Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit gets under way
The exhibit called From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Forbidden Book – half of whose articles are owned by collectors and have never before been available for public viewing — is “definitely the biggest thing that ever happened to the center,” said Director Michael Reinhardt.
The Dead Sea Scrolls caused a sensation among scholars when discovered in 1947 in 11 caves near Jerusalem, where they had lain undisturbed and preserved in dry, desert air since the time of Jesus. The thousands of 2,000-year-old fragments include some of the oldest copies of Old Testament books and other priceless religious manuscripts that provide fascinating clues about early Jews and their mysterious neighbors, the world’s first Christians.
“Presidential-level” security, metal detectors and a prohibition on handbags and cameras are on tap at the center to protect exhibit items, which include:
• Famous centuries-old Bibles, including a Wycliffe Bible in Middle English (the language of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales) worth up to $5 million and dating to the 1300s. Also on display: the oldest reprint of the first New Testament printed in the English language, illegally in 1525, by William Tyndale, when he was hiding in Germany from English spies. Tyndale, who wanted the common man to be able to read the Latin scriptures in his own language, was caught by angry authorities, strangled and then his body burned at the stake. Only two original copies survive.
• Ancient Biblical coins, such as the widow’s mite referred to by Jesus when he visited the Temple in Jerusalem during his last week on earth, and a silver Roman denarius coin mentioned in several New Testament stories.
• Early Christian art from the Carberry Collection, including ancient crosses, Gnostic amulets,
reliquaries (holders for storing sacred relics), seals and pendants.
• A letter from America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson, describing his belief in God.
• The Marseah Papyrus, a scroll dating to the 7th Century B.C., shortly before the ancient Jews’
Babylonian Captivity, and the oldest Hebrew writing in existence.
• A 4,000-year-old Iron Age alabaster jar – like those in King Tut’s tomb — that would have been produced around the time of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham, when civilization on earth was only several centuries old.
• A 1,650-year-old papyrus Greek scroll of a “Septuagint Old Testament” (“Septuagint” from “seventy” in Greek, because in Jewish legend, seventy scholars miraculously came up with the same Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament on their own; the Jews were translating from Hebrew to lingua franca Greek because Hebrew was becoming extinct, being replaced by Aramaic, the language of Jesus).
The exhibit alsos include a 20-minute video in the center’s performance hall (whose seating is being enlarged to handle 150 video spectators per half hour). Trained volunteers are posted along the exhibit trail to answer questions and provide commentary. To handle April’s influx, a shuttle service has being set up between the Stones River Mall area and the downtown center.
Bringing the priceless Dead Sea Scrolls to Murfreesboro became possible because of a friendship between Noah and international antiquities dealer Lee Biondi, who represents the owners of the scrolls, the William Kando family in Bethlehem. Kando’s father bought the originally discovered scrolls from the Arab herdsman who unearthed them. Biondi surprised Noah by offering to make some scroll pieces available.
The month-long event with Oxford scholar David Daniell, the world’s top authority on the English Reformation and early English Bibles, flying in from London to lead a local symposium and also to speak at a preview and private showing for donors helping support the event.
On April 25 and April 26, a weekend Biblical symposium at the World Outreach Church on the New Salem Highway will explore the Bible’s origins and exhibit artifacts, featuring other experts, including Noah and internationally known Bible scholar Craig Lampe, curator of the world’s largest collection of antiquarian books and Bibles.
The last tours will take place on April 29.