Once kept under lock and key, portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls are now on display at Washington, D.C.’s Museum of the Bible, removing all obscurity and opening these ancient texts for all to see.
Visitors are invited to take a journey to the past, to the shores of Qumran — land of the Essenes and home to one of mankind’s greatest discoveries containing the oldest copies of Biblical texts in existence.
“Some will try to say King Tut’s treasures were a greater archeological discovery, and they truly are stunning. But the Dead Sea Scrolls still impact the way people read Scripture today,” said Dr. Bobby Duke of the Museum of the Bible.
History of the Scrolls
Spread across 11 caves in ancient Judea, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered one of the greatest archaeological finds in history, revealing a glimpse into the foundation of early Christianity.
The discovery was pure happenstance.
“In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd was out. The story has taken over legendary qualities over the years, but according to some of the early accounts, he was looking for a lost sheep through some rocks into a cave, heard a crack, and then realized, I need to come back and figure out what was in that cave,” Duke explained.
From there, an archaeological race to uncover the next treasure began, with each cave unveiling something more.
Keepers of the Treasure
“When they were initially discovered, the first scholars working on the scrolls, who did amazing work in piecing together this puzzle, actually caused a lot of additional damage to the scrolls unknowingly,” said Dr. Joe Uziel of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Uziel leads the Dead Sea Scrolls Unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, which has served as steward of the scrolls since the early 1990s.
Today, the scrolls are conserved in a climate-controlled facility designed to match the conditions of the Judean caves. The exhibition at the Museum of the Bible follows similar strict protocols — down to the lighting inside the display.
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