Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls have been called the greatest manuscript find of all time. Discovered between 1947 and 1956, the Dead Sea Scrolls comprise some 800 documents but in many tens of thousands of fragments. The Scrolls date from around 250 B.C. to 68 A.D. and were written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek; they contain Biblical and apocryphal works, prayers and legal texts and sectarian documents.

This priceless collection of ancient manuscripts is invaluable to our understanding of the history of Judaism, the development of the Hebrew Bible, and the beginnings of Christianity.

Introduction • Remarkable Finds, Excavations Begin and Academic Scandal

Discovery and Publication • What Happened When • Cast of Characters • Caves and Contents

Library and Learning • Digital Imaging • Historical Context • From the BAS Library • Scroll Spotlight • Bibliography

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• First Person: Was the Dead Sea Scroll Community Celibate?

  Hershel Shanks   •  05/08/2017

  

  One of the many fascinating questions about the Dead Sea Scroll community living at Qumran is whether its members were celibate. Did they marry and have children or not?   Read more…
  8 comments

• Ancient Scribe Links Qumran Scrolls to Masada

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  04/04/2017

  

  Paleographer Ada Yardeni identified the handwriting of a single scribe on more than 50 Dead Sea Scrolls from Qumran and Masada. What can this tell us about the scribal community   Read more…
  12 comments

• Dead Sea Scrolls Online: IAA Expands Digital Library

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  04/03/2017

  

  The Israel Antiquities Authority launched the updated Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, a website that allows visitors to view and search high-resolution images of the complete Dead   Read more…
  10 comments

• Did Archaeologists Really Discover a New Dead Sea Scroll Cave?

  Robert R. Cargill   •  02/21/2017

  

  Did archaeologists excavating a cave west of the Dead Sea settlement of Qumran find a new Dead Sea Scroll cave? Scholar Robert R. Cargill examines the evidence.   Read more…
  20 comments

• The Masoretic Text and the Dead Sea Scrolls

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  01/20/2017

  

  Do insights from the Dead Sea Scrolls add to the Masoretic text, and if so, should the original Hebrew Bible text be modified based this information? Scholars from both sides   Read more…
  27 comments

• Josephus on the Essenes

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  01/20/2017

  

  Josephus’s commentaries on the laws and characteristics of the Essene community have been invaluable to scholars studying ancient Jewish laws and customs.   Read more…
  31 comments

• Who Were the Essenes?

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  01/20/2017

  

  A recent study has sought to determine by sophisticated methods whether Khirbet Qumran was home to a community of sectarian Jews, the Essenes.   Read more…
  26 comments

• Where Were the Dead Sea Scrolls Found and Who Put Them There?

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  01/04/2017

  

  For nearly 2,000 years, the Qumran caves protected the secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Might the same caves also shed light on the mystery of who deposited the scrolls   Read more…
  3 comments

• Qumran Phylacteries Reveal Nine New Dead Sea Scrolls

  Noah Wiener   •  09/23/2016

  

  Nine small Dead Sea Scroll fragments were discovered in ancient phylacteries, or tefillin.   Read more…
  18 comments

• Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Reveal New Biblical Insights

  David Malamud   •  07/26/2016

  

  Nearly five years of scans and reinterpretation of newly legible parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls have revealed intriguing insights into 2,000-year-old Biblical texts.   Read more…
  9 comments

• The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament

  Megan Sauter   •  06/16/2016

  

  In the March/April 2015 issue of BAR, James C. VanderKam examines the overlap between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament.   Read more…
  30 comments

• IAA to Excavate Judean Desert Caves in Search of Scrolls

  Robin Ngo   •  05/26/2016

  

  The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced a national plan to conduct comprehensive archaeological excavations in the Judean Desert caves to “rescue” all remaining Dead Sea Scroll fragments from looters.   Read more…
  3 comments

• Dead Sea Scrolls History: Looking Back on the Last 75 Years

  Megan Sauter   •  12/11/2015

  

  In an exclusive Bible History Daily interview, Dead Sea Scroll scholars Peter Flint, Martin Abegg and Andrew Perrin—directors of North America’s only research center dedicated to Qumran studies—reflect on some   Read more…
  17 comments

• Lawrence H. Schiffman on the Dead Sea Scrolls’ History

  Robin Ngo   •  05/11/2015

  

  In the May/June 2015 issue of BAR, Lawrence H. Schiffman describes the Dead Sea Scrolls’ history, from their discovery in the Qumran caves to the state of present-day scroll research.   Read more…
  1 comment

• Ten Commandments Dead Sea Scroll to Be Displayed in Israel

  Robin Ngo   •  05/06/2015

  

  The Israel Museum in Jerusalem will display a Dead Sea Scroll containing one of the earliest known copies of the Ten Commandments.   Read more…
  7 comments

• Dead Sea Scroll Mystery

  Hershel Shanks   •  05/30/2014

  

  Hershel Shanks’s First Person in the May/June 2014 issue of BAR   Read more…
  23 comments

• Raphael Golb’s Dead Sea Scroll Conviction Affirmed By New York’s Highest Court

  -   •  05/16/2014

  

  On May 13, 2014, New York’s highest court affirmed the criminal conviction of Raphael Golb, son of Dead Sea Scroll scholar Norman Golb. The younger Golb had tried to support   Read more…
  12 comments

• How to Study a Dead Sea Scrolls Text

  Lawrence H. Schiffman   •  08/19/2013

  

  This post was originally published on Professor Schiffman’s website as the first part of an ongoing series on the study of the scrolls. Bible History Daily republished this article with   Read more…
  2 comments

• The Curse of Ham—A New Reading in the Dead Sea Scrolls

  Noah Wiener   •  06/07/2013

  

  The harshness of the curse of Ham, his son Canaan and their descendants has been a source of scholarly debate for millennia. A new reading of the Dead Sea Scroll   Read more…
  30 comments

• Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  04/04/2013

  

  How the world has changed—in only 25 years. A recent public letter from Israel Antiquities Authority director Shuka Dorfman tells us he is “very proud” to announce the availability of   Read more…
  2 comments

• Dead Sea Scrolls Scholar’s Son Off to Jail

  Hershel Shanks   •  01/30/2013

  

  A New York appellate court has affirmed the criminal conviction of Raphael Golb, son of Dead Sea Scroll scholar Norman Golb, for impersonating another Dead Sea Scroll scholar, Lawrence Schiffman.   Read more…
  10 comments

• Brandeis Students Highlight Science in the Scrolls

  Noah Wiener   •  01/28/2013

  

  The scrolls’ final stop is at the Museum of Science in Boston (beginning in May 2013), and the museum has worked closely with Brandeis University students and faculty to organize   Read more…
  No comments

• Historical Context

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  09/20/2012

  

  The scrolls were written during a time of significant turmoil and strife between the Greek-influenced elite and the more traditional Jewish populations of Judea. From the time of Alexander the   Read more…
  1 comment

• What Happened When

  Biblical Archaeology Society Staff   •  09/20/2012

  

  The Dead Sea Scrolls have a long, complicated and mysterious history and many “facts” have been lost in the intervening years. The following list describes the events surrounding the discovery   Read more…
  6 comments

• Scroll Spotlight

  Brian Schultz   •  09/17/2012

  

  Discover more about The Book of Enoch, The Temple Scroll and The War Scroll and their fascinating contents   Read more…
  5 comments