Dead Sea Scrolls

By: Jonathan Laden

The owner of the lid thought that it was contaminated by hardened bat dung. However, the residue was from papyrus. A jar probably fell, dislodging the lid; the papyrus Dead Sea Scrolls then decomposed over the intervening centuries before modern discovery.

By: Jonathan Laden

Archaeology has been likened to solving a puzzle which is missing some–or occasionally most–of its pieces. The scholars who dedicate their lives to this pursuit […]

By: Megan Sauter

What do the Dead Sea Scrolls say about Jesus? What do they say about the world in which Jesus lived? In BAR, James C. VanderKam examines the overlap between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

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

By: Jonathan Laden

The 25,000 fragments that make up the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered by many to be the archaeological discovery of the 20th century. They were […]

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

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

By: Marek Dospěl

Qumran is widely believed to have been a settlement established by the ancient Jewish sect of the Essenes. Most scholars further agree that there is […]

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

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 of the divide weigh in on this issue.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

The Museum of the Bible holds 16 fragments of reputed Dead Sea Scrolls in their collection. On Friday, March 13, 2020, a study revealed that […]

By: Andrew Perrin

Daniel is unique in the Hebrew Scriptures for several reasons. The book is a linguistic hybrid of Aramaic and Hebrew. Its collection of court tales […]