The Dead Sea Scrolls : Oldest Bible Ever Found

Between the years 1947 and 1956, many scrolls were discovered in eleven caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Seas. The Scrolls or many called The Dead Sea Scrolls were mostly fragmented texts of biblical and non-biblical texts. Fragments of every book of the Hebrew canon have been discovered except for the book of Esther. There were more than 100,000 fragment of 1,350 originals scroll were located and among the identified texts are 19 copies of the Book of Isaiah, 25 copies of Deuteronomy and 30 copies of the Psalms.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are widely acknowledge to be the greatest manuscript discovery of the 20th century, which include fragments of 300 biblical manuscript.Written in the scrolls are the prophecies of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Daniel that are not found in the Bible. In fact, the Isaiah Scroll were found relatively intact, is 1000 years older than any previously known copy of Isaiah, as the oldest group of Old Testament manuscripts ever found. The scrolls also contain the last words of Joseph,Judah, Levi, Naphtali and Amram (the father of Moses).

Most of The Dead Sea Scrolls are in storage in Jerusalem, Israel, and in Amman, Jordon. Other collections are in Paris, Oslo, Zurich, and several places in the United States. Southwestern's collection is the largest in the United States.

Example of The Dead Sea Scrolls

1)The Psalms Scroll

Well preserved biblical scrolls, containing 48 psalms, including 7 that are not found in the standard Masoretic version of the Bible

2)Portion of Ezekiel Prophecies

3)The Temple Scrolls

Contain God's instruction on how to run the Temple

(credit : Israel Museum, Jerusalum)

4) War Scrolls

Tells an end-of-day-style take of a battle between good and evil

(credit : Israel Museum, Jerusalum)

5)Comunity Rule Scrolls

A manual for life, from governing who joins the community to laying down rules about how to behave at communal meals.

(credit : Israel Museum, Jerusalum)

6)Minor Prophets Scrolls

contains a prophecy of Micah about the End of Days and the rise of a ruler out of Bethlehem

(credit : deadseascrolls.org)

7)Paleoleviticus

The fragment shown here deals with the prohibition against the ancient cultic practice of sacrificing children to the Semitic god Molech, and the punishment for violating this ban

(credit : deadseascrolls.org)

8)The Great Isiah Scroll

 It is the best preserved of the scrolls, and is nearly complete.

(credit : Israel Museum, Jerusalum)

The Dead Sea Scrolls Caves

Caves Where the Scrolls were found

The Cave from the inside