For more than 2,000 years, the Dead Sea Scrolls were naturally preserved in a jar in a cave in the arid climate of the Judean Desert. The discovery of these parchments by a young Bedouin shepherd is beautifully and moving shared in these gorgeously collaged pages by the award-winning author Lesléa Newman and the equally acclaimed illustrator Vesper Stamper.Based on a true story, this book tells the tale of a young Bedouin shepherd’s discovery of scrolls 2,000 years old. This small yet enormous and astonishing event occurred in 1947, when the shepherd was tending to his flock and a sheep wandered off. Going in search of it, amid the limestone cliffs lining the northwestern rim of the Dead Sea, he came upon a cave. As the story goes, he threw several stones into the cave and was startled to hear the sound of pottery breaking. Upon entering the cave, the shepherd found a group of large clay pots. Some were empty and some held old scrolls blackened with age. The shepherd brought the scrolls to an antiquities dealer, who recognized at once that this was a very special discovery. The shepherd had found the oldest known copies of biblical works written on pieces of parchment and papyrus in ancient Hebrew. These, now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, have given us an unprecedented window into Judaism, the origins of Christianity, and the Old Testament itself, but what stands out in this lyrical account are the durability of what is fragile and how significance can come down to us in the most unanticipated and surprising ways.

For more than 2,000 years, the Dead Sea Scrolls were naturally preserved in a jar in a cave in the arid climate of the Judean Desert. The discovery of these parchments by a young Bedouin shepherd is beautifully and moving shared in these gorgeously collaged pages by the award-winning author Lesléa Newman and the equally acclaimed illustrator Vesper Stamper.Based on a true story, this book tells the tale of a young Bedouin shepherd’s discovery of scrolls 2,000 years old. This small yet enormous and astonishing event occurred in 1947, when the shepherd was tending to his flock and a sheep wandered off. Going in search of it, amid the limestone cliffs lining the northwestern rim of the Dead Sea, he came upon a cave. As the story goes, he threw several stones into the cave and was startled to hear the sound of pottery breaking. Upon entering the cave, the shepherd found a group of large clay pots. Some were empty and some held old scrolls blackened with age. The shepherd brought the scrolls to an antiquities dealer, who recognized at once that this was a very special discovery. The shepherd had found the oldest known copies of biblical works written on pieces of parchment and papyrus in ancient Hebrew. These, now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, have given us an unprecedented window into Judaism, the origins of Christianity, and the Old Testament itself, but what stands out in this lyrical account are the durability of what is fragile and how significance can come down to us in the most unanticipated and surprising ways.