Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery Solved

[The Sushi Bandit]

The recent decoding of a cryptic cup, the excavation of ancient Jerusalem tunnels, and other archaeological detective work has helped solve one of the great biblical mysteries: Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls and why?

Full story here: http://current.com/entertainment/comedy/92579761_dead-sea-scrolls-mystery-solved.htm

[Cary]

1. Ha! n/t

[dipsydoodle]

2. I wonder if it had the story

of the Jewish tailor who only ever bought bolts of cloth made from natural materials, rejecting any made made materials , and occasionally travelling vast distances to get material to suit his obsession.

When he died his gravestone was engraved to say : Gone - but not for cotton.

[zeemike]

3. There is no full story anywhere.

Just 2 short paragraphs by a blogger named Sushi Bandit.
And I fell for it.

[nickinSTL]

5. a full story exists, just not at that link

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/100727-who-wrote-dead-sea-scrolls-bible-science-tv/

[zeemike]

6. Thanks for the link

I felt like I was cheated.

[On the Road]

14. Thank You for the Real Link, Nick

I'm interested in the scrolls and really wanted to read that article.

I am so glad that conventional wisdom is finally moving off the idea that the scrolls were written by people living in the nearby community. It's been obvious for decades to anyone without preconceptions that they came from Jerusalem and were written by a variety of people.

If you've ever read Motel of the Mysteries, that's pretty much what Pere de Vaux did with the site at Qumran. But he kept the scrolls privately held and for some reason the academic community was loath to criticize his approach.

On Edit:

Sigh. But not everyone agrees:

"I don't buy it," said NYU's Schiffman..."The notion that someone brought a bunch of scrolls together from some other location and deposited them in a cave is very, very unlikely."

Actually, it extremely likely and was extremely common. Whenever a city knew it was about to be under siege, it often took its prize possessions and secreted them away somewhere. Even in modern times, hundreds of artifacts from the Baghdad Museum were hidden by museum personnel for protection before the American invasion.

In this case, there is even a specific artifact, the Copper Scroll, which recounts in great detail how treasure from the temple in Jerusalem was hidden in a variety of locations around the country. That document specifically ties the scrolls to Jerusalem. And people like Dr. Schiffman still simply cannot fathom this basic piece of evidence.

[nickinSTL]

16. happy to provide it

I knew, even without clicking on the OP's link, that I'd seen an article on this recently, so checked NatGeo, as I have an RSS feed on new stories - and sure enough, there it was.

The Dead Sea scrolls aren't something I know a lot about, but I think the idea that they were brought there from elsewhere and hidden seems reasonable.

[On the Road]

18. I'm Shocked That There's So Much Resistance to the Idea, Frankly

Normally, the claim that the church feels threatened by the revelation of an ancient truth and is desperate to conceal it is justifiably scorned as delusional or paranoid.

But something sort of like seems to have happened here, except instead of hiding the truth it has been made irrelevant. Ascribing the scrolls to a dead, hermetic sect makes them a historical curiosity with few implications for our understanding of the history of Judaism or Christianity. On the other hand, placing them in Jerusalem in the temple means rethinking our understanding of that very formative phase of religious history.

---

Now, here's some food for thought: After Jesus died, the movement he left behind was presided over by his brother James for the next 30+ years. What we think of now as Christianity was introduced by Paul, who wasn't even converted until much of that time had passed. Nobody knows exactly what James taught, but it was more likely something more like Messianic Judaism.

James was a lifelong celibate who not eat meat, drink alcohol, or wear wool, and took daily baths for purification. He was a priest in the Jerusalem temple, and if you trust the accounts of 2nd-Century Church fathers, he might be described as the chief priest of the opposition, the enemy of the upper-class priests who collaborated with the Romans. He was eventualy killed by the high priest during a vacuum of Roman power.

Now, what does that imply about texts like Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, the Community Rule, or the War Scroll? What the relationship between those texts and the Messianic belief that Jesus left behind? Nobody knows the answer, but that is the $64,000 question.

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Self delete--dumb comment.

[The Sushi Bandit]

12. You wont feel cheated by this story! "God Found by French Explorers"

Full story at: http://sushibandit.com/?p=3270

enjoy!

[nickinSTL]

4. here is the actual story

from National Geographic:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/100727-who-wrote-dead-sea-scrolls-bible-science-tv/

No mystery has been "solved" - there's just possible evidence that the scrolls were part of the Temple treasure taken from Jerusalem at the time of the Roman siege in 70 CE.

Just a new theory, with supporters and detractors, and a misleading (IMO) headline. What's new?

[Odin2005]

7. I got to see the actual scrolls at the Minnesota Science Museum this spring.

And I learned all about this debate of the scrolls' origins. Very interesting!

[tabatha]

13. Was there a lecture about them?

[Odin2005]

15. No, just a whole shitload of historical info and acheological artifacts in the exibit area.

[TK421]

8. Turns out that it was just a recipe for some Dead Sea Sushi rolls

[The Sushi Bandit]

9. LOL

good one!

[TK421]

10. ;)

[Scurrilous]

17. Nice blog.

:thumbsup: