The Profound Implications of the New Dead Sea Scrolls Discovery

From 1946–1956, the discovery of 11 caves on the West Bank of the Jordan River shook the world of biblical scholarship. Tucked away in those caves were ancient, earthen vessels containing what we now know as the Dead Sea Scrolls—a cache of manuscripts with profound implications for the text and history of Scripture.

Now, some 70 years later, the discovery of a 12th cave has the world of biblical academia reeling once again.

Over on the Logos Academic Blog, Dr. Craig Evans explains the significance of the discovery:

The caves, the ruins, and the scrolls of Qumran are important because they link the Old Testament and Jewish world to the world of Jesus, the Christian Church, and the writings of the New Testament. These discoveries near the Dead Sea also link sacred texts with hard evidence. The texts clarify the hard evidence, and the hard evidence clarifies the texts.

The discovery of a twelfth cave promises to hold even more fascinating insights into the world of Scripture, and perhaps even further proof of the faithfulness of the biblical record. As if that weren’t enough, the archaeologists who discovered the 12th cave have reason to believe there may be yet another waiting to be excavated:

Unlike the newly discovered Cave 12, the mouth of the suspected 13th cave is concealed — which means there is a chance that it has not been looted. If that is the case, more texts could be discovered. If that happens, who knows what new things we might learn?

Read the entire story over at the Academic Blog, and discover all the implications of this historic discovery.