Beyond the fact they have nothing to do with christianity, no one is sure about the “Dead Sea Scrolls”. One theory is they are the leftovers of a library, or perhaps a genizah, and probably represent a variety of groups. They are especially interesting to frum Jews for several reasons: 1) they totally disproved the assertions made prior to their discovery that Taanach was written in final form in the medieval period – according to the secular opinions of the early 20th century a complete text of Taanch couldn’t exist that early; 2) in some cases they have details of discussions that are referenced or replied to in the gemara (but not detailed, since halacha went diffrerently); 3) some of the arguments on halacha sound very modern (as in who won’t eat at someone’s house and why. Dr. Schiffman’s books are probably the most readable ones – when anyone other than frum Jews looks at them they tend to end up comically displaying their ignorance. Note that from a halachic perspective they are totally irrelevant, but from an historical perspective they are fascinating.
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