Dead Sea Scrolls
Yesterday, Michele and I accompanied our friends Jay and Elizabeth to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum. We'd been meaning to go for some time, and finally got around to doing so when Jay took the initiative and secured us tickets. The Dead Sea Scrolls are an example of something that I find fascinating but about which I know next to nothing, so I was looking forward to learning a bit about them.
All in all, I was quite pleased with the exhibit, which was educational and accessible at the same time. There were about a dozen scrolls fragments, most of them fairly small, which seemed (from the information provided) to be reasonably representative of the many different types of manuscripts recovered at the Qumran site. Much of the exhibit focused on the lifestyle of the Qumran community, which most scholars apparently believe to belong to the Essene branch of Judaism. According to the exhibit, the Qumran community was small, entirely male, and rigidly ascetic.
What I wasn't expecting was that the exhibit would have an emotional affect on me. It was difficult for me to read about the lifestyle and history of the Qumran community without feeling a shiver of sadness at the thought of the community's ultimate fate: destruction at the hands of the Roman army. They believed so strongly in their interpretation of the will of God that they chose to separate themselves from normal society, subject themselves to an ascetic lifestyle in a hellish desert environment, and devote their lives to preparation for the Armageddon they expected to arrive at any moment. As one of the exhibit's plaques rather glibly pointed out, they probably faced the onslaught of the Roman army with the firm, and quite understandable, belief that the Apocalypse had arrived.
It makes me sad to think that their Armageddon came and went, heralding not the final victory of Good over Evil but rather the bloody end of Jewish resistance to the hated Roman rule, another footnote in the brutal history of the Middle East. Certainly, Armageddon did not end in the way Qumran community confidently expected. What thoughts went through their minds when they heard reports of Roman soldiers descending on their isolated community? Were they ecstatic at the fulfillment of their prophecies, or did they panic in fear at the thought of being caught unprepared by the End? Did they charge defiantly from their caves and houses, secure in their knowledge that victory would be theirs? Did their faith waver at the sight of Roman spears and shields? In the ensuing slaughter, did there come a point when they realized how horribly they had been wrong? Did they die without understanding the religious implications of their defeat, or did they die feeling betrayed by God?
Maybe I think about this stuff too much.
Comments
This is slightly off-topic from your post, but you reminded me of Dead Sea Scroll exhibit trivia. Did you know that Grand Rapids is the only stop the scrolls will be making in North America? Several other venues had been scheduled, but they all backed out after September 11th.
Did you notice much in the way of security? Apparently it was quite a big deal for GR to convince the scrollkeepers that they could provide adequate protection. In the end, the scrolls were carried to the US in the carry-on luggage of multiple people on multiple flights, and no one in the US knew which flights those would be until they were already in the air. Cool!
Posted by: alan | May 14, 2003 8:32 AM
There was a moderate amount of security at the museum--I'd say slightly below airport-level. It mainly consisted of metal detectors in the museum lobby. There were a number of security guards in the lobby area observing things. I'm guessing that requiring visitors to get tickets for specific viewing times in advance and checking tickets at the entrance--on the far opposite side of the museum and on a different floor level from the scroll exhibit--is also a form of security. There were also several security guards roaming amidst the crowds at the exhibit.
So as far as security, it wasn't too flashy, but there were several layers of security present.
Posted by: jrau | May 14, 2003 9:11 AM
You probably just missed the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Field Museum in Chicago - I think they were there the spring after we graduated, so you had already moved to Michigan. I actually went to see that exhibit twice, I was so amazed by it. Seeing an actual manuscript with someone's handwritten words tugs on me emotionally as well. (I also was bummed that I couldn't physically touch the Dead Sea Scrolls since in my graduate studies and subsequent internship I was able to handle manuscripts and books from the Renaissance and Middle Ages - that gives me an even deeper sense of connection.) I wonder if in another 2000 years if archeologists are able to dig up all our emails off decrepit hard drives, will that form of correspondence be able dredge up the same emotions and sense of history that these do?
Posted by: kim | May 14, 2003 12:34 PM