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...

We'll resurrect A king's mountain lair...

And discover traces Of an epic cataclysm

To reveal the darkest secrets Of the dead sea scrolls.

--captions by vitac-- Www.Vitac.Com

Captions paid for by Discovery communications

♪♪

Narrator: Israel. The dead sea.

The lowest point on earth.

♪♪

Here in 1946, A bedouin guarding his flock

Makes an extraordinary Discovery,

A chance find That will transform

Our understanding Of biblical history.

Magness: He was looking for a lost goat

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...

[ pottery shatters ]

...He hears it smash pottery.

He enters the cave To investigate.

What was in those caves

Was the greatest archaeological Discovery of the 20th century.

♪♪

Narrator: Hidden behind a narrow entrance

Lies strangely shaped Ceramic jars.

♪♪

Curled up inside Are ancient treasures...

♪♪

...Delicate scrolls Of hebrew writing

Dating back 200 years before jesus.

♪♪

One of them is over 20 feet long

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

Are deciphering every last Word and mark on them.

They are making Surprising new discoveries.

Shor: We're now going through material That has not been deciphered yet

Because we couldn't see any Of the ink on these fragments,

And we are discovering New fragments.

♪♪

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... [ speaking foreign language ]

-[ speaking foreign language ] -yeah.

Narrator: Discoveries like this confirm

That the hebrew bible Is the same today

As in the time of jesus.

It hasn't changed For thousands of years.

Yeah. Now you can see The letters. Beautiful.

It shows us How a minute fragment

Can actually help Biblical studies

And biblical research today.

Narrator: The scrolls are the greatest

Biblical treasures of all time.

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

Were found in 11 caves In this area.

Narrator: a cave Less than a mile from the first

Proves the richest of them all.

♪♪

Inside it,

The earliest copy Of the ten commandments

In existence...

And around it, 500 scrolls

In 15,000 Scattered fragments.

Some can be assembled And deciphered,

Like the first three chapters Of the book of genesis.

Others have crumbled Into pieces so small,

They still elude decryption.

♪♪

Could they hold clues to Who writes the dead sea scrolls

Then hides them In the desert caves?

♪♪

[ horn honks ]

Dr. Eshbal ratzon is part Of an international team

Racing to decipher Two fragmented scrolls.

She's working on 66 tiny And mysterious pieces

That could contain clues to Reveal who writes the scrolls.

Dr. Ratzon: My work is working with puzzles.

This particular puzzle Gives us a glimpse

Into a document That was preserved

For 2,000 years in the desert.

Narrator: Pioneering, ultra High-resolution photography

Means eshbal can now Read the words

On even the tiniest Scroll fragments.

She moves the fragments around On her computer screen

To try to put them Back together.

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,

So I was able to join This bunch of fragments

With this bunch of fragments.

I got a whole column From margin to margin.

Narrator: the technology allows Eshbal to finally reveal

That one of the last two scrolls To be deciphered

Is a religious calendar.

Dr. Ratzon: It's a very unique calendar.

We don't know it from elsewhere

Except from The dead sea scrolls.

Narrator: 2,000 years ago,

Following your own Religious calendar

Is a radical act,

Like deciding to Celebrate christmas in june.

This calendar is a clue that can Reveal who writes the scrolls.

♪♪

The ruling jewish priests In the temple of jerusalem

Follow a lunar calendar With 354 days in a year.

♪♪

On the new moon, high priests

Make offerings Of fruit and grains...

And sacrifice animals To please their god.

♪♪

The writers of the scrolls Reject these offerings

And instead become obsessed With purification,

Immersing in cold water At least twice a day.

They decide to follow Their own calendar,

With 364 days in a year,

Based on the movement Of the sun.

♪♪

Dr. Ratzon: This was a huge step.

It made the sect separate

From the rest Of the jewish groups.

Narrator: the new technology Allows eshbal to solve

The puzzle of who writes The dead sea scrolls.

It reveals the name of This breakaway jewish sect.

Dr. Ratzon: the group that is Associated with this calendar

Refers to themselves In other dead sea scrolls

As the... [speaks foreign language]

Or the sons of righteousness Or the sons of light.

Narrator: the dead sea scrolls Are the library

Of a mysterious sect -- The sons of light.

But who are they? What happens to them?

And why do they hide Their precious text

To be lost for 2,000 years?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The dead sea scrolls --

Hundreds of documents dating From the time of christ.

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?

♪♪

Clues to answer these questions May lie here.

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.

♪♪

Beneath, archaeologists Unearth more than 70 skeletons

All buried In the same distinctive way.

♪♪

The bodies lie all alone,

In 6-foot-deep pits, Without any possessions.

♪♪

All lie on their backs

With their hands Resting on their hips,

And their heads point south

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.

Narrator: Yossi nagar investigates

Newly discovered skeletons From the cemetery.

Nagar: if you open these graves That you see here all around,

You found that all of them Look the same.

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

To date it.

It works by measuring How organic material

Changes over time.

Here we are.

The test reveals that this bone Is almost 2,000 years old.

♪♪

The bodies date to the same time As the scrolls.

