DNA Analysis of Dead Sea Scrolls Leads to Discovery

Israeli researchers have made a breakthrough discovery about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls, following an intense seven-year study.

CBN News reports that the study involved DNA samples taken from the ancient manuscripts. 

The results showed that some of them were written far off in the Qumran instead of the Dead Sea, where it is widely considered that they were composed by an ancient Jewish sect known as the Essenes.

The researchers made the discovery following a DNA analysis of the animal skin that the scrolls were written on.

“Almost all the scrolls we sampled were found to be made of sheep skin,” said Tel Aviv University Professor Oded Rechavi, who led the interdisciplinary team.

“And accordingly most of the effort was invested in the very challenging task of trying to piece together fragments made from the skin of particular sheep, and to separate these from fragments written on skins of different sheep that also share an almost identical genome,” Rechavi continued.

A notable find in the study revealed that two fragments of the book of Jeremiah were scripted on cowhide; which was not initially found in their location of discovery in the Judean desert.

“Cow husbandry requires grass and water, so it is very likely that cow hide was not processed in the desert but was brought to the Qumran caves from another place,” Rechavi noted.

Additionally, different renditions of the prophetic book were…