Dead Sea Scrolls May Be Older than Once Thought

The Dead Sea Scrolls hold major significance when it comes to Bible manuscripts. While the Dead Sea Scrolls contain various types of information, some also contain parts of biblical books. Many of these scrolls have traditionally been understood to date to the first and second centuries AD. However, new and exciting research dates some of these scrolls even earlier (The Guardian, June 4, 2025).

Decades ago, some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were dated using handwriting analysis, while others were dated using radiocarbon dating. However, castor oil applied to the scrolls to assist in deciphering them was thought to have prevented accurate dating. In recent research completed by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, technicians cleaned the castor oil from the documents and then radiocarbon dated them again. They also trained an AI model to read the documents and redate them using several different parameters. The new AI-derived dates closely correlated with the results of the new carbon dating. Of particular interest is that while two scrolls were dated as newer than once thought, many were dated older. One scroll containing verses from the book of Daniel was redated to a time closer to Daniel’s original writing.

Why does this matter to Christians? A key factor in determining the validity of original ancient manuscripts is how far away from the life of the author they are dated. The longer the time between the author’s life and the recording of the manuscript, the less credible it is considered. However, if there is little time between the life of the author and the writing of the manuscript, it greatly supports the validity of the document—in this case, it supports the validity of the Book of Daniel and, by extension, the validity of the Bible itself. To learn more about the reliability of the Bible, you can read or listen to The Bible: Fact or Fiction?