Click2Religion - The Bible - Chapter 3

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>THE BIBLE:<br> HOW IT CAME TO US<br><br> <font size="4">CHAPTER 3 - THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS</b></font></p> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">In 1947, young Bedouins looking for a lost goat found some of the ancient Hebrew scrolls in the <a href="http://www.mustardseed.net/html/pqumrand.html" target="_blank"><b>caves of Qumran</b></a>, in the Judean desert near the <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/dsmap.gif" target="_blank"><b>Dead Sea</b></a>.  The scrolls turned out to be the oldest known surviving manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures (the “Tanach”). One thousand years older than anything modern scholars had seen before, the Qumran scrolls and fragments were a priceless find.</p> <p>One of the most exciting discoveries was the Isaiah scroll. Scholars think it was copied about 100 BC. Follow this link to one of the most famous chapters - <a href="http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/qum-44.htm" target="_blank"><b>Isaiah 53</b></a> - and this link to its <a href="http://www.ao.net/~fmoeller/qa-tran.htm" target="_blank"><b>translation</b></a>.</p> <p>When scrolls were no longer usable, rabbis treated them as though they had died. Old scrolls were wrapped in cloth and buried. That’s how many of the Qumran scrolls were found: wrapped in linen cloth, fastened with <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/tabs.gif" target="_blank"><b>tabs</b></a> and <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/thongs.gif" target="_blank"><b>thongs</b></a>, and placed inside <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/scrlljar.gif" target="_blank"><b>clay jars</b></a> unique to the <a href="http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAJ01u90" target="_blank"><b>Qumran area</b></a>. The Qumran "<a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/enoch-b.gif" target="_blank"><b>Enoch</b></a>" scroll (written in Aramaic - the Hebrew dialect Jesus spoke) was most likely buried in that fashion. </p> <p>But what about scrolls that were still usable? Why did they end up in <a href="http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAJ01u70" target="_blank"><b>Qumran’s caves</b></a>? Around 68 A.D. the Roman army was advancing toward Qumran. Two years earlier, that same army destroyed Jerusalem, and the Qumran community had to flee. The scrolls were placed in the caves where they remained, undisturbed, for nearly two thousand years.</p> <p>But Israel was not the only place where Jews lived, and Hebrew was not the only language Jews spoke. After <a href="http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/alexandria/gallery/alexander.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Alexander</b></a> the Great’s <a href="http://www.pothos.co.uk/map.htm" target="_blank"><b>conquests</b></a> between 336-323B.C., many Jews lived in Greek-speaking places. One of those places was <a href="http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/map.html" target="_blank"><b>Alexandria</b></a>, the Mediterranean <a href="http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/alexandria/gallery/qaitbay2.jpg" target="_blank"><b>port of North Africa</b></a> named after the Greek conqueror and home of the famous <a href="http://www.unesco.org/webworld/worlds/stills/fullsize/ex3qn.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Great Library</b></a> of the ancient world.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="bible_story_ch2.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="bible_story_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>     <a href="bible_story_ch4.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>