tion. In fact, in some cases, there are not even spaces between the words. "Archeologists have claimed the Dead Sea Scrolls indeed ancient, coming from the late Second Temple Period, a time when Jesus of Nazareth lived, they are older than any other surviving biblical manuscripts by almost one thousand years". (See # 5, page 2)
             The Dead Sea Scrolls have been called the greatest manuscript discovery of modern times. For the most part, the Scrolls are written in Hebrew, but there are many written in Aramaic. "The mostly fragmented texts, are numbered according to the cave that they came out of". (See # 8, page 2) Only caves 1 and 11 have produced relatively intact manuscripts. Discovered in 1952, Cave 4 produced the largest find. About 15,000 fragments from more than 500 manuscripts were found. "In all, scholars have identified the remains of about 825 to 870 separate scrolls". (See # 8, page 1) "The Scrolls can be divided into two categories-biblical and non-biblical. Fragments of every book of the Hebrew canon (Old Testament) have been discovered except for the book of Esther". (See # 8, page 1) All the manuscripts of the Dead Sea Scrolls were created nearly one thousand years earlier than any previously known biblical manuscripts. "The scrolls also contain the earliest existing biblical commentary, on the Book of Habakkuk, and many other writings, among them religious works pertaining to Jewish sects of the time". (See # 5, page 1)
             Who Hid the Scrolls? This question can still be debated today and is a major reason why the background of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a very complex issue. During the time (66-70 CE) there were many Jews living together in Palestine under Roman rule. "The various Jewish groups coexisted more or less peacefully in Palestine until 66 CE, when war broke out between the Jews and the Romans". (See # 1, page 67) Almost all Jews stro...