Dead Sea Scrolls
Claimed Owner Year Acquired Number of Fragments/Scrolls Owned
Azusa Pacific University 2009 5
Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago 1956 1
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary 2009 ; 2010 ; 2012 8
Rockefeller Museum - Government of Israel 1967 > 15,000
The Schøyen Collection owned by Martin Schøyen 1980 ; 1994 ; 1995 115
The Jordan Museum - Government of Jordan 1947-1956 > 25
Museum of the Bible aka Green Collection - Green Family 2009-2014 11
Syrian Orthodox Church 's eastern U.S. archdiocese 1
Ashland Theological Seminary 1
Lanier Theological Library 1
Pasadena Private Collection 1
Ownership -- Current ownership
Almost all of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection is currently under the ownership of the Government of the state of Israel , and housed in the Shrine of the Book on the grounds of the Israel Museum . This ownership is contested by both Jordan and by the Palestinian Authority . A list of known ownership of Dead Sea Scroll fragments :
The Dead Sea Scrolls (also Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish religious manuscripts found in the Qumran Caves in the Judaean Desert, near Ein Feshkha on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Scholarly consensus dates these scrolls from the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE. The texts have great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the second-oldest known surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with deuterocanonical and extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism. Almost all of the Dead Sea Scrolls are currently in the collection of the Government of the State of Israel, with ownership disputed with Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, and they are housed in the Shrine of the Book on the grounds of the Israel Museum. Many thousands of written fragments have been discovered in the Dead Sea area. They represent the remnants of larger manuscripts damaged by natural causes or through human interference, with the vast majority holding only small scraps of text. However, a small number of well-preserved, almost intact manuscripts have survived - fewer than a dozen among those from the Qumran Caves. Researchers have assembled a collection of 981 different manuscripts - discovered in 1946/47 and in 1956 - from 11 caves. The 11 Qumran Caves lie in the immediate vicinity of the Hellenistic-period Jewish settlement at Khirbet Qumran in the eastern Judaean Desert, in the West Bank. The caves are located about one mile (1.6 kilometres) west of the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, whence they derive their name. Scholarly consensus dates the Qumran Caves Scrolls from the last three centuries BCE and the first century CE. Bronze coins found at the same sites form a series beginning with John Hyrcanus (in office 135-104 BCE) and continuing until the period of the First Jewish-Roman War (66-73 CE), supporting the radiocarbon and paleographic dating of the scrolls.