Qumran (Dead Sea scrolls)

-All but the book of Esther.

It was a discovery almost as spectacular as the discovery of the Nag Hammadi scrolls in Egypt two years previously: in the Qumran caves in 1947, a Bedouin shepherd stumbled across scrolls and fragments that date from the 2nd century BCE until the year 68. The so-called ‘Dead Sea scrolls’ offer insight into the life of a strictly ascetic community in the Second Temple period, and constitute the oldest biblical testimonies, containing parts of all but one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. The question why no fragments from the Book of Esther have ever been found has led to various explanations, from slightly misogynist (the sect at Qumran did not like books dedicated to women) to more commonsensical (the Book of Esther was not canonical at the time the scrolls were compiled).