I understand that most of the translation work is done. The remaining work is to match fragment xyz to Biblical text abc or to Talmudic commentary 123 -- or is this piece of parchment something new?
The current theory, as I understand it, is the Essenes copied a minor portion by themselves, maybe 10-25%, but the rest were scripts written outside the community. One conjecture is that they believed they were already in the "end-times" and had been copying and burying scrolls for years The 66-72 Jewish revolt may have forced them to speed it up and accept outside texts.
... Also, fragments of every Biblical book except Esther have been found, as well as many other non-Biblical texts.
The wining and dining and seducing the King like in Esther probably wouldn't have appealed to them. But the Jews didn't have a "accepted" canon back then.
... as well as in the coming of the prophesied Messiah, whose kingdom they foresaw as drawing close to earth, which is exactly what Jesus claimed.
Orthodox Jews were expecting a strong triumphant King that would redeem the Jewish nation en masse. Jesus was clearly not the Messiah as the Jews understood him to be.
And yet Israel exists.
"I recently met in Jerusalem with Professor Leon Lederman, Nobel Prize winning physicist. We were talking science, obviously. And as the conversation went on, I said, "What about spirituality, Leon?" And he said to me, "Schroeder, I'll talk science with you, but as far as spirituality, speak to the people across the street, the theologians." But then he continued, and he said, "But I do find something spooky about the people of Israel coming back to the Land of Israel."" Gerald Schroeder
God works in mysterious ways. :-}
Well, in some cases, the prophecies were specific, and they did not understand the time of their visitation. Killing the prophets, when you need them, is never a good idea. Jesus made every effort to get them to understand, that for a spiritual people, his kingdom was a spiritual kingdom, but they were looking for another. Consequently, as the prophecy of Moses states, it was then given to another people, and that is spiritual christians.