Finding evidence of the Biblical book of Nehemiah among the scroll fragments has eluded scroll scholars, until now.

The celebrated Dead Sea Scrolls, first discovered in 1948 in the caves adjacent to the ancient site of Khirbet Qumran near the Dead Sea, are known to represent the earliest known texts of almost every book of the Hebrew Bible, except for two — the Book of Esther and the Book of Nehemiah. Now, a Norwegian Dead Sea Scroll scholar has announced his discovery of a fragment of Nehemiah.

Working together with Esther Eshel of Bar-Ilan University, Torleif Elgvin of Evangelical Lutheran University College in Oslo, Norway, has been examining previously unknown fragments from 29 scrolls (including scraps of four others).

The fragments include that of Nehemiah for the first time, textual variations of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, Ruth, Proverbs, and the Twelve; a fragment from an unknown Enoch-related text and two new copies of 1 Enoch; and a new copy of a sectarian biblical commentary.

Most of these fragments were found decades ago in “Cave 4” near the Dead Sea, but several were found at the Bar Kokhba caves and some small fragments were originally discovered at Wadi el-Daliyeh, a valley fourteen kilometres north of Jericho.

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