Race is on to capture and decode fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls

Scrolls deteriorating so scientists are hoping to digitize them before they are gone.

A race is on to unlock more secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls before they turn into dust. The scrolls have been fragmenting into tiny pieces, so scientists are racing to digitize the scrolls before the secrets they contain are lost to antiquity.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - Scientists are racing to digitize and piece together the tens of thousands of tiny fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls before they fade and turn to dust. The scrolls are extremely brittle and repeated handling, although very careful, is causing the parchment to fall apart.

Scientists are making images of each fragment and intend to piece them together like a puzzle to decode what the scriptures have to say. Computers using sophisticated software are scanning the fragments and decoding the words which is speeding the process.

Some of the fragments are very tiny, many are only about a square centimeter in size.

Ultimately, the scientists hope to reassemble as much of the Scrolls as they can, then they plan to make their work available online so others can read what the scrolls have to say.

The Dead Sea Scrolls date from the third century BC to the first century AD, and are among the oldest copies of scriptures we have. While the books of the Old Testament were written centuries before, there are no intact surviving copies.

The Dead Sea Scrolls allow modern scholars to compare modern translations of the Bible to what people were known to read in ancient times. The good news is the modern translations appear to be an excellent match.

The Dead Sea Scrolls also contain other documents that are not included in the Bible. In fact, only 40 percent of the scrolls contain scriptures. The capture and translation of these extra-biblical documents is important as it can develop our understanding of the people who used and stored these scrolls long ago.

Would you like a Catholic Bible based on Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship? Click here to get yours.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online