Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient Jewish biblical manuscripts.

The scrolls were found near the Dead Sea in the West Bank.

The Dead Sea Scrolls date from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE.

Almost 15,000 scroll fragments have been discovered in caves.

Most scrolls are written in Hebrew, some in Aramaic and Greek.

Researchers assembled 981 manuscripts from 11 caves near Qumran.

The scrolls include biblical texts, deuterocanonical, and extrabiblical books.

About 40% of the scrolls are copies of Hebrew Bible texts.

Around 30% are Second Temple period texts not in Hebrew Bible.

Another 30% are sectarian manuscripts of unknown Jewish groups.

Cave 1 held the original seven scrolls including the Isaiah Scroll.

The scrolls reveal the Bible's text was stable after 2nd century BCE.

Archaeologists associate the scrolls with the Essenes, an ancient sect.

Scrolls were preserved in jars inside caves to protect sacred texts.

Today, almost all scrolls are held in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.