Dead Sea Scrolls

Story Summary

Image of a photograph depicting the best preserved scroll found at Qumran, the Great Isaiah Scroll.  Image online, courtesy the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

...these ancient scrolls are
treasure in earthen vessels.

Kenneth Hanson
The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Untold Story
Page 13 (paperback edition)

The Dead Sea is the lowest body of water on the planet. It averages 1,000 feet deep. Nothing grows or lives in its salty water. Trying to swim in it, a person bobs like a cork. Trying to wade in it, a person could slip on the salty glaze that covers its shore. It is like nowhere else on earth.

Supplied by the Jordan River, plus other smaller streams and springs, the Dead Sea has no exit point and is located in Israel and Jordan. It is near the famous archeological sites of Masada and Qumran. 

In 1947, while looking for a lost goat, young Bedouins found some ancient scrolls in the caves of Qumran. Unknown to those young shepherds, they had found the oldest-known surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures. One thousand years older than any other surviving Scripture manuscripts, the Qumran scrolls were a magnificent find.

But ... why were they hidden in desolate caves near the Dead Sea?

Author: Carole D. Bos, J.D.

Key to Color-Coded Links

Original Release Date:  May, 2004
Updated December, 2012