Discovered in 1946 in abandoned caves in Israel, the Dead Sea Scrolls are by far the oldest copies we have of books from the Hebrew Bible. The ancient horde of scrolls — more than 1,000 — also sheds light on the mysterious community called the Essenes who retreated to the Dead Sea wilderness around the time of Jesus. Helen and Dave are joined by Dead Sea Scroll expert Charlotte Hempel, who challenges some of the conventional assumptions about the Essenes and explains why the millennia-old scrolls are still a really big deal. 

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Theme music written and performed by Dave Roos, creator of Biblical Time Machine. Season 4 produced by John Nelson.