Dead Sea Scrolls Show Bible Has Been Faithfully Preserved, Museum of the Bible Curator Says
A rare Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Museum of the Bible offers the public an opportunity to experience ancient manuscripts that have strengthened confidence in the reliability of Scripture, says a member of the museum’s team.
The exhibit, which runs through September, features biblical texts and scrolls from the Qumran community, along with hundreds of artifacts that shed light on daily life and Judaism during the Second Temple period. The exhibit is presented in partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority and Running Subway and is part of the 75th anniversary tour of the scrolls.
Uncovered in the late 1940s in Qumran in what is now modern Israel, the Dead Sea Scrolls contained partial or complete copies of every book in the Old Testament except the book of Esther.
Robert “Bobby” Duke, chief curatorial officer, said the find was a watershed moment for biblical scholarship.
“Before the scrolls were found, our earliest [Old Testament] biblical texts were what are called the Masoretic texts from right around 1,000 A.D., give or take 50 or 100 years – whereas the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of them are dated back to the second or even third century B.C. – so more than 1,000 years earlier than our best text before 1947,” Duke told Crosswalk Headlines.
When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, biblical skeptics around the world posited that the texts would expose major errors in the Bible, Duke said.
“The thought was: What kind of new revelations and/or just shocking scandals are we going to find when we look into these texts?”
Incredibly, though, the opposite turned out to be true, Duke said.
“In general, there was a lot of fidelity between what we have from 2,000 years ago and what we can compare it to with the Masoretic text from 1,000 years ago,” he said. “There are some variants. Any good modern English study Bible you'll see in the margins, it'll say, ‘Dead Sea Scrolls read’ or ‘Qumran reads.’ But … you're going to realize that most of them are incredibly minor. So yes, the Dead Sea Scrolls give us a lot of confidence in the biblical text.”
The exhibit will feature three rotating sets of Dead Sea Scroll fragments, since the fragile texts are permitted to remain outside Israel for only three months at a time, Duke said. After each display period, the scrolls return to Israel to rest for five years in climate- and light-controlled vaults to preserve them for future generations.
The exhibit also includes the Magdala Stone, which dates to the first century and was found in the hometown of Mary Magdalene, and likely was used for the liturgical reading of the Torah. Parts of a first-century fishing boat – called the Ginosar Boat or the “Jesus Boat” – also will be on display, as will be a reconstructed vessel.
Duke, who earned his Ph.D. in the scrolls, said the scrolls have strengthened his confidence in Scripture.
“My study of the scrolls, particularly the biblical scrolls, has only given me more confidence in the Bible that I read.”
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Photo Credit: ©Museum of the Bible
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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Originally published January 16, 2026.
