Five fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls , some of the Museum of the Bible s most prized artifacts, were exposed as fakes on Monday and pulled from displays.

The museum, the brainchild of evangelical Christian businessman Steve Green, opened last year in Washington near the National Mall. The pieces, subjected to scientific tests in Germany, were deemed to have characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin, the museum said in a statement.

Though we had hoped the testing would render different results, this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts, chief museum curatorial officer Jeffrey Kloha said.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a series of fragments from approximately 930 manuscripts discovered near the Dead Sea in modern Israel during the late 1940s and 1950s.