♪♪

Yossi believes that the scrolls Can reveal the reason

For the existence of this Mysterious all-male cemetery.

♪♪

Nagar: when you read The dead sea scrolls,

You do find about

The community of people Living in the desert.

Celibate males Have their own rules.

No women, no little children, Living to old age.

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

Is a settlement that is not An ordinary town or a village,

But rather is A community center.

Narrator: jodi investigates The buildings here.

She starts with this Mysterious stepped structure.

Right behind me Is a jewish ritual bath

Where jews would immerse

In order to ritually Purify themselves in the water.

♪♪

Narrator: We know from the scrolls

That the sons of light Must ritually bathe twice a day.

Qumran has 10 ritual baths.

♪♪

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.

In a room adjacent to it,

A pantry of dishes with over 1,000 dining dishes was found.

This large room Also apparently was used

As a communal dining room.

Narrator: qumran has all The facilities required

To fulfill the strict Religious laws of the sect

Laid down in the scrolls.

Jodi thinks some of The dead sea scrolls

Are written in this building.

Magness: it's been identified as A scriptorium, or writing room.

At the second-story level Of this room,

Originally there was furniture,

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.

Magness: So, this is a potter's workshop.

Scientific analyses of the clay

Have indicated that The pots found here at qumran

And in the surrounding caves Were made from the same clay,

And therefore, we can say that We have both an archaeological

And a scientific connection Between the site of qumran

And the scrolls In the nearby caves.

Narrator: jodi has no doubt That qumran is the true home

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.

♪♪

The essenes hail From jerusalem...

But so detest its religious Rulers, they abandon the city.

♪♪

They build a community Near the dead sea

Where they can worship In their own way.

♪♪

Obsessed with writing, copying, And collecting scripture,

They have someone reading the Bible every minute of every day.

♪♪

They write the rules Of the community on scrolls

And store them alongside copies Of their holy scriptures.

♪♪

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: if the essenes are Obsessed with precious scrolls,

Why do they place them In dusty desert caves?

Why do they never return To collect them?

The answer could lie In a 2,000-year-old apocalypse

That destroys the holy land.

♪♪

♪♪

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?

♪♪

In these cliffs above qumran, Jodi magness investigates a cave

That might hold a clue To this mystery.

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,

Just like The very first christians,

Believe the world Is about to end.

They prepare for a war At the end of days

And preach about The coming apocalypse.

They are right to plan ahead.

Judea is on the brink of war With the romans.

♪♪

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

And declare An independent jewish state.

[ indistinct shouting ]

The revolt Spreads like wildfire,

So the romans send 60,000 troops To crush the rebellion.

♪♪

They rampage Across judea and galilee,

Taking city after city,

Slaughtering hundreds Of thousands of jews.

Magness: in the middle of The revolt, in the year 68 a.D.,

The site of qumran Was destroyed.

The excavations revealed Roman arrowheads.

Now, could it be that The essenes here at qumran

Thought that this was, In fact,

This apocalypse That they were awaiting?

♪♪

Narrator: For jodi, this is the reason

Most of the scrolls are found

In the cave Right next to the settlement.

The essenes hide them there Just before the romans attack.

I believe that There can be little doubt

That at least some of The scrolls were deposited

In the cave for safekeeping

On the eve of the roman Destruction of the settlement

In the year 68 a.D.

Narrator: but why are The scrolls never recovered?

Where do the essenes go?

[ bells chiming ]

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,

But if we open it,

We'll be able To enter another room

Which belonged to this house.

Now, this is quite exciting when We're thinking about a period

With many interesting events

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?

♪♪

Lewis: this is one of The most exciting finds

We've ever made in jerusalem.

This line is basically saying...

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,"

May be evidence some essenes Escape the destruction of qumran

Looking for sanctuary In jerusalem.

It's a tragic mistake.

Magness: This revolt culminated

With the destruction of the city Of jerusalem by the romans.

♪♪

Narrator: jerusalem falls Two years after qumran

In the year 70 a.D.

Its inhabitants are slaughtered.

Is that the end of the essenes?

The discovery of more scrolls

In an impenetrable Mountain fortress

Indicates a dramatic escape.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The dead sea scrolls --

Saved from destruction In the war against the romans

By the essenes.

Why do they never retrieve Their biblical treasures?

The romans lay waste To their desert home,

And the essenes disappear From the map...

Until a discovery...

Here.

Masada -- a magnificent Mountain fortress

Perched above the shores Of the dead sea.

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.

♪♪

Inside the ruined fortress wall,

Buried under a pile of rubble,

They find fragments Of ancient parchments.

One of them is a copy Of holy verse

Only ever seen In the dead sea scrolls

Called "Songs of the sabbath Sacrifice."

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.

The palace is constructed On three terraces

Above cliffs Over 1,000 feet tall.

It houses a barracks, an armory,

Even a centrally heated Bathhouse.

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.

♪♪

They're notorious for killing Roman occupiers in public places

And vanishing into the crowd.

♪♪

At the start of the war, Sicarii rebels

Capture the fortress of masada From the romans.

[ indistinct shouting ]

♪♪

From their desert hideout, They can survive in safety

While the romans devastate The rest of the country.

