Dead Sea Scrolls: ‘Not some colonial effort’

For the first time in nearly a decade, Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts are on view in the United States in an exhibit of artifacts from the Israel Antiquities Authority, including some objects that have never been exhibited publicly before.

A sheet of the Great Psalms Scroll, from Qumran Cave 11, which dates to the first century of the Common Era and is written in square Hebrew script that remains in use today, is among the items that hasn’t been previously shown. 

“The Israel Antiquities Authority is very strict in terms of its policies as to what can be exhibited, in what conditions and for how long and at the same time,” Joe Uziel, head of the Dead Sea Scrolls unit at the authority, told JNS.

Uziel is a curator of a traveling exhibit (through Sept. 2, 2025), which recently opened at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.

“There is a story to be told in every exhibition,” he said. “The objects chosen aimed at bringing to light the period in which the scrolls were written,” particularly “the Second Temple Period, with a particular focus on different regional and chronological moments relating to that story.”

Highlights of the show, according to Uziel, are “never-exhibited-before finds along Jerusalem’s main pilgrimage road, fragments of the sunken boat found in the Sea of Galilee, finds from Masada and artifacts relating to the Roman conquest of the region in 70 CE”

One of the show’s unique aspects, he said, is its “focus on scientific breakthroughs made relating to Dead Sea Scrolls research, beginning with their initial discovery in 1947 and through to today.”

New technologies and approaches “are teaching us things about the scrolls that were never known before,” he said.

Uziel hopes that the public can gain a better sense of Israel’s cultural history by visiting the exhibit. “In a period where we see the spread of claims relating to the connection between the Land of Israel and the Jewish people, this exhibit presents tangible artifacts that substantiate this connection,” he told JNS.

“At the most basic level, I think you realize the rich cultural heritage of Israel’s past. Particularly in the Second Temple period, we are witness to finds that relate to the formation of identities that are still part of our world,” he said.

The California exhibit celebrates the 75th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Qumran, Jordan, in 1947. (The show was delayed two years due to the Covid pandemic.)

“It’s a profound honor to host the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Reagan Library,” David Trulio, CEO of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, stated. He added that the show is inspired by the former president’s faith.

“The Dead Sea Scrolls are foundational to the development of the great monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” he stated. “President Reagan was deeply shaped by his faith, and we are proud to bring these ancient treasures to the public.”

The exhibit features about 200 artifacts from the Antiquities Authority, including the Magdala Stone (which contains the “earliest known synagogue images of the Temple menorah,” per the museum), ossuaries (burial receptacles) and Tyrian shekel coins.

Lawrence Schiffman, professor of Near Eastern and Judaic studies at New York University, told JNS that the Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest Jewish library to which we have access. 

“The Dead Sea Scrolls are the remnants of an ancient library of a specific sect of Jews called the Essenes, that had a building complex near the caves of Qumran,” he said.

The Scrolls essentially divide into three categories, according to Schiffman.

The first grouping is “books that we know from the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible,” and the other two consist of Second Temple literature. The latter “would have been of interest or read by Jews in general, as well as the sectarian ideological material of this particular group,” he said.

The exhibit affirms the historical Jewish connection to ancient Israel, according to Schiffman, who has not seen the show.

“I can guarantee you 100% the exhibit is totally devoid of anything political and is about bringing people together to enjoy an ancient discovery,” he told JNS. “It’s an indisputable fact that there is a historical Jewish connection to the area, and this exhibit cements people’s understanding of what Israel is really all about and of the idea that Jews lived there in antiquity and is not some colonial effort.”

Schiffman noted that hosting an exhibit with these materials can have a positive effect on Jewish-Christian relations. 

“An exhibit like this makes the point that Christianity starts out from a branch of Judaism,” he said. “This type of exhibit helps to make the point to people in a time of rising antisemitism that certainly antisemitism doesn’t make sense from a Christian point of view, a matter which for example, the pope has said over and over.”

“Here you see why — never mind that hate is a sin in general — but that Judaism is the basis of Christianity,” Schiffman added.