Discovered 1947–1956
Dead Sea Scrolls
Caves near Qumran, Judean Desert
Around 1,000 manuscripts including biblical, sectarian and apocryphal texts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.
Why it matters
They pushed the earliest known Hebrew Bible manuscripts back roughly a thousand years.
Read it in Scripture
What is agreed
Authenticity, dating range and enormous textual value are not in dispute.
What is disputed
The identity of the community and the scrolls' relationship to Qumran remain argued.