Have you ever come to a time in your life when you wish you would have paid better attention in History class, or Geography? February 2020 was one of those times for me. I traveled to Israel with a group from my church. (I didn’t know I was going to have to ride a camel!)
Oh, man, I saw so much and learned so much on that trip. (Including that the Mediterranean diet is short on french fries!) I have to admit that I had never even heard of Qumran, the Bedouin, or the Essenes. I had, of course, heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but I didn’t know that they are ancient fragments of the Old Testament, thought to have been written between 150 B.C. and 70 A.D. by the Essenes. The Essenes were a small group of devout Jews who lived in Qumran, northwest of the Dead Sea, and dedicated themselves to copying Scripture.
This poor goat looks lost 
A cave in Qumran where some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered
In 1946, while tending his livestock in the desert near Qumran, a Bedouin teenager threw a stone into a cave and heard something shatter. The Bedouin people are Arabs, traditionally desert nomads in what is now referred to as the Middle East. Preferring to conserve their historic way of life, they still maintain their own communities, religious beliefs, and style of dress. They work their land and raise livestock-mainly sheep, goats and camels. I can only imagine the day-to-day life of herding livestock in the desert, so hearing that shattering sound in the cave had to have piqued the interest of the teenage boy. A mystery! Solving the mystery of the shattering sound in the cave had to have ignited an exciting and irresistible quest. Then to find that it was just an old clay jar full of broken tablets. Ahhh…boring. Poor kid! I’m sure he was hoping for something really good, not realizing that he had just stumbled upon the greatest archeological find of the 20th century, and arguably the most significant find in of all of history.
Within ten years, thousands of additional fragments were discovered. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain fragments of all of the Old Testament books of the Bible except Esther and Nehemiah. The Book of Isaiah was found in its entirety. The scrolls also contain previously unknown hymns, prayers, and other glimpses into the lives of the early Jewish people, including the time period when Jesus Christ walked the earth.
Despite what may have been a disappointing find to the Bedouin teen, the Dead Sea Scrolls are priceless. Careful study of the scrolls have proven that the Bible I read today is essentially word-for-word what was copied by the Essenes. The great care they took to preserve and protect these scrolls, for what turned out to be over 2000 years, shows that they believed them to be the inspired World of God.
Today, you can see many of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, or in the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. National Geographic has also published many of the scrolls online.
I am blessed to have seen parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls up close and personal at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. And I’m forever grateful to everyone who played even a small part in preserving and presenting the Word of God to me in any of its forms.
I would consider it a privilege to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with you. Please contact me if you’d like to chat.