Today is the first day of a six-month exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. You may know the story of the rather dramatic discovery of these scrolls by a shepherd boy in 1947. The lad tossed a rock into a cave in the rugged Judean hills and heard something break. It turned out to be an clay urn, one of many in this and surrounding caves. While the scrolls went underground, both figuratively and literally in some cases they eventually came to the attention of the archeological and biblical historical community and have proven to be a great find. There are about 900 scrolls in total.
Why are they so important? Some of the scrolls cast light on the apocalyptic sensibilities of Jewish believers in a period not long before Jesus lived in Palestine. Is that snoring I hear in the distance? It really is important! Even more signficant for most of us are the scrolls which are copies of biblical texts. Some of them represent the oldest original biblical manuscripts in existence. Before this find the oldest manuscripts scholars had to work with were about 1000 years old. The Dead Sea Scrolls are roughly 2000 t0 2200 years old. One of the fragments on display is of the story from Genesis of the attempted seduction of Joseph by Potiphar's wife. Brush up on your Hebrew.
I have been to Qumran, the desert location near the Dead Sea where the scrolls were discovered. I remember the blazing sun and the intense heat. I have also visited the museum in Jerusalem where many of them are housed. These are some of the oldest written documents on the planet and fascinating for that reason alone. The biblical connection gives them an added level of interest.
I hope you find time to go and see them.
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