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History, Mystery
Found in caves in an ancient land, Dead Sea Scrolls speak to us today
Photo Courtesy of Israeli Antiquities Authority
This fragment of one of the Dead Sea scrolls preserves part of the creation account of Genesis 1:18-27. It was found in Cave 4 in 1952.
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Published: September 21, 2008
RALEIGH - First, you must step into the cave. Well, it's not really a cave, it's a room in the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences on West Jones Street in downtown Raleigh. But it has been made to look and feel like a cave, and the dim light, chilly atmosphere and relative quiet quickly make you forget about the throngs of noisy schoolchildren outside in the midday heat, waiting for their turn to see the whale skeleton and the dinosaur and the museum's other wonders.
You have probably seen those wonders before, and you may see them again. But this day, you step into the cave, and you are transported far away. You are entering the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, which takes you near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea in what was then considered the province of Judea. It also takes you to the same area in 1947, when a Bedouin goatherd threw some rocks into a cave opening, heard the sound of breaking pottery and looked inside. That goatherd had stumbled upon what became one of the world's greatest archaeological discoveries.
The goatherd had no idea of the significance of the scraps of parchment that had been stored in the pottery jars that he had broken. He was, however, enterprising enough to see if he could get anyone to give him some money for them. Before long, word was out in the scholarly world as well among those who deal in the buying and selling of antiquities.
One of the several fascinating stories in the exhibition is that of how the scrolls -- eventually, about 900 manuscripts were found, in 11 caves near the Dead Sea -- were preserved. It involves treasure hunters looking for scrolls and merchants trying to decide whether the ancient leather was more valuable than the markings on it. Early attempts to piece together the fragments of manuscripts -- with tape! -- often did more harm than good. The story involves newspaper ads attempting to sell some of the scrolls. Duke University mounted what turned out to be a very popular one-week exhibit of four scrolls in 1950, but university officials passed up the chance to buy them in what would have been an incredible bargain.
Today, the scrolls are the property of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, which allows museums around the world to mount exhibitions like the one in Raleigh, where adult tickets are $22 apiece. The scrolls are incredibly delicate, and only a few are put on public display at any time, and those not for long. They are in high-tech, sealed display cases, and the six that are on view now in Raleigh will be switched for six others for the last three months before the exhibition closes Dec. 28.
The exhibition does a remarkable job of placing the scrolls in context historically and geographically. You learn the religious and political controversies and issues of the Second Temple Period, the time between the building of the second Temple in Jerusalem about 538 B.C. and its destruction by the Romans not long after the time of Jesus. You also learn about the rugged area of cliffs and caves by the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth and a body of water so salty that nothing lives in it.
But the heart of the exhibition is the scrolls, what we know about them and what we learn from them. The exhibition takes pains to acknowledge that much remains mystery, and the mystery continues to provoke controversy. One prominent theory is that the scrolls were written by people who lived at the nearby compound called Qumran, which was destroyed by the Romans in the year 68. Others think that those at Qumran had nothing to do with them, or that they didn't write them but had them for some reason and placed them in the pottery jars and hid them in caves to save them from the advancing Romans.
And then there's a raging dispute as to who lived at Qumran. Some scholars believe that it was the Essenes, an early Jewish sect who were celibate, believed in ritual immersion and believed that the world was about to end. According to this theory, the Essenes spent much time copying religious texts.
Archaeologists have found an elaborate system of waterways and pools at Qumran, which the exhibition portrays in detail. But there is great disagreement as to whether the Essenes lived there at all. Was Qumran a pottery factory, or a military stronghold? Were the scrolls written by diverse Jewish groups elsewhere, and brought to the remote caves for safekeeping?
Scholars may answer the questions and settle the disputes someday. For now, it is fascinating enough to know that these scrolls exist. They are more than 1,000 years older than any other texts of what became the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Among the manuscripts found at Qumran are parts of every book of the Old Testament except Esther. They also contain many texts that did not make it into the Bible, including some Psalms and unfamiliar stories of familiar biblical figures.
They are an incredible repository of much of the underpinnings of our culture.
The exhibition should be an eye-opener for anyone who has thought casually or insisted adamantly that the Bible we read today sprang into being full-blown, with every word written at least figuratively in stone. We would not have those ancient biblical accounts at all had it not been for people long ago -- whoever and wherever they were -- laboriously copying even more ancient accounts by hand on scrolls of leather, papyrus and copper. That these survive today is nothing short of a miracle.
Visit the cave; it's worth it.
Linda Brinson is the Journal's editorial-page editor. She can be reached at lbrinson@wsjournal.
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