Indiana Jones and the Dead Sea Scrolls

In the '80s I went to Jerusalem and saw the dead sea scrolls.  Big whoop, right?  It's a bunch (around 900 or so) bits and pieces of Hebrew writing on animal skins found in caves between the '40s and '50s.

As it turns out, it's the greatest theological find of the last several centuries.  But it may take several more centuries to know fully what they're all about.  These theological/antiquities folks are slow and boring.  We want instant.

But something, dead sea scrolls wise, exciting happened on Friday. We had this young Hebrew scholar from the University of Central Florida come to our Speaker Series.

By the way, he's not Hebrew.  He's a red headed Swede.

He reminded us of how a Bedouin sheep herder wondered into a cave and found five scrolls in two clay jars.  He thought about the same thing you and I would.  Big whoop!

Dr. Ken Hanson

The story, as told by Ken Hanson, about how the scrolls went from one sheep herder to another until somebody figured out that they were written in Hebrew - and others found out they were worth millions of dollars, was totally mesmerizing.

Hanson did all the parts:  Part Indiana Jones, part Bedouin sheep herder, part Jewish scholar - all in costume.  And he never stopped moving.

I hope that, in my life time, the average Judao Christian person will come to understand the power and importance of the dead sea scrolls.


***