Dead Sea ScrollsThe Dead Sea Scrolls are a group of 800 to 900 manuscripts found in the caves of Qumran, east of Jerusalem and northwest of the Dead Sea. The first scrolls were discovered in 1947 by a shepherd who wandered into a cave looking for a lost goat. The texts are believed to have been hidden in eleven caves for safekeeping before the destruction of Rome in 70 AD. The scrolls are a collection of biblical and non-biblical materials including the Hebrew Bible (all books except Esther); the Apocrypha and the Pseudepigrapha; the rules of community life; biblical commentaries; a Testimonia (a collection of Bible verses about the Messiah); a war scroll; Temple Scroll; poetic and liturgical pieces; Thanksgiving Hymns; wisdom instructions; court decisions; horoscopes and even a treasure map.1 Hailed as a modern-day archaeological discovery, they were made from papyrus or animal skins called gevil and written from right to left without punctuation. In fact, there were no spaces between the words, they just ran together. Written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek using ink made from carbon black and white pigments and using bird feathers as writing instruments. Various forms of dating methods have been used, including carbon-14 tests carried out on linen wrappings, paleography, coins and pottery finds, and scribes. The scrolls were dated from approximately 250 BC to 68 AD. Coming from the late Second Temple period when Jesus lived, they are older than all other surviving biblical manuscripts. Previously, a document called the Nash Papyrus was the oldest biblical document dated to the 1st or 2nd century and contained the Ten Commandments. The scrolls contained copies of Isaiah that were almost 1000 years older than ...... middle of paper ...... August 3, 2007. "Biblical Archaeological Society"; www.bib-arch.org/deadseascrolls/bswbDSSHomePage.asp; retrieved September 16, 2007. “Cross Currents”; www.crosscurrents.org/deadsea.htm; retrieved August 21, 2007 “Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation”; www.deadseascrollsfoundation.com/commentary.htm; retrieved September 16, 2007. “Info please”; www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0193627.html; retrieved August 13, 2007. “International Bible Society”; www.ibs.org/bibles/about/12.php; retrieved September 16, 2007. “The Roman Jewish World of Jesus”; www.religiousstudies.uncc.edu/jdtabor/dss.html; retrieved August 13, 2007. “The World of Manuscripts – Library of Congress, Washington, DC”; www.ibiblio.org/expo/deadsea.scrolls.exhibit/intro.html; retrieved August 13, 2007. “Wikipedia”; www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_sea_scrolls; retrieved August 13 2007.