Dead Sea Scrolls: The most ancient biblical manuscripts on Earth

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In the winter of 1946, three Bedouin shepherds happened to find a handful of scrolls housed in jars in a cave on the northern shore of the Dead Sea, which then were identified by biblical scholars and archaeologists as part of the oldest biblical texts in the world.

The initial finding of seven original scrolls then began a series of searches and excavations that would yield discoveries of the rest of scrolls and fragments over the following 10 years – A total of 972 manuscripts were unearthed in 11 caves (the 12th were discovered in 2017) near what is now known as the Qumran site, and then assembled by the researchers, named "Dead Sea Scrolls."

The discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered as the greatest archaeological findings in the last century. Dating between the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE, the ancient Jewish religious manuscripts embrace great historical, religious, and linguistic significance.

Featuring texts written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and set down on parchments and papyri, the collection includes the Great Isaiah Scroll, the oldest known ancient biblical manuscript in existence and best preserved of all the biblical scrolls, as well as the Temple Scroll, the longest and largest scroll ever uncovered in the Qumran caves, which measures 8.146 meters.

A part of the Great Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scroll, is seen inside of the vault of the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum on September 26, 2011. /VCG Photo

Qumran Caves, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, are recognized in Israel as a National Heritage Site. /VCG Photo

A part of the Great Isaiah Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, is on display at the Israel Museum. /VCG Photo

Former U.S. President Barack Obama (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visit the Shrine of the Book in jerusalem, Israel on March 21, 2013. /VCG Photo

A conservation analyst from the IAA examines the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a laboratory in Jerusalem, Isreal, on December 18, 2012. /VCG Photo

A visitor looks at the replica of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum, on September 26, 2011. /VCG Photo

Eight scrolls now reside in the Shrine of the Book on the grounds of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem – Israel's foremost cultural institution and one of the world's leading encyclopedic museums – while the others are housed in east Jerusalem's Rockefeller Museum. Over a half decade, those who wanted to see the scrolls had to physically come to Jerusalem.

Through a partnership with Google, Israel Museum announced the launch of Digital Dead Sea Scrolls site in 2011, offering searchable, high-resolution images of the scrolls. One year after, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and Google Israel announced the publishing of the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library with tens of thousands of the scrolls' fragments in high resolution on display online.

Thanks to efforts of generations of archaeologists, scholars and historians, as well as the most advanced technologies of our time, the most ancient biblical manuscripts on the Earth are now accessible to people around the world 24 centuries after they were created.

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