along the shores of the Dead Sea three
Bedouin shepherds were tending their
flocks when one of their goats strayed
from the herd thinking it had wandered
into a cave one of them threw a stone to
the unexpected sound sparked their
curiosity and inside the young shepherds
uncovered clay jars that contained one
of the greatest archeological
discoveries of the 20th century the
oldest biblical texts ever found the
first of the Dead Sea Scrolls the
scrolls were handwritten some 2,000
years ago on durable animal skin
coachman with a few written on papyrus
they were mostly composed in Hebrew from
right to left with sheets written in
columns then sewn together creating a
single scroll for safekeeping some of
them would be wrapped in linen and
encapsulated in tall jars the scroll was
eventually replaced by the Codex as the
format for Christian manuscripts they
were made by folding sheets of papyrus
and stitching them together as time
passed courtesies began to grow larger
and more complex during the medieval
period books were reproduced by hand
monks spent their days copying text in
Latin and Greek while others illustrated
it was a grueling process that required
the books were very expensive to
illuminate the text they used various
pigments and goldleaf and the pages
could require the hides of hundreds of
sheep or calves but it was the
introduction of the printing press that
transitioned the Bible in the Middle
Ages into the early modern world
this invention revolutionized book
production ultimately making the Bible
available to the masses today it is the
best-selling book of all time inside its
pages you can find the stories of the
creation of the world Noah’s Ark in the
flood
Moses receiving the Ten Commandments the
construction of Solomon’s Temple the
birth of Jesus his crucifixion and
resurrection the Holy Spirit coming to
the Apostles and many more large
portions of these biblical stories are
represented in 400 of the oldest
manuscripts studied so far although a
few are complete most are either
incomplete or fragments today the search
for more manuscripts continues what
other treasures like the Dead Sea Scrolls are yet to be found
Bedouin shepherds were tending their
flocks when one of their goats strayed
from the herd thinking it had wandered
into a cave one of them threw a stone to
the unexpected sound sparked their
curiosity and inside the young shepherds
uncovered clay jars that contained one
of the greatest archeological
discoveries of the 20th century the
oldest biblical texts ever found the
first of the Dead Sea Scrolls the
scrolls were handwritten some 2,000
years ago on durable animal skin
coachman with a few written on papyrus
they were mostly composed in Hebrew from
right to left with sheets written in
columns then sewn together creating a
single scroll for safekeeping some of
them would be wrapped in linen and
encapsulated in tall jars the scroll was
eventually replaced by the Codex as the
format for Christian manuscripts they
were made by folding sheets of papyrus
and stitching them together as time
passed courtesies began to grow larger
and more complex during the medieval
period books were reproduced by hand
monks spent their days copying text in
Latin and Greek while others illustrated
it was a grueling process that required
the books were very expensive to
illuminate the text they used various
pigments and goldleaf and the pages
could require the hides of hundreds of
sheep or calves but it was the
introduction of the printing press that
transitioned the Bible in the Middle
Ages into the early modern world
this invention revolutionized book
production ultimately making the Bible
available to the masses today it is the
best-selling book of all time inside its
pages you can find the stories of the
creation of the world Noah’s Ark in the
flood
Moses receiving the Ten Commandments the
construction of Solomon’s Temple the
birth of Jesus his crucifixion and
resurrection the Holy Spirit coming to
the Apostles and many more large
portions of these biblical stories are
represented in 400 of the oldest
manuscripts studied so far although a
few are complete most are either
incomplete or fragments today the search
for more manuscripts continues what
other treasures like the Dead Sea Scrolls are yet to be found
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