Really Old Stuff!

I’ve decided that my friends and I simply cannot go on an outing and have it be a normal outing. It always has to turn into an adventure of sorts, no matter how simple and innocent a beginning. Today’s trip to the Israel museum was no exception. Without going into the details of group dynamics and the apparently inevitable questionability of the bus routes/bus stops, (because I ramble too much on this thing) I’ll just say that the museum itself was incredible. I remember going there last time we were in Israel just because I remember seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls, but since at that time I was not yet a Religion major, I had no idea the magnitude or significance of what I was seeing. Just as some background, the Dead Sea scrolls are ancient manuscripts that were discovered in the 1940s-50s in some caves near Qumran, which is north of the Dead Sea. The manuscripts are some of the oldest surviving biblical scripts, and contain both canonical and apocryphal material, as well as “sectarian” documents (rules, procedures, administrative stuff, etc). These finds taken together provide religious scholars and historians with a multitude of information about the development of religious texts, but also about the religion, culture, government, and general way of life during the time they were written (which is estimated between 150 BCE and 70 CE). So, clearly, seeing these things was pretty darn cool. Although the scrolls are not actually displayed in full in the museum (the free audio guide told me that this is because it is the duty of the Israel museum in part to display the scrolls but also to preserve them, and it would not be conducive to the survival of the scrolls to display them all the time—this fact greatly angered my friend Cody and I felt very sad for his disappointment), they do have pieces of each scroll displayed for the general public to look at and read for themselves. No pictures were allowed in the whole museum, so I can’t show you—you have to go look for yourself! There were excerpts from the Isaiah Scroll (arguably the most famous), the Temple Scrolls (which dictated temple and worship policy), the Thanksgiving Scroll (lots of prayers), and a few others. I loved it. And the building it is in has some pretty incredible symbolic architecture. You can read all about it if you’re interested (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrine_of_the_book).

Here are some quotes from the scrolls that I found particularly cool:

“This is the day appointed by Him for the defeat and overthrow of the Prince of the Kingdom of Wickedness.” –from the War of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, a really neat apocalyptic prophecy.

“They shall not profane the city where I abide, for I, the Lord abide amongst the children of Israel forever and ever.” –Temple Scroll XLV Columns 13-14

Other neat stuff in the museum include lots of artifacts from the history of Israel, starting with ancient man, going through the Cannanites, biblical Israel/the divided Kingdom, Greek and Roman Periods, interactions with Muslims and Crusaders, and finally the Byzantine period. I saw the Allepo Codex, a Tanach (Hebrew bible) written in the 10^th century, widely considered the most authoritative document in Judaism.

The museum also has some pretty fantastic modern art as well as some pretty terrible and disturbing modern art (as to be expected). Our last stop of the day was a perfectly to scale model of the old city during the second temple period which was pretty awesome. Although it was dark by the time we got to it I still really enjoyed it and now, more than ever, want to go to Mini Israel (where the entire country is miniaturized….like Legoland…)

I just got back from an awesome weekend in Tel Aviv, so I’ll have pictures and stories from that soon!!!