Original subtitles

Narrator: The dead sea scrolls --

Mysterious texts from the time of jesus christ

Hidden in desert caves for 2,000 years.

Magness: What were they doing in these caves?

Who put them here? Why did they put them here?

Narrator: Discovered by chance,

Their secrets jealously guarded.

Nothing like this was ever found before.

Narrator: What are these ancient writings?

Do these fragile manuscripts predict a deadly apocalypse?

There are graves all over here.

Narrator: Today, innovative multispectral imaging technology

Reveals the hidden meaning of the texts.

For the first time, we have actual writings

Dating to about the time of jesus.

Narrator: Why are the scrolls found in this remote desert?

Who are the writers?

To solve these mysteries,

We'll dive deep inside desert caves...

When he came to the entrance to a cave.

He decided to throw a stone into the cave

To see if he could flush out the goat.

Narrator: Instead of hearing the stone hit rock...

...He hears it smash pottery.

He enters the cave to investigate.

And contains almost the entire book of isaiah

From the old testament.

These battered parchments become known as the dead sea scrolls,

The oldest biblical texts in the world.

Today, the dead sea scrolls are here

In the shrine of the book at the israel museum.

Almost one million people visit this museum

To see the scrolls each year.

The giant isaiah scroll is the crown jewel.

Pnina shor is the curator of the dead sea scrolls.

Shor: This is a sample of one of the big scrolls.

We have five of them really well-preserved.

Narrator: Investigators have spent 70 years

Studying and decrypting the scrolls.

Shor: These are the earliest copies of the bible that we have.

They're older than anything that we had previously.

Narrator: The scrolls are 1,000 years older

Than any other biblical text we have.

Today, pnina and her team

Narrator: They photograph the scrolls

With a special camera developed by nasa.

It allows them to analyze the parchment

Under different lighting conditions.

Sacred words lost for centuries

Emerge when they combine the images.

Can you please show me from both sides?

Even 70 years after their discovery,

The scrolls are still giving up new secrets.

-Here? -Yeah.

As you can see, this is pretty clear.

This fragment reveals a word missing from a biblical scroll.

It's the word...

-yeah.

Narrator: Discoveries like this confirm

That the hebrew bible is the same today

As in the time of jesus.

Handwritten copies of the bible from the time of christ,

They shed light on jesus, judaism,

And the emergence of early christianity.

But many great mysteries about the scrolls themselves

Remain unsolved.

Their chance discovery is just the first of many.

More caves containing hundreds of scrolls are soon revealed.

The remains of approximately 1,000 different scrolls

Proves the richest of them all.

Inside it,

The earliest copy of the ten commandments

In existence...

It's a 2,000-year-old electronic jigsaw puzzle.

We got lucky because we got most of the fragments

From the edges of the puzzle.

Narrator: Eshbal discovers that the writer of this scroll

Is leaving mysterious notes between the columns.

I just had a hunch that these two notes were connected.

Maybe just the scribe just ran out of space, and he turned,

Immersing in cold water at least twice a day.

From the rest of the jewish groups.

Dr. Ratzon: The group that is associated with this calendar

Refers to themselves in other dead sea scrolls

As the...

Or the sons of righteousness or the sons of light.

Today, new technology

Is deciphering the last of the scrolls,

Proving they belong to a mysterious jewish sect.

They call themselves the sons of light.

Who are they, and why do they hide their holy texts

In desert caves

To be discovered by chance 2,000 years later?

Next to the cave where the most scrolls are found

Are the ruins of an unusual walled settlement.

It's called qumran.

Beside it, row upon row of mysterious stone mounds.

Towards the scorching midday sun.

Are these the sons of light, the keepers of the scrolls?

Nagar: There are graves all over here.

Here. Look. Look at this structure here.

Someone devised it. It's not accidental.

Narrator: He excavates 33 of the graves.

So I say, "okay. That's weird."

Narrator: Yossi investigates

How old these men are when they died.

Nagar: The people that were buried here,

Their average age of death is much higher

Than the regular cemetery or a regular village.

Narrator: He discovers that almost all the men

Are more than 30 years old when they die.

Jewish respect for human remains

Means all the skeletons are reburied,

Except for this one thigh bone.

Experts extract samples from the qumran bone

And, for the first time, use radiocarbon technology

For the existence of this mysterious all-male cemetery.

Nagar: When you read the dead sea scrolls,

Narrator: Could qumran be the home of the sons of light?

We have no other site like qumran anywhere.

It is a unique archaeological site.

Narrator: Jodi magness searches qumran for evidence

That this could be the home of the sons of light

As described in the scrolls.

