Dead Sea Scrolls

March 18, 2015 · updated February 15, 2022

The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient manuscripts made of leather, papyrus, and copper, mostly written in Hebrew between the 3rd century BCE and and 2nd century CE. They were found in 1947 on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea.

This was a very important find for archaeology and Biblical history, enabling scholars to date a stabilized version of the Hebrew Bible to no later than 70 CE, to understand the history of the area up to 135 CE, and to learn more about the relationship between Judaism and early Christianity.