Khirbet Qumrân et les Esséniens

In the course of the discoveries of the caves with scrolls and of the excavations of Khirbet Qumran, the Essene hypothesis became generally accepted despite some opposition. But during the last two decades, a surge of contradictory opinions has attempted to dismiss the case. This note presents a history and a status quæstionis of researches and tries to show that the accepted identification has not yet been overthrown, since it raises fewer questions without proper answers than the proposed hypotheses which contradict
each other.