AT LAST A SIMPLE EASY TO READ, LOTS OF PHOTOS UP TO DATE BOOK IS OUT ON THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS, CALLED "DEAD SEA SCROLLS - THEIR HISTORY AND MYTHS REVEALED." BY JOHN DeSALVO PhD.
ON page 20 he tells us that the Old Testament Hebrew scriptures were written between the 12th and 2nd century B.C. Mainly in Hebrew but some passages in Aramaic. Up to the discovery of the Dead Seas scrolls (1947) the older Dead Sea scrolls contain texts from every book of the OT except Esther.
On page 23 the John Rylands fragment is considered to be the oldest known manuscript (MSS) fragment of the New Testament, considered to be written about 125-150 A.D. and is Jn. 18:31-33 on the front and Jn. 18:37-38 on the back. It was discovered in Egypt in the 1920s. It is currently in the John Rylands library in Manchester, England.
Page 34-40 is the story of the discovery of the scrolls. Most go with the story of 3 Bedouin cousins grazing their goats not far from the ruins of Khirbet Qumran. A goat went missing, one of the cousins goes looking for it, sees an open cave and throws a stone into it (maybe just playing or shooting type stuff that people often do for fun), and he heard an unexpected crash of pottery. Well 40 jars were discovered in the cave. Today only two are intact, how the others got broken no one seems to know. The jars are about 2 feet high. Looking inside they saw 3 ancient-looking MSS. Going back later that summer of 1947 they discovered 4 more scrolls.
To sell them they contact John Trever at the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. But it was Eleazar L. Sukenik, a professor of archeology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem that purchased them, for he recognized their significance and importance.
It was not until April 1948, about a year later that the general public became aware of the Dead Seas Scrolls. The scroll were up for sale but nobody seemed interested. It was not until 1954 that an advertisement was placed in the Wall Street Journal reading:
"The four Dead Sea Scrolls" Biblical Manuscripts dating back to at least 200 B.C. are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group. Box F 206, Wall Street Journal.
Well by chance Sukenik's son was in the USA. Now Sukenik may have a chance to get all 7 scrolls. And he bought them for 250,000 dollars. He wanted them to be returned to Israel as part of Israel's important history. All 7 are today displayed in the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem's Israel Museum.
The shrine was built in 1967 to display these scrolls. Now many more scrolls and fragments were discovered in time, and are housed in various locations in Jerusalem, Paris, Canada, and a copper scroll (only one found) in the Department of Antiquities in Jordan.
It was in 1952 a second cave was discovered and was called "cave 2." 4 more caves with fragments were discovered over the years after 1952. They were then known as Caves 3,4,5,and 6. Then four more caves were discovered, hence Caves 7,8,9, and 10. In 1956 the last cave was discovered - Cave 11.
WHY SO LONG TO PUBLISH THE CONTENTS?
DeSALVO tells us on page 45 - it was not until 1991 that all the scrolls and fragments were made available to the public. Cave 4 had the most fragments, but not much was published of this cave until 1982. Then it was simply that there were not enough translators and most of them it was not a full time job. Most had other jobs. Some lost interest, some being possessive of the scrolls kinda kept them to themselves and would not share them with others. And lastly, most scholars want to be very accurate in what they publish, so they took their time. Volumes came out in 1965, 1968, and a fifth and sixth volume in 1977 from some of the scrolls of Cave 4.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE TEXTS
The majority of the scrolls are in Hebrew, but some in Greek and Aramaic. Most on parchment (animal skins), some on papyrus (from the papyrus plant) and one on copper. Some intact scrolls were found but most are fragments - 60,000 fragments from the 11 caves. Experts have identified 900 separate texts of differing lengths, some only fragments remain. Like ancient Hebrew they were written from right to left, with no punctuation. Trying to put all this into words, sentences, paragraphs, has been a huge job for researchers. 7 intact MSS were found in Cave 1. And Cave 11 is the only other cave that had any intact MSS. The other caves were scroll fragments. Cave 4 had the largest amount of scroll fragments - over 15,000.
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NEXT TIME DeSALVO WILL TELL US HOW TEXTS FROM THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS ARE CALSSIFIED.
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