Someone emailed us today and asked how we know that the Dead Sea Scrolls actually date back to the time before Christ. That is a great question. First off, why is this important to know? The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1947, in Qumran, Israel (see photo), help verify that the Old Testament we have today has not undergone any significant corruption. The Dead Sea Scrolls represented every book of the Old Testament, except for the Book of Esther, and date as far back as the third century B.C. How do we know that these scrolls are this old? Teams of scholars determined the scrolls age by examining. . . 1. The pottery that housed the manuscripts
2. The weave and pattern of the manuscript cloths
3. The form of the characters
4. The spelling of the words
5. The coins found alongside the manuscripts
6. They also used Carbon-14 Dating
For more on the reliability of the Bible, click here.