Based on the information that we have in the scrolls,

What we would expect to find at qumran

Where jews would immerse

In order to ritually purify themselves in the water.

The scrolls say that the sons of light

Must always gather at mealtimes to eat together.

So, this room is the largest room in the qumran settlement.

And mixed in with the debris of this furniture were ink wells.

Narrator: It's an exciting discovery,

But jodi thinks the final piece of evidence

Lies not with the scrolls

But with the ceramic jars they are found in.

Of the sons of light and their dead sea scrolls.

Locating the sect here by the dead sea

Reveals the sons of light are known by another name,

Their true identity.

We do have sources that tell us who this sect was.

All of these sources talk about a jewish sect

That lived on the northwest shore of the dead sea

In the area where qumran is located

Called the essenes.

Narrator: Ancient sources tell the story of the sect.

Where they can worship in their own way.

Magness: In the time of jesus, we know that there were

Many different jewish groups, movements, and sects,

So the essenes were part of this mosaic

Of different jewish groups and movements.

Narrator: The dead sea scrolls --

The oldest bibles ever discovered.

Archaeology and forensic science are revealing

That the scrolls are created by a secretive jewish sect --

The essenes, religious outcasts from jerusalem,

Exiled to the wilderness of judea at qumran.

Why do the essenes hide their precious scrolls in these caves

And never return to collect them?

Magness: This is the opening to cave 11.

One of the scrolls that was found here

Is a copy of the war scroll

Which describes the apocalyptic war at the end of days

Between the sons of light and the sons of darkness.

Narrator: 2,000 years ago, the essenes,

Back then, the romans rule a vast empire with an iron fist,

But there's resistance brewing in the province of judea.

In 66 a.D., jewish rebels wipe out

The roman garrison in jerusalem

The site of qumran was destroyed.

The excavations revealed roman arrowheads.

I believe that there can be little doubt

That at least some of the scrolls were deposited

In the cave for safekeeping

Narrator: But why are the scrolls never recovered?

Clues to this mystery could lie here

In the most holy city in the roman province of judea --

Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is the original home of the essenes.

This area, called mount zion, is its wealthiest district.

Rafi lewis and his team excavate a site here.

Their dig unearths something extraordinary --

A house with rooms that are sealed 2,000 years ago.

Lewis: This is probably a blocked window,

Including the hiding of the dead sea scrolls.

Narrator: As the team unearths

The ritual bathing pool of the house,

They find a missing link to the dead sea scrolls.

They extract four mysterious fragments from the rubble,

Parts of a carved limestone cup used in purification rituals.

Scratched into its surface

Are three types of mysterious scripts.

One of them is unique to the dead sea scrolls.

Could this cup belong to the essenes?

If so, what's it doing in a city they have long abandoned?

Shavti...

"I returned to the house of the lord."

Narrator: Is the cup evidence that the essenes

Flee the destruction of qumran

And return to their original home city?

Lewis: It might be holding an answer for us.

He comes back to the house of the lord,

Is very excited about it.

He picks up the first thing that comes into his hand,

And that's his stone cup.

He's writing this script,

"I return to the house of the lord."

Narrator: It's an exciting discovery.

Lewis: There is a possibility that this was actually made

By someone who came back to jerusalem after being in qumran.

Nothing like this was ever found in jerusalem.

Narrator: The cup tells rafi that at least some essenes

Leave qumran and return to jerusalem.

The frantic inscription on the ceremonial cup,

"I return to the house of the lord,"

Narrator: The dead sea scrolls --

The romans lay waste to their desert home,

And the essenes disappear from the map...

Until a discovery...

Masada is built 100 years before the jewish revolt

By a notorious ruler, king herod the great.

When archaeologists excavate this site,

They make an astounding discovery.

Is this evidence of an essene presence in masada?

Once a palatial villa, masada is testament

To the power and wealth of its former owner, king herod.

Why would the essenes come to a fortress

Once occupied by the most hated tyrant of judea?

Masada is an extraordinary mountaintop megastructure.

A hanging palace sits inside the fortress.

But by the time of the revolt, king herod is long dead,

His palace a mothballed shell.

Dr. Guy stiebel investigates the secrets of masada.

He wants to know who occupies this vast fortress

During the revolt against the romans.

Narrator: Historic accounts from the time of the roman war

Report masada is held by violent jewish extremists.

They are called the sicarii.

The sicarii are jewish assassins

Who take their name from the sica,

A deadly dagger they hide in their cloaks.

Guy investigates why this fragment of dead sea scroll

That matches those found at qumran

Is found here in masada in a rebel hideout.

Dr. Stiebel: This construction was done

During the time of the revolt.

