A 2,000-year-old copy of the Ten Commandments goes on display for the first time in New York Friday as part of the 10-day "Discovery Times Square" exposition.

The ancient parchment, on loan from Israel, is one of the Dead Sea scrolls discovered in a cave in Qumran in 1952.
    
Exhibit curator Risa Levitt Kohn says the rare treasure is in amazingly good condition.

"There really only are two ancient copies of this famous text of the Ten Commandments that everybody knows from the Hebrew Bible," Kohn said. "And this is the only copy on parchment that we've discovered and it's the oldest copy on parchment, especially among the Dead Sea Scrolls."

"So it's really kind of an exceptional text both because of its contents, its age and the fact that it's in amazingly good condition," he added.
    
The scroll is thought to have been used as a prayer leaflet. Also on display are about 900 other scrolls discovered in the Dead Sea caves.