Trip to the Royal Ontario Museum
On Sunday my husband and I, along with other members of our church, took a trip to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. I’ve been wanting to see this exhibit since it was first advertised. We were not disappointed. And yet, we saw so much that I think it will take time to absorb the full impact.
Our pastor had taken a study trip with our local seminary to the Holy Land in April of this year; it must have felt somewhat like going back there. He pointed out places on an enormous pictorial map of Jerusalem where events of Jesus’ time took place.
Before we saw the actual fragments of scrolls, we saw maps and articles, coins and urns, especially samples of urns in which the scrolls were found. Timeline charts and video presentations further illustrated the issues and questions on scholars’ and lay people’s minds.
We learned about the customs of the people at the times, one being that any non-Jew who entered the temple did so at risk of his life. Temple officials had the right to put to death, without seeking direction from Roman authorities, any non-Jew who entered its hallowed walls. Don’t think I’d want to risk it if I were them.
Our pastor pointed out carved stone boxes called ossuaries and said that the bones of the dead were gathered up after a time and the bones placed in these boxes with those of their relatives, reminding us that Jesus, who was laid in an unused cave, would not have been added to his relatives’ box since he was resurrected. The ossuary boxes of the poor were much simpler than those of the rich who might have special symbols carved in the stone box. We may not totally make sense of this custom, but we could at least understand why the boxes are so short.
There exists still quite a bit of controversy about the Essenes and whether they wrote some of the material in the scrolls and when or why they hid them in clay jars. Whatever happened, the scroll material—parchment and leather— was preserved and out of the elements, whereas the humidity and heat had already destroyed those scrolls found laying in one cave.
Archaelogists are still trying to figure out some of the puzzles around the scrolls. It must be a little like the puzzle that biblical experts tried to sort out as they pieced parchment and leather bits together in the Scrollery at the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem. I like puzzles, but this one would have been enormous and was definitely of great importance. I suppose that as long as people ponder and dig that not all the questions will be answered to everyone’s satisfaction. There’s always more to consider.
I found it interesting that archaeologists struggle with their digs because of Bedouin shepherds causing trouble for them. Ironically, perhaps, since it was Bedouin shepherds who found the scrolls in the first place. Do present shepherds realize who found the scrolls back those many years, or are they just defending their territory from intruders, albeit, people who care about their history?
Whatever all occurred has whet my appetite to learn more. Our trip served as a living and powerful testimony that the Bible we revere is grounded in this historical find. Seeing those bits on display and reading the English translation was awe-inspiring for me. It was a connecting point from early biblical history to the present, and the crowds of people who have already been to see this display also bear witness to what was written so long ago and how it impacts our lives today.