Dating the Old Testament, Hebrew Bible and Torah with Dead Sea Scrolls reveals between 303 to 1303 years of missing history.
The Old Testament is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible, a collection of ancient religious writings by the Israelites believed by Jews and Christians to be the sacred word of God.
The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) are the oldest, surviving manuscripts for the Old Testament. The table below lists the Old Testament books, year of authorship, and Dead Sea Scroll (Manuscript) dating.
1. GENESIS | 1283 YEAR GAP. 1
DATING
Traditional: 21400 BC
Manuscript: 3Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 41044-1522 Years
1 GAP is number of years from Moses to Dead Sea Scroll manuscript. For simplicity, median year is displayed in place of year range 2 TRADITIONAL dating is widely acknowledged by Jews and Christians 3 MANUSCRIPT is earliest complete copy of text (i.e. Dead Sea Scroll)
4 DIFFERENCE shows the range in years during which the text did not exist. The calculations are shown below:
Lower Range: 1400-356=1044 yr
Upper Range: 1400+122=1522 yr
Median:(1044+1522)/2=1283 yr
2. EXODUS | 1283 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 1400 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 1044-1522 Years
3. LEVITICUS | 1283 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 1400 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 1044-1522 Years
4. NUMBERS | 1283 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 1400 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 1044-1522 Years
5. DEUTERONOMY | 1293 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 1410 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 1054-1532 Years
6. JOSHUA | 1303 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 1420 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 1064-1542 Years
7. JUDGES | 906 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 1023 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 667-1145 Years
8. RUTH | 854 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 971 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 615-1093 Years
9. 1 SAMUEL | 921 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 1038 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 682-1160 Years
10. 2 SAMUEL | 843 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 960 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 604-1082 Years
11. 1 KINGS | 433 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 550 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 194-672 Years
12. 2 KINGS | 433 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 550 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 194-672 Years
13. 1 CHRONICLES | 321 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 438 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 82-560 Years
14. 2 CHRONICLES | 321 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 438 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 82-560 Years
15. EZRA | 333 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 450 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 94-572 Years
16. NEHEMIAH | 316 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 433 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 77-555 Years
17. ESTHER | 288 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 405 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 49-527 Years
18. JOB | 1078 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 1195 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 839-1317 Years
19. PSALMS | 651 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 768 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 412-890 Years
20. PROVERBS | 783 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 900 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 544-1022 Years
21. ECCLESIASTES (APOCRYPHA) | 818 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 935 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 579-1057 Years
22. SONG OF SOLOMON | 848 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 965 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 609-1087 Years
23. ISAIAH | 574 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 691 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 335-813 Years
24. JEREMIAH | 488 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 605 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 249-727 Years
25. LAMENTATIONS | 464 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 581 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 225-703 Years
26. EZEKIEL | 462 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 579 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 223-701 Years
27. DANIEL | 418 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 535 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 179-657 Years
28. HOSEA | 623 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 740 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 384-862 Years
29. JOEL | 701 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 818 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 462-940 Years
30. AMOS | 640 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 757 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 401-879 Years
31. OBADIAH | 727 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 844 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 488-966 Years
32. JONAH | 659 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 776 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 420-898 Years
33. MICAH | 601 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 718 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 362-840 Years
34. NAHUM | 521 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 638 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 282-760 Years
35. HABAKKUK | 491 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 608 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 252-730 Years
36. ZEPHANIAH | 613 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 730 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 374-852 Years
37. HAGGAI | 403 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 520 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 164-642 Years
38. ZECHARIAH | 378 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 495 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 139-617 Years
39. MALACHI | 303 YEAR GAP
DATING
Traditional: 420 BC
Manuscript: Dead Sea Scroll 356 BC-122 AD
Difference (Years): 64-542 Years
QURAN 0 YEAR GAP
The Birmingham Quran manuscript is a parchment on which two leaves of an early Quranic manuscript are written. In 2015 the manuscript, which is held in the UK by the University of Birmingham, was radiocarbon dated to between 568 and 645 AD with 95.4% accuracy.
The test was carried out in a laboratory at the University of Oxford. The result places the leaves close to the time of the Prophet Muhammad, who is generally thought to have lived between 570 and 632 AD.
The tests carried out on the parchment of the Birmingham folios yield the strong probability that the animal from which it was taken was alive during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad or shortly afterwards.
These portions must have been in a form that is very close to the form of the Quran read today, supporting the view that the [Quran] text has undergone little or no alteration and that it can be dated to a point very close to the time it was believed to be revealed.
David Thomas, Professor of Christianity and Islam. University of Birmingham
Author: Guest
•
Updated:
14 Aug 2026
•
19,843 views | 2 hrs ago
Explore More
What is Dead Sea Scrolls? Dead Sea Scrolls (also Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish religious, mostly Hebrew, manuscripts. They were found in the Qumran Caves in the West Bank near the Dead Sea. 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 only holding 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.
What is the Torah? Torah, "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law" has a range of meanings. Common to all these meanings, Torah consists of the origin of Jewish peoplehood: their call into being by God, their trials and tribulations, and their covenant with their God, which involves following a way of life embodied in a set
of moral and religious obligations and civil laws. In rabbinic literature the word Torah denotes both the five books "Torah that is written" and the Oral Torah "Torah that is spoken". The Oral Torah consists of interpretations and amplifications which according to rabbinic tradition have been handed down from generation to generation and are now embodied in the Talmud and Midrash. According to rabbinic tradition, all of the teachings found in the Torah, both written and oral, were given by God through the prophet Moses, some at Mount Sinai and others at the Tabernacle, and all the teachings were written down by Moses, which resulted in the Torah that exists today. The majority of Biblical scholars believe the written books were a product of the Babylonian captivity (c. 600 BCE), based on earlier written and oral traditions, which could only have arisen from separate communities within ancient Israel, and that it was completed by the period of Achaemenid rule (c. 400 BCE).
The tests carried out on the parchment of the Birmingham folios yield the strong probability that the animal from which it was taken was alive during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad or shortly afterwards.
What is Dead Sea Scrolls?
What is the Torah?
