Dead Sea Scrolls
In 1947, young Bedouin shepherds, searching for a stray goat in the Judean
Desert, entered a long - untouched cave and found jars filled with ancient
scrolls. That initial discovery by the Bedouins yielded seven scrolls and began a
search that lasted nearly a decade and eventually produced thousands of scroll
fragments from eleven caves. During those same years, archaeologists searching
for a habitation close to the caves that might help identify the people who
deposited the scrolls, excavated the Qumran ruin, a complex of structures located
on a barren terrace between the cliffs where the caves are found and the Dead
Sea.
Within a fairly short time after their discovery, historical, paleographic,
and linguistic evidence, as well as carbon-14 dating, established that the
scrolls and the Qumran ruin dated from the third century B.C. to 68 A.D. They were
indeed ancient! Coming from the late Second Temple Period, a time when Jesus of
Nazareth lived, they are older than any other surviving Old Testament
manuscripts by almost one thousand years.
There have been about 350 rolls uncovered and this discovery has been
considered one of the greatest archaeological finds of the twentieth century. Since
their discovery nearly half a century ago, the scrolls and the identity of the
nearby settlement have been the object of great scholarly and public interest, as
well as heated debate and controversy. Why were the scrolls hidden in the
caves? Who placed them there? Who lived in Qumran? Were its inhabitants
responsible for the scrolls and their presence in the caves?
Portions of every book of the Old Testament, with the exception of Esther,
have been found. What's really interesting is the scrolls of Isaiah, because one
of the two that have been found gives the entire book of this great prophet, and
it dates to before Jesus was born. Thats incredible! Here is a Hebrew
manuscript of Isaiah 1,000 years older than our oldest manuscript (Masoretic) and
confirming the accuracy of the Masoretic text of the Old Testament.