Dead Sea Scrolls

I apologize to those of you who thought I would be prompt; I know I said I'd write about this all week, but it gets a little crazy sometimes.

For the past several weeks (perhaps months, we weren't told exactly) the Israel Museum has had the Isaiah scroll as well as other portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls on display. This was the last time they would ever be available to the public eye; as of 18 September they have been put into a temperature controlled vault and are no longer accessible, even to scholars, because they are disintegrating so rapidly. This last Sunday we had a free day, and Brother Huntington (the associate director) organized a field trip for anyone interested in seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls. We were all interested, so all 81 students as well as several of the faculty went to the museum.

Most of the museum is currently closed for renovation, but we were able to see a model of the city of Jerusalem as it was when Herod's temple was still standing (where the Dome of the Rock is now). Professor Skinner came along and gave us a fantastic description of the city, showing us specifically where various historical and biblical events took place, as well as how the structures in the model correspond with the city we see every day. This is the view from the city on the southwest...I think. Professor Skinner said the red-roofed houses would have been owned by the more wealthy people in the city (they have multiple floors) and the towers you see in the back right of the photo were part of Herod's castle. He had towers erected in memory of his brother, his best friend, and his favorite wife, who he later had executed. Great guy, Herod.

After looking at the city, we went down into the Book of the Shrine, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were exhibited. They were in a building with a white almost upside-down funnel shaped top. (Observe the photo, courtesy of Israelinphotos.com because I did not take my own.) When they found the scrolls at Qumran, they were contained in jars with lids that looked like this building. The actual building is underground, and right inside there was a long hallway with artifacts that were discovered at Qumran along both sides. At the end of the hallway was a circular room that discussed the Dead Sea Scrolls in detail, as well as their importance. It also contained the Aleppo Codex, the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, although in 1947 a large chunk of it went missing, including almost the entire Torah. I'm not quite sure how anyone could just lose all five books of Moses, but I guess it happened. Regardless, it was really interesting to learn about how the Aleppo Codex matched so well with the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Isaiah scroll on display is the longest continuous scroll of all 200+ scrolls that they found, and according to Professor Skinner over 95% of the text on the Isaiah scroll matches the King James Version of the book of Isaiah. That's pretty cool.

After the museum we split up into different groups. I went to West Jerusalem, specifically Ben Yehuda Street, with some other people, and we made our way through West Jerusalem and then into the Old City. It was fun, and very very different from East Jerusalem. The West side is definitely more European/American...well, see for yourself.I do like, however, that it is kosher.