- The first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered around Qumran in Israel in 1947; others further south of Qumran. These Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts and parts of the Old Testament, dating from the time of Jesus, are more than 1,000 years older than any previously known manuscripts. Until then, the earliest Hebrew documents in existence were 9th century AD copies of the Pentateuch. The Dead Sea Scrolls helped to confirm just how accurate the translations of the Jewish Bible have been over the centuries.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts discovered near the Dead Sea. They include manuscripts of books of the Old Testament as well as other Jewish writings. The scrolls are important for the study of the biblical text and Jewish life and beliefs around the time of Jesus.
See Manuscripts and Text of the Bible (Old Testament); Qumran.
Aquifer Open Bible Dictionary © 2026 Mission Mutual, an adaptation of the Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary © 2023 Tyndale House Publishers. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.