Israel Museum puts Dead Sea scroll on rare display
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel Museum puts Dead Sea scroll on rare display*
By MATTI FRIEDMAN,
Associated Press Writer
JERUSALEM - One of the most important Dead Sea scrolls is going on
display in Jerusalem this week _ more than four decades after it was
last seen by the public. The 24-foot scroll with the text of the Bible's
Book of Isaiah had been in a dark, temperature-controlled room at the
Israel Museum since 1967. It went on display two years earlier, but
curators replaced it with a facsimile after noticing new cracks in the
calfskin parchment.
The museum decided to put the scroll back on show for three months as
part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations.
The priceless manuscript, written by a Judean scribe around 120 B.C.,
was in a long glass case Tuesday, its neat rows of Hebrew letters
distinct and legible. President Bush, visiting Israel this week for the
anniversary celebration, will be one of the first to view it.
The Isaiah manuscript was the only complete biblical book discovered
among the Dead Sea scrolls, one of the great archaeological finds of the
20th century. The ancient documents, which include fragments of the
books of the Old Testament and treatises on communal living and
apocalyptic war, have shed important light on Judaism and the origins of
Christianity.
The Book of Isaiah is traditionally attributed to a prophet who lived in
the 8th century B.C.
In the book, he calls for repentance, warns of impending doom, and _ in
one of the most famous passages ever written _ offers an idyllic vision
of the future: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
Curator Adolfo Roitman called the Isaiah manuscript the "gem of the Dead
Sea scrolls." It is "one of the most important treasures of the Jewish
nation, if not the most important," he added.
A far smaller fragment of another Dead Sea scroll will be on display at
the Jerusalem convention center where Bush will be speaking along with
other dignitaries.
The segment, also rarely shown, contains the text of Psalm 133, which
reads: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity."