Dead Sea Scrolls

It was on this day, February 20, 1947 there was a Palestinian shepherd who went by the name of Mazra.

One day while he was tending to his flocks, he came across some caves that he decided to explore.

While he was walking around he came across some very old looking clay pots that were filled with what seemed like some ancient scrolls.

Thinking that they may be of some value, Mazra took some of the pots to an antique dealer who went by the name of Khalil Iskander.

After Khalil had examined them he told Mazra that they did have some value, but not much.

So Mazra not satisfied with the answer that Khalil had given him, he left seeking a second opinion through a friend who was a expert when it came to old manuscripts.

After reviewing the old scrolls, Khalil friend decided to go and show them to Athanasius Samuel who was an Orthodox Archbishop. When Athanasius started looking over the scrolls, he immediately notices that these scrolls were of the Old Testament.

Athanasius became excited and decided to buy them from Mazra. But Athanasius still wasn't quite sure what these scrolls were really worth so he started showing them around to some experts.

They all agreed that these scrolls were very old, but felt like they held no real value. After many months had gone by and a new year had started Athanasius decided to take the old scrolls to the American University Beirut.

It was at this university that Athanasius met a Biblical scholar who went by the name of John Trevor. After John had examined the old scrolls he became very interested in them and believed that they were very significant and held tremendous value.

John then took photos of the old scrolls and showed them to some of the very best paleographers around the world.

Now with these paleographers being experts when it came to the studying of ancient writings and inscriptions they were able to find that these old scrolls were older than any bible text that had ever been found.

They had discovered that these scrolls dated back to some one hundred years before Christ. Excitement resonated throughout the world once these scrolls had been confirmed authentic.

These scrolls became another piece added to the many others that gives credibility to the Old Testament text. There were more than five hundred manuscripts that were found among the eight hundred and seventy scrolls.

Every Old Testament book except for the book of Esther was identified within these old scrolls.

It has also been noted that the copy of the book of Isaiah was more than a thousand years older than any Old Testament manuscript that had been found. These old scrolls which are known as the Dead Sea Scrolls ended up becoming the greatest archaeological discovery of the twentieth century.