Monsters & Critics has an exclusive announcement and preview clip above for Science Channel’s Sunday event: Dead Sea Scrolls: The Doomsday Prophecy.
This timely special is coming to the network this Sunday, and we have all the details plus the first preview of the event.
In the times of the ancient Masada and the fated legendary Jewish warriors who fought back against the Romans and beyond, their tumultuous history is revisited now, thanks to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the mid-last century. There is new evidence that suggests there is more than what was initially believed contained in these scrolls.
It has long been speculated that the Dead Sea Scrolls found in the network caves nearby Masada contained a doomsday prophecy, and producers have new experts and revelations that may rewrite history as we know it.
This never before aired special airs Sunday on Science Channel, also the home of shows like Mysteries of the Abandoned.
The setting: Masada
The event will mention the siege of Masada. Masada is a flat mountainous geological formation that sits atop the Dead Sea.
It was there the defining moment in the first Jewish–Roman War (73 to 74 CE) took place on this large flat hilltop found in modern Israel.
The historian who recorded these events was Flavius Josephus, a Jewish rebel leader captured by the Romans.
According to Josephus’s accounts, the length of the siege led to what was a mass suicide of the Sicarii rebels, although there is some historical dissent.
About Dead Sea Scrolls: The Doomsday Prophecy
Two thousand years ago, hundreds of Jewish rebels, these Sicarii, defied the Romans, then the mightiest empire in the world, and created what is known today as the siege of Masada.
The fortress of Masada sits high above the shores of the Dead Sea, and there it witnessed the final battle of the apocalyptic war between the Jews of Judea and the Roman Empire that leveled Jerusalem.
However, much about this final historic showdown remains shrouded in mystery.
In an all-new special, viewers get a front-row seat for cutting-edge archaeological investigation happening at this historical site. The special will spotlight the rarified and latest discoveries taken from the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered last century, that could transform our understanding of what happened at Masada 2,000 years ago.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest known Biblical texts dating back to the time of Christ.
According to historians, some Bedouin teen shepherds accidentally found some of the texts back in 1947. They were discovered in the caves of the Judaean desert. For decades, they changed hands, were added to in further discoveries in the surrounding caves, and have offered important insight into this tumultuous time in history.
Science Channel says:
“Today, experts have uncovered surprising new discoveries – did these sacred texts predict the final battle between the Jewish rebels and the Roman Empire? What truth is contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls that has led experts to believe they contain a doomsday prophecy? And what other prophecies from this ancient text came true?
Producers for this special have set out to solve these mysteries. Dead Sea Scrolls: The Doomsday Prophecy unearths brand new evidence of the ancient conflict and reveals the translations and cryptic secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls that might affect what the future may hold and how history is written.
This special is produced for Science Channel by Windfall Films’ executive producer Carlo Massarella, Rob Hartel, and John Fothergill. The series producers are James Franklin and Charlie Smith, and for Science Channel, Neil Laird serves as the executive producer.
Dead Sea Scrolls: The Doomsday Prophecy Premieres Sunday, April 12 at 8/7c on Science Channel