A DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITION is coming to the Jewish Museum in New York. From the press release:

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: MYSTERIES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD

September 21, 2008 through January 4, 2009

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was one of the archaeological sensations of the 20th century. Objects of ancient religious observance and intense modern scholarly debate, these parchment texts were found, starting in 1947, in caves in the Judean Desert, east of Jerusalem and near the Dead Sea. Created over 2,000 years ago, the scrolls turned out to contain previously unknown Jewish compositions as well as the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible. When biblical scholars first learned of these texts, they were electrified by their potential for new revelations about Judaism and Christianity. Over time, some 900 separate scrolls were found in neighboring caves. They are collectively called the Dead Sea Scrolls. The new exhibition, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Mysteries of the Ancient World, features fragments of six scrolls, which have never been seen in New York City before. Three of the scrolls are being exhibited for the first time anywhere. Treasured and revelatory, the Dead Sea Scrolls on display, together with over 30 artifacts discovered at Qumran, near the caves where the documents were found, will provide unique insights into the lives of ancient peoples and the formulation of modern religious practice. A seven-minute film will further enrich the visitor experience. This exhibition represents the collaboration between the Israel Antiquities Authority and The Jewish Museum. All of the objects are from the National Treasures of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

PRESS PREVIEW - Wednesday, September 17, 10 am – 1 pm

And from the exhibit website:

The Jewish Museum’s exhibition will include six Dead Sea Scrolls. They represent the important transformation that occurred in Jewish worship from sacrifice to Bible study and prayer, the debates among Jewish groups of the Second Temple Period, and the indirect connections between the scrolls and early Christianity. The scrolls include a part of one of the earliest copies of the Hebrew Bible in existence, the Book of Jeremiah, which dates to 225-175 BCE and has never before been exhibited. Other texts that will be shown include an aprocryphal work, the Book of Tobit, which was rejected for the Hebrew canon but eventually accepted into the Christian Old Testament; an early example of a prayer from The Words of the Luminaries; and Aramaic Apocryphon of Daniel, which mentions a son of God. Also shown will be excerpts from two sectarian compositions, the Community Rule, which lays out the regulations for joining and being a member of a sect, and the War Scroll, which describes a great war at the end of days. Two of these scrolls have also never been exhibited, while three others have never been seen in New York.

The exhibition will also include some artifacts from the site of Qumran. A jar and linen wrapper that protected the scrolls, the earliest phylacteries, dishes and vessels, and objects of daily life such as sandals, hairnets, and combs will illuminate the current scholarly debates over who used and who hid the scrolls.

I have already mentioned the Archaeology Zone children's exhibit currently at the Jewish Museum.