y unknown Jewish brotherhood.
             The scrolls include manuals of discipline, hymnbooks, biblical commentaries, and apocalyptic writings; two of the oldest known copies of the Book of Isaiah, almost fully intact; and fragments of every book in the Old Testament except the book of Esther. There is also an eloquent paraphrase of the Book of Genesis. Also found were several books of the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha. None of these texts were included in the Hebrew canon of the Bible. Scrolls of Tobit, Sirach, Jubilees, portions of Enoch, and the Testament of Levi, and hitherto-known only in early Greek, Syriac, Latin, and Ethiopic versions-were found in their original, untranslated, language.
             The seven principal scrolls were discovered by Bedouins and were purchased partly by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and partly by the Syrian monastery of Saint Mark in Jerusalem. The scrolls in the possession of the Syrian monastery were later purchased by the government of Israel. The initial discovery of the scrolls was followed by scientific exploration of the neighboring caves under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, the Dominican Ecole Biblique et Archeologique of Jerusalem, and the Palestine Archaeological Museum (now the Rockefeller Museum). These explorations and further purchases from the Bedouins, yielded tens of thousands of additional fragments, as well as a record of buried temple treasures punched out in Hebrew characters on strips of copper (Encarta).
             The scrolls are located near the Dead Sea, which plays a vital role in the survival of the documents. The sea is located in Israel and Jordan, about 15 miles east of Jerusalem.). It is extremely deep (averaging about 1,000 feet), salty (some parts containing the highest percent of salinity possible), and the lowest body of water in the world (Burrows). The Dead Sea is supplied by a number of smaller streams, springs, and the Jordan River. Because of its...