Two Thousand Year Old Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered

Previously discovered Dead Sea Scrolls (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) found dozens of pieces of Dead Sea Scrolls that contain biblical texts from the past two thousand years. The manuscript was found in a cave in the desert.

The cave is in the archaeological site, Cave of Horrors in the Judean Desert. The area stretches across the southern part of Israel and the West Bank. Scientists believe the scroll had long been hidden during the Jewish revolt against Rome.

The name Cave of Horrors is inspired by the many skeletons and dangerous terrain around and inside the cave. The cave is believed to have been used by Jewish rebels against the Romans during the failed Bar Kochba uprising of the second century.

An IAA curator, Oren Ableman said there are some parts of the scroll that are the same as the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets when the Bedouins found it around the 1950s. The Bedouins found a scroll in the same location, the Cave of Horrors.

Finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Dozens of pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found perfectly preserved. The scrolls are found in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.

"For the first time in about 60 years, archaeological excavations have found fragments of scripture scrolls," explained the IAA, quoted from the New York Times, Wednesday, March 17.

Most of the scroll's texts are in ancient Greek, the language that was widely spoken in the period of the rebellion. However, the use of the word "God" in the biblical scrolls appears in Ancient Hebrew script.

Findings from previous Dead Sea Scroll fragments (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

The Greek text is also known to be taken from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and to have been radiocarbon dated to the 2nd century AD. An IAA curator, Oren Ableman explained that there are several striking features of the newly discovered fragments.

That striking feature is the distortion of all other versions of the Old Testament. In one sense, the word "gate" is replaced by the word "street".

"The significance of the deviation is what we are trying to find now," said Oren.

The head of the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Yosef Garfinkel, described the finding as "interesting". This, he said, could enrich "the study of the history of the Greek translation of the Bible."

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of Jewish texts found in caves in the West Bank, near Qumran in the mid-1940 to 1950s. The manuscripts date from the third century BC to the first century AD.

The manuscript includes the earliest copies of biblical texts and documents describing the beliefs of the little-understood Jewish sect.

* Read other information about ARCHEOLOGY or read other interesting writings from Yudhistira Mahabharata.

BERNAS Others