Deciphering the Dead Sea Scrolls

In 1947, a huge collection of ancient manuscripts were found in caves near Khirbet Qumran, just south of Jericho, on the edge of the Dead Sea. These manuscripts, totalling nearly 800, have radically altered the way scholars view both the world of Judaism in the centuries leading up to the time of Christ, and the the Bible itself. Written by a persecuted Jewish sect, the Qumran Essenes, the Scrolls give profound insights into the world that Jesus was born into, and places the rise of Christianity into its historical context.