[ swords clanging, Indistinct shouting ]

♪♪

Guy investigates why This fragment of dead sea scroll

That matches Those found at qumran

Is found here in masada In a rebel hideout.

He starts looking For traces of the essenes.

The essenes Had to purify themselves,

So we need to look for something

That look like a mikveh, An immersion pool.

Narrator: At the center of masada,

Guy examines A mysterious stepped structure.

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.

Narrator: guy identifies this As an essene ritual bath.

It looks like one of The many ritual baths

Found at their base in qumran.

♪♪

They used to bathe as a group Twice a day

In the middle of the desert.

This is something Extremely unique.

Narrator: Next door to the ritual bath

Is this long, thin building.

Guy thinks It matches those at qumran

Where the scrolls are written.

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

About the location of the essene Here on top of masada.

Narrator: guy thinks That these structures

Prove some essenes Build a new home at masada.

His latest excavations here Reveal new evidence

That transforms Our understanding

Of this mountain fortress And its place in history.

Dr. Stiebel: I'm sure the sicarii Were the most dominant group

Here at masada, But they were not the only one.

Narrator: His team excavates two buildings

Built into the wall of The fortress during the revolt.

[ detector pinging ]Dr. Stiebel: it's a coin.

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.

Narrator: this tiny gemstone Is only partially cut,

Suggesting that the owner

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,

This was a place to come.

Everyone was accepted On top of masada.

Narrator: But herod's mountain fortress

Is not as safe As the essenes hope.

In 73 a.D., a mighty roman army Descends on masada.

Dr. Stiebel: Seeing the roman scouts Appearing on the horizon

Would be terrifying.

Narrator: Does the roman march on masada

Explain why the essenes Never recover their scrolls?

Is this why The world's oldest bibles

Are left in dead sea caves For 2,000 years?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: The dead sea scrolls --

Ancient biblical treasures Saved by a secret jewish sect,

The essenes.

The essenes run for safety

With the last Of their precious scrolls.

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.

Narrator: in 73 a.D.,

A whole roman legion Lays siege to masada.

They face a daunting task.

Steep, slippery inclines And sheer cliffs

Surround the enemy stronghold.

♪♪

Inside the rocks Is a network of huge cisterns

That can hold enough water

To supply the rebels For 10 years.

♪♪

Around the citadel on top Is a tall double wall,

Over 6 feet thick

With 30 towers Guarding the approach.

How can the romans Break this mega fortress

And finally extinguish The jewish rebellion?

[ whirring ]

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.

Having now the 3-d modeling And all the data

Actually allow me To reconstruct the actual arena

Where this very important siege Actually took place.

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.

Dr. Stiebel: they couldn't use The classical technique

Of just rolling a battering ram On top of the tower.

♪♪

Narrator: The romans must find a way

To overcome 1,000 feet of sheer cliff.

Their answer?

To build this giant ramp.

It's an astonishing achievement

That still confounds Archaeologists.

Guy investigates Why the romans build it here.

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.

♪♪

Guy calculates The number of stones

A fit soldier can move In a set time.

This enables him to work out That the romans build

Their whole siege system In less than nine weeks.

Dr. Stiebel: A crucial element, of course, Is one has to remember

That we're in The middle of the desert.

It is hot, so it is, indeed, Imperative for them

To get up there As quickly as possible.

Narrator: how did the romans Build so fast?

He investigates these Mysterious wooden fragments

That stick out of the ramp.

♪♪

What is pretty amazing is that We have here organic remains

Of branches and trees That are laid here,

That they survived 2,000 years.

We can actually see the line Here, one after the after.

And if you go another meter up, You can see few more.

By that, you're creating Kind of shells and boxes

That supported the rocks And the soil

That was done quickly here,

Allowing the romans To storm masada.

Narrator: Now only cliff-top defenses

Stand between The defenders of masada

And death At the hands of the romans.

Could this be why They disappear from history,

Leaving only Their dead sea scrolls?

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: 2,000 years ago,

The writers of The dead sea scrolls

Hide their sacred text In remote desert caves.

Known as the essenes, They then vanish from history.

♪♪

Now new discoveries are Finally starting to reveal

What happens to them.

In the jewish revolt,

The essenes flee to the Mountaintop fortress of masada,

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

Of the other 900 men, Women, and children

Before one kills the final nine,

Sets fire to the fort, And takes his own life.

♪♪

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.

♪♪

Narrator: in the finds lab, Guy examines

This remarkable piece of pottery Found among the cave debris.

He identifies the fragment Of pot from its shape.

Dr. Stiebel: Actually, we are very thrilled.

We just discovered a fragment Of what we believe

Is a cylindrial jar

Of the type the ones That the essenes,

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,

Hide their last sacred scrolls In a cave at masada

Just like they do at qumran?

For us to have that on top Of masada in context in the cave

Is extremely, Extremely significant.

Narrator: The essenes may vanish,

But they leave us the oldest Biblical treasure ever known.

When we say that the essenes That were here

On top of masada died --

But their ideas Clearly continued.

♪♪

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.

♪♪

Today, the whole world Can read the dead sea scrolls.