Dead Sea Scrolls found in Philly

Dead Sea Scrolls come to Philadelphia's Franklin Institute [LINK]


"...the heart of the exhibit is the large, round display table of 10 Dead Sea scroll fragments, the jewel of which is a small parchment containing the oldest surviving biblical account of creation: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ...” Besides the five-month run at the Discovery Museum in Manhattan, this is the first time the Genesis scroll fragment will be on display in North America.

"Like most of the other scroll pieces — including one describing Noah’s death and another containing the famous lines from Isaiah that foresee a day when “the wolf shall live with the lamb” — the Genesis fragment is of dark amber hue and difficult to read in the dim light necessary to keep it from fading.

"And should visitors gazing on that small, Hebrew script find themselves trying to imagine the culture that created these texts, they need only glance at the walls around them for a sense of how the people of the Middle East lived and worshipped two and three millennia ago.

"The collection consists of more than 600 figurines, altars, coins, pottery, menorahs, bone boxes, and incense burners, and a giant stone from the Western Wall of the great temple of Jerusalem. The exhibition was created in cooperation with the Israeli Antiquities Authority, the Discovery Museum, and the Franklin Institute. It will be open seven days a week through mid-October.

Rob

 

No, I don't think this is a traveling exibit.

Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry offers a discount code here [LINK]

I might stop in sometime next week to see it.
I'll write up a blurb about it here.

Rob

 

Here I am less than 2 miles from the Franklin Institute and I haven't found the time to see it yet.

Maybe tomorrow if things start looking up.

Rob

 

I was finally able to visit the Dead Sea exhibit today. Totally awesome!

It wasn't very crowded – the masses of kids that arrived by bus didn't go to the Dead Sea Exhibit.

As you entered, there was a brief presentation on how the scrolls were found.
Next there was a large display of artifacts from various dynasty changes over the ages, i.e. Egyptian, Canaanites, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman etc. A neat video showed how the different empires effected Israel.

Then you entered a hall of pottery from the 8th to 1st century B.C.E., including one that one that was labeled as "Belonging to the King".

There was a "high places" stone alter from Tel Dan (9th -8th century B.C.E.) with perhaps a hundred idol images and an ornate four-horned incense-burning alter from the 10 century B.C. E. used in defiance of biblical law. I took a picture of a neat little scale with stone weights of various sizes and put it on the Friends of the Baptist Board Facebook page.

As I entered the main hall I saw even more historical artifacts which surrounded the main exhibit.
There were actual silver shekels and other engraved monies – some no larger than a 10 penny nail head. There were Hebrew textiles including those that wrapped the scrolls and minute phylacteries smaller than a quarter. There were scribal instruments with clay signature seals and iron arrow and spear heads. And I saw various limestone ossuaries including the infamous "Jesus, son of Joseph" Ossuary [LINK].

On display was also a 3-ton Western Wall stone block – you could clearly see etching from the iron tools used to carve it.

The Dead Sea Scrolls themselves were in a the center of the room in a round display resembling the lid of a Qumran pottery jar. A jar itself stood in the center.

Among the ten scrolls displayed was a large portion of 11Q5 – containing the acrostic Psalm 145 with the missing letter "N" included (see an old thread, "Missing verses in the KJV") [LINK].

A small dark, puzzle-pieced portion of Genesis 1:1-12 found in 4Q7 – between each day there was a space line.

There was also 4Q252, this scroll contained a portion of a commentary on the Genesis Flood.

A portion of Paleo-Exodus written in Paleo-Hebrew - apparently there were some at that time who thought the more modern Hebrew script was profane.

And there was 4Q200, containing the earliest known sample of Tobit – originally thought to have been written 3 to 400 years after Christ.

Beside each portion of scroll was a photo and my only disappointment was that sometimes even they were too dark to read.

So much more too.

Rob

 

Here is a nice article with quite a few pictures of the exhibit

Franklin Institute displays 'Dead Sea Scrolls' [LINK]
by John Barna/Gloucester County Times