Dead sea scrolls in Seattle

Post by **_Christopher** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 7:55 pm

Hey Mort, (or anyone else in the Portland/Seattle area:)

Have you gone to see the Dead Sea scrolls yet? What did you think?

We're thinking about going up to see them next month. I've heard from others that once you're in, there's no leaving and coming back...not even to go to the restroom

. Some friends said that 2 1/2 hours wasn't enough time to see everything they wanted. So we're thinking no food or drink before going in.

Any other tips you can think of?

It seems to be a once in a lifetime opportunity for this area and we want to make it worth the trip.

Post by **_Mort_Coyle** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 11:21 pm

Hi Christopher,

I haven't gone to see them yet, but I hope to. If you come up this way, drop me a line!

Post by **_Christopher** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:34 am

Hi Mort,

I'd love to. How about if you send me a private message with your number and I'll let you know when we firm up a date. Maybe we can meet up for coffee or lunch or something while we're up there. That would be cool. 8)

If anyone else has been to the exhibit, I'd love to hear your experience.

Post by **_Pam Hogeweide** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 2:12 am

Hello, I'm a newbie, Pam, from Portland, Oregon. I was just up north in Seattle for the Revolution conference and I viewed the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit afterwards.

I'm glad I purchased my tix ahead of time. A friend and I went on a Sunday and tix were sold out. You can purchase ahead of time by contacting the Pacific Science Center...google it... tickets are sold for a window of time so as to stagger visitors to the exhibit.

Yes, they are strict. Once you are in, after a security check, you cannot exit and then come back in. The exhibit itself took us nearly two hours and we did not even look at every little thing. There are lots of artifacts from the Qumran site.

Exhibit visitors are provided an "audio wand" to listen to commentary about the exhibit. Very cool.

The atmosphere is very respectful. People spoke little, or in hushed tones. It felt kind of like being at a funeral, lots of respect and reverance.

The scrolls themselves are in lighted showcases that blink off every 30 seconds so as to preserve the scroll fragments from light damage.

There are benches throughout the exhibit for people to sit, reflect, rest, or write, as I did. I intend to blog about my visit there within the next couple of weeks.

I highly recommend it. I think it was worth the time and effort. The Pacific Science center is hosting a lecture series in conjunction with the exhibit. They have a schedule posted on their site.

At the end of the exhibit the last room hosts sacred writings from other religions, like the Koran and some Buddhist writings. Amazing artistry and history, and also some NT writings were displayed, I think from Ireland.

Post by **_Christopher** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 9:42 am

Thank you Pam. That is very helpful!

Lord bless.

P.S. Welcome to the forum.

Post by **_Pam Hogeweide** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:09 pm

glad i could be helpful! happy thanksgiving!!!

Post by **_kaufmannphillips** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 3:30 pm

I visited the exhibit weekend before last. In particular, I liked the selection of some of the fragments on display. One introduced the relevance of the scrolls when it comes to textual criticism (exploring whether different textual witnesses like the Masoretic Text, the Septuagint, or the Samaritan Pentateuch have more or less reliable renderings of a particular passage, and/or the relative light they might shed on a more original form of the text).

Another was an example of the "pesher" hermeneutic present amongst the scrolls.

One fragment of special interest to me came from an unusual psalms scroll that I researched and wrote about for a class at George Fox. It was neat to see an actual part of that scroll. I don't recall if the exhibit pointed out or not that it is debated whether the scroll is actually a version of the book of Psalms, with different sequencing and additional content, or if it is a non-canonical devotional collection like a hymnal.

Shalom,
Emmet

P.S.: The exhibit's cost includes admission into the Pacific Science Center itself. If you have time, check out the butterfly house. Very cool.

Post by **_Mort_Coyle** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:23 pm

[In Homer Simpson voice]

I went to see the Dead Sea Squirrels but there weren't any squirrels! Just a bunch of dumb scraps of paper with itty-bitty writing on them!

[Homer Simpson voice off]

I did get to the Seattle exhibit today. It was interesting, but also so crowded that it was difficult to really enjoy. I guess it's good that they're so popular though.

I think the thing that struck me the most was the patient dedication of the Essenes (and others like them in the world before printing presses) in meticulously transcribing and preserving these documents.

The handwriting was so tiny and precise!

I also appreciated how they broke the Qumran scrolls down into three categories: Biblical, Apocryphal and Sectarian.

My wife and I agreed that we should view them again, but next time at The Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Post by **_Christopher** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:53 am

I'm glad you liked it.

I really enjoyed the exhibit. Coming face to face with artifacts of that time period is thrilling to me for some reason.

Along with the scrolls, I really enjoyed seeing all the different commemorative coins they had from that era as well. I think most or all of the Caesars were represented as well as a Roman victory coin from the Jewish war! It's pretty cool how we still do that kind of thing with our coins today.

The other interesting thing to me was how things like basket and rope weaving, lice combs, and surgical instruments have not really changed much in over 2000 years!

Finally, I found it fascinating the lengths that researchers are going to in order to identify the relation of each of the fragments. Right down to DNA testing of mumified lice in the combs they found!

Post by **_Rick_C** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:07 pm

Hey folks...good for you!
(I live in Ohio and missed the DSS when they were here).

Please check out this article by one of the world's DSS experts:
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
AT SEATTLE’S PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER
by Norman Golb
15 December 2006

I've been studing the DSS on & off for a few years and when I read this article I like, freaked out! Astonishing stuff! Why? If Golb is correct, and I believe he is; the DSS could have potentially been read, heard, or seen by anyone in the NT!

Btw, I found the link to Golb at what might be the best site on the web for Early Jewish Studies:
Jim Davila's
PaleoJudaica.com
see "GOLB AND THE SCROLLS"

Check out "Articles, Conference Papers, and Book Reviews by James R. Davila Online" and other links. Davila's site is, um, loaded!!!

Rick