The Faces Behind the Scrolls

The Faces behind the Scrolls Also a children’s guide The discovery of seven, two-thousand year old scrolls by Bedouin shepherds in a cave near the northern Dead Sea during the winter of 1946—1947 proved to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in human history. The scrolls generated tremendous excitement, since they were a thousand years older than any biblical manuscripts known at the time, apart from the small Nash Papyrus, dated to the second century BCE. The discovery was initially greeted with a combination of suspicion, skepticism, and amazement, owing to the “Shapira Affair” that had taken place dozens of years before, but which remained deeply embedded in the collective memory. In 1883 the Jerusalem-based antiquities collector and dealer Moses Shapira was suspected of forging scrolls which he claimed came from the Dead Sea region and ultimately took his own life. These events were undoubtedly in the minds of the heroes of this exhibition when they first encountered the seven scrolls. Three of the scrolls were purchased by Eleazar Sukenik of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the first to notice the writings’ nature and significance. He concluded that the scrolls were copied during the late Second Temple Period and that they originated in an Essene genizah (a repository for worn copies of Jewish texts). His assumption became the cornerstone of modern scroll research. Sukenik was unable to purchase the remaining four scrolls, which are the focus of this exhibition. Their story is told here through the individuals who recognized their importance and devoted efforts to preserving, studying, and revealing them to the public. Today, it is possible to look back upon the moments of discovery embedded within the sequence of everyday events and understand that the combination of the right people in the right place at the right time is what made them happen. Welcome to the exhibition The Faces behind the Scrolls ! You are about to meet some of the fascinating people responsible for bringing four of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Shrine of the Book. Take a look at their photos and the special objects associated with them. Want to find out some surprising things about these people and their objects? Follow us! In Winter 1946/47 two cousins, Muhammed edh- in Bethlehem. During a return visit to the cave, Dhib and Jum‘a Muhammed, Bedouin shepherds they found four additional scrolls. from the Ta‘amireh tribe, were herding their flocks in the hills overlooking the northern Dead The seven scrolls were sold to antiquities Sea, when they noticed a small opening in the dealers in Bethlehem. Three were eventually rock. They tossed in a stone and were surprised purchased by Eleazar Sukenik, professor of to hear the sound of shattering pottery. Three archaeology at The Hebrew University of days later they returned, crawled through the Jerusalem. Four were sold by Khalil Eksander opening, and discovered a cave (later named Shahin (Kando), a Syrian Orthodox Christian Cave 1) containing ten lidded jars, one of which shoemaker and dealer, to Archbishop Athanasius held three rolled scrolls. The shepherds took Yeshue Samuel of Jerusalem. the scrolls back to camp, intending to sell them Muhammed edh-Dhib and Jum‘a Muhammed, n.d. Khalil Eksander Shahin (Kando), 1910—1993 Use the headsets to listen to an interview with the Bedouin shepherd Muhammed edh-Dhib. In the interview Muhammed describes how he found – together with his cousin – the oldest Bible in the world, written on scrolls and hidden in pottery jars. Before the scrolls were taken to the Shrine of the Book, they were stored in a cave in the Judean Desert for more than two thousand years. The dry, dark conditions in the cave protected them and kept them from disintegrating. That’s why we keep the Shrine of the Book dry and relatively dark, just like the cave. Knowledge of the ancient manuscripts reached Aramaic — the language spoken in the time of Athanasius Samuel, head of the Syrian Orthodox Jesus and used in the Syrian Orthodox Church. Monastery and Church in Jerusalem, in April 1947. In 1948, as fighting between Jews and Arabs in Samuel and his mother, survivors of the 1916 Jerusalem increased, Samuel took the scrolls Ottoman massacre at Hilwah, wandered as to Beirut and then to the United States. After refugees until ultimately reaching Jerusalem. studying and exhibiting them, he put them up There Samuel trained as a priest, became the for sale. In 1954 archaeologist Yigael Yadin monastery’s librarian, and rose to the rank of secretly purchased the scrolls for $250,000 on archbishop. After purchasing the four scrolls, behalf of the State of Israel. he consulted scholars at the American School of Oriental Research, who determined that the Athansius became Patriarchal Vicar to the writings were two thousand years old, and United States and Canada and is buried in a that three scrolls were in Hebrew and one in cathedral in Glane, The Netherlands. Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, 1907—1995 The man in the photo purchased the scrolls that Muhammed and his cousin discovered in the cave. His name was Athanasius Samuel, and he was a Christian clergyman. Today we know that touching the scrolls with bare hands damages them and that they may only be handled by people wearing gloves. Athanasius, like others in his day, apparently did not know If you decided to write a book about this. The book that bears his photo is your own life, what would be the most his autobiography. In it, Athanasius important event in it? tells the story of his life and reveals that the purchase of the scrolls was the greatest thing he ever did. On February 18, 1948 the American School of In the school’s basement, against the Oriental Research in Jerusalem was empty. background of approaching war, Trever took John Trever, a biblical scholar and professional the first photographs of the Great Isaiah Scroll, photographer from Yale University, answered the Community Rule, and the Commentary on the telephone himself. On the line was Butrus Habakkuk. These photographs enabled the Sowmy, assistant to Athanasius Samuel, asking leading scholar William F. Albright to confirm for help with four ancient scrolls. the scrolls’ dating and authenticity. Trever immediately agreed, and when the scrolls Trever returned to the United States, became a arrived he spread the longest one across his professor of Bible, and engaged in the research bed and compared the square Hebrew script to of the scrolls. His books remain an important that of the Nash Papyrus, a manuscript from the source of information about the story of the second century BCE. To his astonishment, he scrolls’ discovery. realized that before him lay an ancient scroll of the Book of Isaiah. John Trever, 1915—2006 This letter was written by John Trever, an American scholar and photographer of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In his day there was no e-mail, and to make sure that his letter would reach the Dead Sea Scroll scholars in Israel quickly, he sent it by airmail – in other words, by plane. Letters sent by airmail had to be light, and so they were written on a single sheet of paper. After he finished writing his letter, John folded the sheet into the shape of an envelope and wrote the address on the outside. In 1949 Father Roland De Vaux, director of site, the caves, and the scrolls to the Essenes. Ecole´ biblique et archeologique´ francaise¸ de This theory, once accepted by most scholars, is Jerusalem,´ began excavating in the vicinity now the subject of debate. of the caves where the scrolls were found, on behalf of the Palestine Archaeological Museum De Vaux stood at the head of an international (later the Rockefeller Museum) directed by team devoted to deciphering the scrolls and Gerald Lankester Harding. was chief editor of the major publications in this field. He was regarded as an outstanding De Vaux, born in Paris and a graduate of the teacher and a meticulous scholar, but was also Sorbonne, was ordained as a Dominican priest criticized for preventing other scholars from and eventually joined Ecole´ biblique, where he examining the scrolls. became a professor. Between 1951 and 1956 he discovered 267 caves, thousands of scroll De Vaux is buried at Saint Stephen’s Basilica, fragments, and the site of Qumran. De Vaux laid Jerusalem. the foundations for the theory connecting the Roland De Vaux, 1903—1971 This camera belonged to the priest and Some of Roland’s sharp photos are historian Roland De Vaux. He used screened in the exhibition; can you find it to photograph the archaeological them? excavations that he directed at Qumran near the Dead Sea. Roland searched for antiquities and scroll fragments. The objects he discovered tell us a lot about the scrolls and about the people who wrote them. The long piece attached to the top of the camera is a distance gauge, which measured the distance between the photographer and the objects being photographed, so that the photo would be sharper. On June 1, 1954 a reporter called the attention In 1955, when the scrolls arrived in Israel, of archaeologist Yigael Yadin to a Wall Street Yadin initiated the establishment of the Shrine Journal announcement advertising the sale of of the Book Foundation, for the promotion of four Dead Sea Scrolls. The advertisement was education and science. He commissioned the posted by Athanasius Samuel. services of artist James Bieberkraut and his wife, photographer Helene Bieberkraut, to Fearing that Samuel would refuse to sell the unroll, conserve, and document the scrolls. scrolls to an Israeli, Yadin used a middleman to negotiate with Charles Manoog of the Scrolls’ Yadin was Israel’s second military chief of Board of Trustees.

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