Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1947, teenage Bedouin shepherds made of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, when they found ancient parchments, now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, hidden deep in the Qumran Caves.  Since then there have been extensive excavations carried out, and it was discovered that dozens of Jewish people had taken refuge there during the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and sadly many had died in the caves. Recently, archaeologists made an exciting discovery when they found more lost fragments of ancient biblical writings. One of the scrolls uncovered, contains verses from both Zechariah and Nahum and is believed to be a missing part of the “Book of the 12 Minor Prophets” scroll, which was first discovered in 1961.  Scholars said “An exciting aspect about this scroll is that despite most of the text being in Greek, the name of God appears in ancient Hebrew script, known from the times of the First Temple in Jerusalem,”.

With the exception of the book of Esther, the hundreds of pieces found since the first discovery, contain text from every book of the Old Testament