Dead Sea Scrolls Shown in Seattle

At the end of September, I took the opportunity to fly out to Seattle to visit my eighty-one-year-old grandmother. While she was the primary reason for my trip, she was not the sole reason. That's because, before I went, my sister mentioned something to me that piqued my interest. As one trained in the original languages of the Bible, Greek and Hebrew, I was overjoyed to hear about a Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in downtown Seattle. The Pacific Science Center was exactly where I went before driving two-and-a-half hours south to see Grandma. I figured this would be my only chance to see the Scrolls in my life. Thanks, Grandma, for wanting me to see the exhibit.

The exhibit itself was fascinating. The Pacific Science Center did an outstanding job in setting up a display that is intellectual, yet practical. Whether the visitor to the exhibit was new to the Bible or well versed in it, the Pacific Science Center made sure to provide an educational experience for all visitors.

The exhibit gave intellectual appeal because of the history behind the Scrolls and their discovery by Bedouin shepherds in 1947. If you know anything about the Bedouins, you'll know they are Muslim. Imagine that, Muslims stumbling on to manuscripts of the Bible. Ironic? No, just the hand of God at work.

The hands-on displays at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit allowed the visitor to gain an appreciation for archaeology by filling a large plastic container with dirt and plastic scale models of artifacts buried under the surface for people to find. Other practical displays demonstrated the complexity of re-constructing clay pots with Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions on them. It was also interesting to see coins and other secular documents from the Dead Sea Scroll era. Since the Dead Sea Scrolls are made up of mostly fragments, one practical display contained 50,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces to demonstrate the complex nature of the work Bible scholars experienced when piecing together and translating the Scrolls.

So what are the Dead Sea Scrolls? I don't want to be overly complicated and technical. The Dead Sea Scrolls date back to as early as 250 BC and as late as 50 AD. The Scrolls are made up a combination of 900 manuscripts and thousands of fragments of biblical and non-biblical texts. The majority of the texts are non-biblical. Even though most of the texts are not part of the Bible, they provide valuable historical background regarding the time between the Old Testament and New Testament and expositions of Jewish ceremonial law.

The Scrolls came about by a small sect of Jews, called Essenes, who inhabited the northwest coast of the Dead Sea in a town called Qumran. It was there where scribes meticulously copied what we know as the Old Testament or the books of the Law and the Prophets that were later discovered in jars placed in caves located near Qumran.

Why would someone become so excited about some old fragments of papyrus exhibited under glass inked with what someone might perceive as chicken scratches? Ask the thousands besides me who saw the exhibit besides me. Everyone had their reasons for attending the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit. I can only vouch for myself. I wanted to see first-hand what Bible scribes copied over 2,000 years ago. The fact the fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls are still in existence is a miracle of God.

That's why the Dead Sea Scrolls aren't just antiquated papyri and ink. They're proof that God has preserved His Word through the ages. The earliest and most reliable manuscripts of the Old Testament prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls date back to roughly 900 A.D. The Dead Sea Scrolls pre-date those manuscripts by over 1,000 years.

I can say with certainty the Dead Sea Scrolls were more than worthwhile to see. If you have any interest at all, make the trip to Seattle before January 7, 2007. If you are willing to wait, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Scrolls will be in Kansas City, Missouri in mid-2007. No definite venue in Kansas City was mentioned in the Seattle P-I. The traveling Dead Sea Scroll exhibit will wrap up in San Diego in 2008.

For more information about the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit in Seattle, log on to www.pacsci.org. Flights to Seattle and hotels around Seattle are relatively reasonable for the month of October and first part of November. As one indigenous to Seattle, the weather may be unpredictable at that time of year. Rain drops will be falling from the sky. The sun will shine brightly…above the clouds. Weather aside, if you are in to Biblical antiquities, the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit is worth the trip.