MAJOR DISCOVERY: After More Than 6 Decades, New Dead Sea Scrolls Unearthed!

The Scrolls are dated to around the time of the Bar Kochba Revolt which ended in 135 CE

By Nosson Shulman: Licensed Tour Guide of VIP Israel Tours & Authentic Virtual Tours (click here to check out his free trailer videos)

In 1947 Muhammed Al-Dib (a Bedouin Sheppard) was tending his sheep, when one of them wandered into a cave.  As the cave was pitch black and filled with bottomless pits, the young shepherd wanted to know how deep the cave was before he ventured in.  He took a rock and threw it into the cave, hoping the sound of the thud would give him an approximate answer, but instead he heard a shattering sound.  Three days later, he returned with a torch and found an ancient jar filled with old scrolls.  As he was unable to read them, he did not realize the magnitude of what he had just found, the oldest Biblical scrolls in the world!  However, history remembers him as the man who made arguably the most important archeological discovery of the 20^th century!  For the next several years there were more digs and excavations, and more earth-shattering fragments were found.  The last findings were dug up in 1956 , and no further discoveries were made.  Until now!

The first scrolls were sold to Israeli Professor Eleazar Sukenik of Hebrew University in the 1950’s for $250,000, a huge fortune in those days.  Because of the value, at the same time that official digs were being conducted, illegal digs were conducted by local Bedouins, hoping to strike it rich by finding the scrolls first and then selling them on the black market.  In order to increase their profits, they would often cut up the scrolls and sell them to different buyers, thus causing damage to the almost 2000-year-old scrolls.  Often times, empty jars stood side by side with Bedouin pickaxes that were found in the caves, but the scrolls were long gone.  After more than a half a century of digs failing to unearth any new scrolls, new discoveries were not expected to be made again.

In 2017, new excavations began in a cave in Nachal Hever in the Judean Desert.  Today, the cave is only accessible by rappelling 80 meters down a sheer cliff.  Due to its inaccessibility to potential looters, it was hoped that new scrolls would be found.

During the digs two scroll fragments were found, all written in Greek. One was from Zechariah, chapter 8:16-17 and reads “These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other and in your gates judge with truth, justice and peace; do not think evil against each other in your hearts, and do not love false oaths. For all these I hate- The word of G-d.” The other is from Nahum 1: 5-6 and reads “Mountains quake because of Him and the hills melt. The earth smolders from before Him, The world and all that dwell within it. Who can stand before His fury? Who can rise against His burning wrath? His wrath is poured out like fire, and rocks become shattered because of Him.”

It is believed that these scrolls were hidden during the Bar Kochba Revolt against the Romans between 132-135 CE (For more on the Bar Kochva Revolt, click here). In addition, a stash of Bar Kochba era coins were found, suggesting that whoever hid them was killed by the Romans before they could return.

Also found was a millennia old, woven basket in great condition, believed to be the oldest one ever found in the world.

Once again, digs in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) continue to prove the Jewish presence in the land centuries before the advent of Islam.

Nosson Shulman is a journalist and Licensed Tour Guide in Israel specializing in Biblical tours. To allow tourists to experience Israel during the Corona era, he created the new hit Israel tour video series which brings Israel to the home of viewers by simulating actual tours. To check out his free sneak preview tour videos, click here.