Overview

In 1901 a team of French archaeologists discovered a black stone pillar bearing the Code of Hammurabi. Inscribed in Babylon over 3,700 years ago, it is one of the earliest known compilations of law. Almost half a century after its discovery, Bedouin shepherds found a collection of ancient scrolls stored in jars and hidden away in a cave near the Dead Sea. Eventually more than 800 manuscripts were discovered in the area, most of which were fragmentary. They were written between about 250 B.C. and A.D. 68, and provide unique insight into the time and place from which both rabbinic Judaism and Christianity emerged.

Background

The civilizations of the ancient Middle East had an immense impact on world history. In fact, history itself may be said to have begun in the "fertile crescent" of Mesopotamia. It was there...