholars, settled at Qumran, where they collected, copied, wrote, and eventually hid the writings that later became known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Seeing themselves as the only true covenant Israel, the Essenes waited on the Messiah to establish a new kingdom of God in holiness. (As a group they did not accept Jesus Christ as that Messiah.)

In A.D. 68 the Romans destroyed the community at Qumran—but not before its inhabitants concealed their scrolls, which contained important biblical manuscripts and other texts, in 11 nearby caves. In 1947 the first cache of what turned out to be a massive collection of scrolls and scroll fragments was discovered.

Several parallels naturally attract members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes known as Mormons) to the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls and to some of their teachings, even though these two religious groups are not linked with each other directly.

Like the community at Qumran, the Latter-day Saints also strive to live holy lives. At odds with 19th-century American culture, they were persecuted and sought sanctuary in the desert.

Further, one of the Latter-day Saints' sacred books—The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ (translated from a record that had been buried in the earth for more than a millennium)—begins with the history of a group of Jews who opposed the rulers in Jerusalem around 600 B.C. and fled into the Arabian desert.

Translated by Mormonism's founding prophet, Joseph Smith, and then published in New York in 1830, the Book of Mormon speaks of additional books prophesied to come forth in the last days to further establish God's truth. Other LDS scripture and teachings reinforce this belief in sacred books yet to be revealed.

Latter-day Saints believe that the Book of Mormon restores the writings of prophets who ministered among the peoples of ancient America. They also believe that the Pearl of Great Price, another book in their sacred canon, contains the writings of Abraham and portions from the book of Moses. They look forward to the coming forth of other ancient texts as well, including those authored by Adam, Enoch, and Joseph.

It is no wonder, then, that many Latter-day Saints have developed a serious interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Like the Book of Mormon, the scrolls acquaint the world with a people lost to history—a people whose recovered writings, buried in the earth for centuries, now enables them to "speak out of the ground" and "whisper out of the dust" (Isaiah 29:4).

Although the Dead Sea Scrolls do not contain the lost records the Latter-day Saints await, they are of great interest to LDS scholars and others. The scrolls provide not only new information about the transmission of the Old Testament but also greater evidence for the variety of beliefs and practices within Judaism shortly before and after the time of Jesus Christ.

More generally, the Latter-day Saints view the scrolls' discovery as part of a wider pattern of increasing knowledge about the Bible lands and their people that the Lord is making available for study in this day. Also, the Dead Sea Scrolls and other manuscript finds (e.g., the Nag Hammadi library from Egypt and scrolls from ancient Herculaneum and Petra) augur well for discoveries of religious import in the near future. For the LDS faithful, such manuscript finds are a significant part of the fulfillment of prophecy, even if the finds are but prelude to greater discoveries and revelations to come.