“It’s just such a phenomenally important document to Western history and culture — legal systems have been based on the Ten Commandments — so that’s why I think it’s really in a class by itself in terms of its cultural significance to us in the West in particular.”

This is partly why visitors will find the Ten Commandments scroll in a room of its own on the third floor of the ROM, accessible with a regular museum admission pass. The Dead Sea Scrolls have a separate extensive exhibit that features at least four scrolls of Old Testament texts and four other kinds of texts such as commentary or everyday documents that were found in the caves along the Dead Sea. The new rotation will reveal eight different scrolls beginning Oct. 10.

“In the new rotation we have a part of the book of Psalms; Psalm 124, the Song of Ascents, is a part of the Catholic daily liturgy and of the Anglican and Jewish liturgies, so it’s a fabulous document that people would recognize,” Rahimi said.

The first rotation of the scrolls drew more than 200,000 visitors.

Rahimi said visitors should know that the scrolls aren’t the only focus of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. There are about 300 artifacts from the second temple period, including objects from the temple enclosure, which you go through before seeing the scrolls.

“What we do is provide a context for understanding when the scrolls were written and we talk about what was happening in Judea at the time,” he said.
A stone parapet on display, for example, would have sat above the gate that Jesus entered through.