Loading...Just a quick post because of time constraints. We just got into Jerusalem and I am off to give a lecture in half an hour.
We left Tiberias (and the Sea of Galilee) this morning and traveled down to Jerusalem. En route we went to one of the traditional sites of Jesus’ baptism, in the Jordan River; it can’t be the actual site, since it’s way up north and it is clear in our earliest account, Mark’s, that John was baptizing somewhere in walking distance of Jerusalem. But it’s a gorgeous setting, and there are always groups of people getting baptized there – as today.
From there we went to Beth Shean, one of the major archaeological sites of (Greek and) Roman ruins in Israel, with terrific colonnaded walk ways, a very nicely preserved theater that seats 8000 (in the Greek style – that is, built into the natural slope of a hill, rather than the Roman style which tended to be “free standing”), some terrific public baths, temples, and lots of other things.
We continued to Jerusalem where we had an overview of the city from Mount Scopus (from the east); and had lunch at the Israel Museum. There is an enormous “model” of Jerusalem there, from ca. 66 CE, to scale. But the highlight of the museum for most visitors, and for me personally, is the Shrine of the Book, where the first seven discovered Dead Sea Scrolls are housed, including the Isaiah scroll (they have only a facsimile presented, since the original needed more careful conservation) – a complete copy of Isaiah.
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Thanks for taking us along.
I’ve got a box-full of questions but will wait until you return to dump them on your desk !!
Enjoy Qumran…I’m very sure you know it well. I loved scrambling down into the iconic caves across with wadi from the ruins and floating in the Dead Sea. Oh would I love to be there again. Enjoy..
Lots of helpful stuff which I will check out. Thanks.
Are the Dead Sea scrolls, actual scrolls (rolled up papyrus) while the books of the New Testament are found in what you call a codex (bound book). Is this standard for books of the New Testament to be found in a codex instead of a scroll?
Yes, the ancient Jewish writings are all scrolls, and it appears that Christians prefered codexes. If you feel like reading about it, you might look at either Larry Hurtado’s book on Early Christian Artefacts or Harry Gamble’s book on Books and Readers in the Early Church.
I find your answers to reader comments just as interesting as your blog posts! Thanks for posting about these two books (the one by Hurtado in particular). I’ve been looking for concise texts like these for years. My curiosity on the original codices, where they were found, what they contained/omitted, etc. has been frustrated for years with having no outlet for finding, in a single source, the answers to my questions.
After reading “Fabricating Jesus: How Modern Scholars Distort the Gospels” By Dr. Craig A. Evans, I noticed he insisted Jesus was not a Cynic, Eunuch or Essine. Was this apocalyptic style of writing common among Roman, Cynic, Jewish, or Essine sources at that time? Are the dead sea scrolls evidence of a jewish source? I wonder if he stated that in order to distance Jesus from being labeled as an apocalyptic Jew. Thanks for taking us along on your trip!
Apocalyptic beliefs were common among Jews at the time, including the Essenes; and yes, this view is indeed found in the Scrolls.
Bart — I wonder how much you actually know about what Robert Eisenman went through to get the scrolls released to the public. Without his persistence in confronting state officials and the religious monopoly who controlled the documents we might still be waiting in line to see the texts for themselves. Let’s face it, control of the manuscripts by a group of “elite experts” led to the kind of “consensus scholarship” you’ve been discussing of late (the bad kind, I mean). It caused needless delays and an unlevel playing field for scholars throughout the academic world, dividing them and their institutions into “ins” and “outs.” The people you list are the beneficiaries of the heavy lifting done by others, especially Bob Eisenmen and Michael Wise.
I have to admit, I didn’t know (remember?) that Eisenman had anything to do with it. I thought the whole thing was spear-headed by Herschel Shanks and the Biblical Archaeology Review. What was Eisenman’s role?
p.s. Disregard what I said about Wise helping to free up the Scrolls. From what I’ve recently discovered he was mostly just a translator.
p.s. p.s. Thought you might be interested in seeing the latest take on carbon 14 dating. According to Hershel Shanks, Bietak seems to confirm what Eisenman’s been saying all along; namely, “that.the margins-of-error in C-14 testing are of such magnitude as to render attempts at ‘absolute dating’ impossible….” (from The New Testament Code)
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/archaeology-today/old-sherds-new-science/
Old Sherds, New Science – Biblical Archaeology Society
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org
Old Sherds, New Science
Sorry, just one more thing….from Hershel Shanks.
Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls
How the world has changed—in only 25 years. A recent public letter from Israel Antiquities Authority director Shuka Dorfman tells us he is “very proud” to announce the availability of a “free online digitized virtual library of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” including thousands of fragments.
I can still recall—I admit, with a smile—the situation in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the IAA had forbidden its employees from writing for BAR because of our insistent demands for release of the scrolls and our publication of unauthorized copies. When clandestine copies of the scrolls were made available to the public in 1991, the then IAA director called the move “not ethical,” a “mere publicity stunt.”
Then in 1992 BAR was sued by an Israeli scholar for publishing small fragments of a Dead Sea Scroll text that he had partially reconstructed—and we lost! The Israeli court awarded the Israeli scholar $40,000 in damages.
Over time, the situation has changed, and the scrolls are now available to everyone—with the blessing of the Israel Antiquities Authority.—H.S.
Reference for this article:
“Strata: Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Biblical Archaeology Review, Mar/Apr 2013, 16. http://members.bib-arch.org/publication.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=39&Issue=2&ArticleID=14 (accessed 5/7/2013)
QUESTION: WHO DO YOU THINK WAS THE CATALYST FOR THE DSS FREEDOM MOVEMENT!?
I added up all the views of Youtube videos of you speaking, debating, lecturing, or debating and the first 5 pages of the most viewed videos of you on Youtube (not including people talking about you) is 2.8 million video views. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg! There are dozens of more videos with 10,000’s of more views.
Wow. OK, well, it’s a very big tip. I had no idea….
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_sort=video_view_count&search_type=videos&search_query=bart+ehrman
I ignored the response videos
Did they have any ossuaries on display? How much of what is on display at the museum is authentic and how much is, as you put it, “facsimile?” I’m always disappointed when I go to a museum and I find out that what I’m seeing is just a modern copy of something. If I make the effort to go I want to be in the presence of history or great art, not a model or a photocopy. Heck, I’d rather see a great forgery by someone trying to convince me it’s authentic than something that is represented as “just like the original, which is too important to expose to people who go to museums.”
There are lots of actual ossuaries around — and not just in museums!