The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. is preparing to unveil a major new exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls beginning November 22, 2025. Dr. Bobby Duke, the museum’s chief curatorial officer, emphasized the discovery’s historical and biblical significance, noting it brought scholars 1,000 years closer to the original Hebrew manuscripts. “Before 1947, our best Hebrew manuscripts came from about 1,000 AD,” he said. “And when the first cave was found there at Qumran in 1947, it shaved off 1,000 years of manuscript transmission and let us see what the Hebrew Bible was like, what scrolls were like around the time of Jesus and the disciples.”
The exhibit, part of the 75th anniversary tour curated by the Israel Antiquities Authority, will feature scroll fragments, wood from a first-century boat similar to those used on the Sea of Galilee, and the Magdala stone—linked to Mary Magdalene. Dr. Duke shared that studying the scrolls gave him “more confidence in the Bible.” The display runs through September 7, 2026.
