The California Science Center in Los Angeles has an exhibit titled The Dead Sea Scrolls now through Sept 7, 2015, and yesterday my friend Rabbi Sabine Meyer and I went to see it. If you live in L.A., or will visit there anytime soon, it’s well worth the admission fee.
They have done a nice job of putting the Scrolls in their historical context, explaining how they relate to other documents (the Hebrew Bible, Christian Bibles, and the Quran) and to the history of the Middle East. They also explained some of the science involved in their restoration. I could have used a bit more of the science: without it, the scrolls would have been nothing more than a curiosity, because we would not have been able to read them.
There’s a nice archaeological exhibit included as well, with a huge stone from the Temple Mount, pottery and building stones, figurines and inscriptions. Those who wish to read scripture as history, or who wish to read the Bible as infallible will be uncomfortable with it, but I liked the forthright approach to the science of the scrolls.
The scroll fragments come at the end of the exhibit, in a display that echoes the display at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. It is always a shock to see how tiny the fragments are, and how difficult it is to make out anything on them. I wish there had been more to explain how the scientists who reclaimed the scrolls made it possible for scholars to read them. When I looked at the blown-up images of the scroll fragments, enhanced for legibility, the calligraphy on them is beautiful and in fact easy to read – but the little flakes of actual scroll are hard to see, much less read. (If you’d like to see the scrolls for yourself, you can also take a look at them at the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls site maintained by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.)
So if you get a chance, go! But if Los Angeles is far away, let me give you a brief primer on the scrolls:
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered accidentally by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947. They include most of the books of the Hebrew Bible, with the exception of the Book of Esther. They also include some other texts which seem to have been exclusive to the Jews who lived together at Qumran in the first century CE.
The people who owned and hid the scrolls may have been Essenes, a sect of Judaism mentioned by Josephus in his history of the Jews. However, this is by no means certain. What we do know is that about the time of the failed revolt against Rome, the owners of this library of scrolls sealed it up in jars, stashed it in hard-to-reach caves above the Dead Sea, and there they stayed until the 20th century.
For more about the history and significance of the scrolls, the Virtual Jewish Library has an excellent set of articles.
Excellent, Rabbi Ruth! Thank you!
How does this differ from the one that came around 20 years ago or so? More stuff?
Thank you Rabbi…our Torah study group took a field trip to LA to see the exhibit… As I recall We learned about the book of Enoch, Jubilees, and lots of psalms…. A wonderful day Xxmahela
Seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem was amazing. To be honest, I thought I was going to see actual scrolls (I should have known better, haha!) and was a little confused at the tiny fragments displayed instead, but I was in awe of them. I had learned how to read a bit of Hebrew and like recognizing some of the letters (although I know it’s vastly different than modern Hebrew). I’m glad they had an exhibit like this in the States. Thanks for sharing!