For the first time in about 60 years, excavations by Israeli archaeologists have uncovered fragments of a biblical scroll, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). More than 20 bits of parchment were found after teams rappelled down 90 yards off a cliff into “the Cave of Horror” in the Judean Desert reserve’s Nahal Hever.

[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Latest Biblical Archaeology Research]

The IAA says the 2,000-year-old fragments are Greek translations of the Old Testament books of Zechariah and Nahum, and are radiocarbon-dated to the 2nd century AD. The name of God is written in Hebrew.

One of the fragments appears to contain a portion of Zechariah 8:16-17—“These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates. And do not contrive evil against one another, and do not love perjury, because all those are things that I hate—declares the LORD.” Another fragment appears to consist of Nahum 1:5-6—“The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it. Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him.”

The original Dead Sea scrolls, a collection of about 900 Jewish manuscripts, were also found in desert caves in that general region near the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. They date from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century AD and include the earliest known copies of biblical texts. Those texts included sections of the Old Testament 1,000 years older than any previously known copy.

Read more about the discovery in articles by CBN News and CT.

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