Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period, discovered between 1946 and 1956, mostly in the Qumran Caves near the Dead Sea in the West Bank. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, they include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the Jewish and Christian biblical canons, texts never canonized, and sectarian writings such as the Community Rule and the War Scroll. Most are in Hebrew, some in Aramaic and a few in Greek; researchers have assembled 981 different manuscripts from 11 caves. Almost all are held in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.