The Dead Sea Scrolls and Protestant canon Has the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had any effect on which Old Testament books should be considered canonical by Protestants?  I didn't know this until yesterday, but the dead sea scrolls contained every book of the Bible in Hebrew, including fragments of Deuterocanonical books (except Esther, although most of that is in the Protestant Bible anyway) 

I may be operating under the hazy assumption that Protestants only discount the Septuagint because it has its basis in Greek instead of having its basis in Hebrew so correct me if I'm wrong.


  That Sirach was originally written in Hebrew may be of some significance for the biblical canon. The book was accepted into the canon of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible by Catholicism and Eastern Orthdoxy but not by Judaism or Protestantism, apparently on the basis that no Hebrew original was thought to exist at the time the Jewish Canon was closed


Wikipedia - Sirach

I just wonder if this is a source of consternation for any Protestant groups or how/if they justify the texts with their own assumptions and scholarship into what the Jews themselves considered scripture at the time of Christ. 



I'd hope that an answer would include a scholarly refutation of the idea that the original books (at least Sirach and Tobit), being composed in Greek, lacked canonical authority for that reason and no other reason.
No, the Dead Sea Scrolls have no effect on the Protestant view of Old Testament canon.

Let's take a look at what different books are included:


Old Testament (protocanonical) books

Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah etc.

Deuterocanonical books

Letter of Jeremiah, Wisdom of Sirach etc.

Other writings

Book of Noah
Book of Giants
Testament of Naphtali
Community Rule
War Scroll
Genesis Apocryphon
Cairo Geniza Testament of Levi
Book of Jubilees
Words of Moses
Rule of the Congregation
and many, many more.



Considering that the Dead Sea Scrolls include a very random selection of books, nothing about canonicity can be reliably deducted from them.