In 1947, Bedouin shepherds discovered a vast collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts hidden deep inside caves at Qumran, located near the northern shore of the Dead Sea in the West Bank. The Dead Sea Scrolls included the oldest surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible and numerous apocryphal texts, preserved for millennia by an ancient ascetic sect. This discovery revolutionized modern biblical archaeology, provided invaluable context for the sectarian Jewish world out of which Christianity emerged, and altered our understanding of how ancient scriptural texts were transmitted.

The discovery of these ancient texts captivated the poetic imagination, introducing writers to raw, apocalyptic imagery and long-lost prophetic verse. It inspired numerous modern poets, including W.H. Auden and various Israeli and Western writers, to write poems meditating on the survival of text, memory, and faith.