AMANDA NEWS: Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit, Lectures Show Hill Aides What a Great Resource They Have in the Museum of the Bible
By Amanda Hughes
(665 WORDS) — Vast amounts of ancient biblical texts and their preservation sparks broader interest in learning about the Bible’s actual writers, a recent lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls hosted by Museum of the Bible reveals.
Opened in 2017 in Washington, D.C., Museum of the Bible is a globally influential, and hugely innovative educational institution just a few blocks from Capitol Hill whose purpose is to engage people everywhere with the transformative power of the Bible.
A recent HillFaith tour for congressional aides included the ‘Jesus Boat’ at the Museum of the Bible, an actual fishing boat discovered in 1986 in the Sea of Gallilee.
The 2025-2026 Dead Sea Scrolls exhibited at the museum until September 6 showcased some of the extensive collection of materials containing extremely significant biblical texts, among other writings. The collection contains nearly 1,000 manuscripts preserved in Judean desert caves at the Northern end of the Dead Sea for over 2,000 years, beginning in the 1st century A.D.
A Museum of the Bible video about the exhibit describes increased interest in archeological research of the manuscripts. In the video, Joe Uziel of the museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls Unit, Israel Antiquities Authority, talks about the significance of the manuscript discoveries.
“The Dead Sea Scrolls are a group of documents discovered in the Judean Desert. The most prominent group are the documents, which were found in the caves surrounding the site of Qumran,” Uziel said.
Dr. Bobby Duke, Chief Curatorial Officer at Museum of the Bible, further emphasized scroll findings with history on circumstances surrounding discovered sites.
“In the year 70 A.D., the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. They destroyed other places around that part of the world, and one of the locations was Qumran. When they destroyed it, the people who lived there must have known that destruction was coming, so they hid their items, thinking they would come back eventually and find their scrolls, and their caves were left untouched for almost 2,000 years,” Duke noted.
As part of the lecture series associated with the exhibit, a recent lecture focused on history of the Qumran community’s role in writing and preserving ancient biblical texts. The lecture, “The Qumran Community: Ancient Texts and Sacred Spaces,” with Dr. David DeSilva and Dr. William Schniedewind, addressed the issues surrounding who really wrote the Bible, and the cultures that are reflected in its pages.
DeSilva, who serves as Trustees’ Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Greek at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio, introduced history related to covenant and the Qumran community as having a strong commitment to walking in the law of Moses.
How the Qumran community lived helped them maintain a scribal way of life for the study of writings such as those of David, Isaiah, and other biblical writings. Using distinctive modes of interpretation of scripture, they paralleled key approaches of the early Christian church. Dr. deSilva highlighted their desire to be a community of priests who virtuously represented Israel’s special calling by God.
Who wrote the Bible and how has long been of interest to billions of Christians, as well as countless faithful and skeptical biblical scholars and historians throughout the centuries since the Roman Empire was at its height.
Dr. William Schniedewind, Professor of Biblical Studies at UCLA, and the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director of the Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, further discussed work of the Qumran community. Dr. Schniedewind, author of Who Really Wrote the Bible: The Story of the Scribes, discussed professionalism of the scribes, and those for whom scrolls were copied.
Dr. Schniedewind noted how synagogue requests for scrolls revealed growth in numbers of scrolls needed. Carefully copied manuscripts were written onto animal skins with accuracy in each copy with strict, specific rules.
Of particular importance highlighted in the lecture is knowledge recorded in the Bible scriptures that the Word of God was first the Voice of God before it was written down. This knowledge builds continual interest in study of authentic biblical texts, their preservation methods, and the scribes involved.
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