What we can see is a huge mikveh here.

We have the steps that can allow me going all the way down.

The width of this hole is identical by the millimeter

To what we have at qumran.

The length is exactly half the size of what we have there.

For me, this led me to crack a riddle that we had

That transforms our understanding

Of this mountain fortress and its place in history.

It's what we called... Of shackles

From the time of the revolt on the floor.

Nice.

Narrator: They unearth huge amounts of everyday artifacts

From these two buildings.

Dr. Stiebel: So, basically,

A wine cup to drink, made of glass.

Let's see. It fits perfectly.

Narrator: Guy believes that these discoveries

Are evidence of who is taking shelter behind these walls.

They may also explain why essenes are here in masada.

Actually, I'm really thrilled because we just dig out

Of the ground a beautiful discovery.

What we have here is what we call a cabochon, the gemstone.

For me, this is a truly big story.

Hasn't had time to finish working on it.

Imagine the romans are out there.

You need to leave your home. What do you take along?

Jewelry is something that is small enough

To be carried in your pocket or in your purse.

Narrator: Guy believes these discoveries prove

Masada is a refuge for all jews escaping the romans.

That includes essenes fleeing the destruction at qumran.

The essenes bring some of their precious scrolls with them

And claim sanctuary at masada.

If you want to find shelter from the romans,

They escape the romans during a failed revolt

And flee to masada,

The last rebel stronghold in the whole of judea,

But the roman empire must crush all resistance.

They turn their sights on masada.

Is this the place of the last stand of the essenes?

This was not a fair game. You don't mess with the romans.

Around the citadel on top is a tall double wall,

Over 6 feet thick

With 30 towers guarding the approach.

Guy and his team use innovative drone mapping technology

To capture a complete 3-d model of the roman siege system.

Their new survey reveals the assault of masada

In unprecedented detail.

The romans construct eight forts surrounding the mountain.

Each fort is a self-sufficient camp

That can hold 1,000 soldiers.

Once the romans decided to besiege masada

And to send to the desert between 6,000 to 8,000 soldiers,

They mean business.

-Can you zoom in? -Yeah.

Narrator: Guy and his team use the results of the drone survey

To examine the roman siege system.

-You can see how steep it is. -Yeah.

-Now we can see it differently. -Yeah, yeah.

Narrator: Guy's survey and modeling

Reveals that the romans construct

This 2-mile-long, 6-foot-thick stone perimeter wall

That surrounds the whole mountain.

The refuge of masada is now a prison.

It seems they invested a lot of manpower in that.

It's, like, huge amounts of stone.

There was no way out for the rebels whatsoever.

Narrator: The romans are experts in siege warfare.

But they've never attempted to storm anywhere like masada.

Narrator: The romans must find a way

To overcome 1,000 feet of sheer cliff.

Their answer?

They decided to take advantage of the natural spur

That we are standing on top of.

Narrator: Choosing this spot allows the romans

To reduce the height of the ramp they must build by half.

Even so, building a 500-foot-tall ramp in desert heat

Tests roman military expertise to the limit.

The romans must shift hundreds of thousands of tons of rubble

Before the ramp reaches the fortress.

Only then can they finally move their siege towers

Up to the defensive walls and begin the assault.

Leaving only their dead sea scrolls?

But the romans besiege the fortress

And now launch their final attack.

They use the battering rams in the siege towers

To crush the fortress walls.

And to remove a second barricade the defenders have built up,

The romans set fire to it.

As the sun goes down, the romans pause the attack.

Dr. Stiebel: It's a very symbolic sunset.

It was very clear that the end was near.

Narrator: Guy turns to a gory account

By an ancient jewish historian, josephus.

There was one act only that you can still do

And die as a proud man,

And that is to commit suicide.

Narrator: Ten rebels take the lives

When the romans enter masada, all the inhabitants are dead.

The apocalypse the essenes predict in their scrolls

Becomes reality.

But guy stiebel believes the sect

Performs one last significant act before they die.

His excavations at masada

Unearth a cave just like those at qumran.

The people of qumran used to place their scrolls in jars

And put it in caves.

People of qumran, used to store their scroll in,

And it was found in the cave just next to the dining hall.

Narrator: He believes that this pot matches the design

Of the jars found in qumran

That contain the dead sea scrolls.

Is this evidence that the terrified essenes, facing death,

The essenes left us an enormous amount of information

That tells us about the world of jesus,

Judaism in this period, and ultimately the context

From which early christianity would emerge.

Narrator: Without the discovery of these caves,

The oldest bible in the world

Would remain lost in the judean desert,

And the essenes would have been consigned to oblivion.