Can We Find the Lost Treasures of the Mikdash? The Dead Sea Scrolls, one of which is the Copper Scroll, comprise roughly 850 remarkable manuscripts, including texts from the Tanach, discovered between 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around Wadi Qumran (on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea) in Israel. The scrolls fall into three major categories: Biblical texts, books of the apocrypha, and "sectarian" works. The Biblical manuscripts comprise some two hundred "transcripts" representing the earliest extant Biblical texts yet known. Though most books of the Tanach are represented only by small scraps of inscribed parchment usually not in the best condition, there are fairly complete texts of Yeshayahu and two of the three chapters of Chavakuk, one of the lesser known "Twelve" - or "Minor Prophets". The texts are of great religious and historical value as they are the only known surviving Biblical documents written before the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. Among the apocryphal manuscripts are works that previously had been known only in translation, from random quotes cited in other works or newly revealed compositions whose very existence had previously been unknown. The "sectarian" manuscripts reflect a wide variety of literary genres: Biblical commentary, "sectarian Halacha", liturgical texts, and apocalyptic writings. The most well known of the sectarian works are the celebrated War of the Sons of Light with the Sons of Darkness, the Temple Scroll, the Commentary on Habakkuk, and the Manual of Discipline. The concensus among "Scroll scholars" until the 1990s was that the scrolls were written by the Essenes who lived at Kirbet Qumran and that they hid the scrolls in the nearby caves during the Jewish Revolt against the Romans in 66CE. Slaughtered to the last man by Roman troops, they never returned to retrieve their precious manuscripts. Today the concensus is that the authors of the scrolls were "Essene-like" or a splinter Essene group rather than simply Essenes as such. This modification of the Essene theory takes into account the substantial differences between the world view expressed in some of the scrolls and the Essenes as described by the classical writers such as Josephus and Pliny the Elder. However, in 1980, Norman Golb of the University of Chicago, published the first of a series of studies critical of the "Qumran-sectarian" theory. Dr. Golb contended that historical and textual evidence proved that the scrolls were the remnants of various libraries in Jerusalem that were spirited out of the soon to be destroyed city and concealed in the Judean desert immediately before the Roman siege of Jerusalem began. He argued that the great diversity of conflicting beliefs found in the scrolls could not possibly reflect the thinking of one minute sectarian group. The fact that the scrolls contain no original historical documents, correspondence or contracts such as characterize the Bar Kochba letters, and that they are all copies of literary texts, proves that they were not written at the site where they were found. In addition, Kirbet Qumran was a tiny settlement which could only accommodate roughly 150 people at any one time. Since researchers have identified several hundred different scribal "hands" in the material (with only about a dozen repetitions of handwriting found), the local population simply could not be large enough to account for the great diversity of handwriting. In 1952, archaeologists unearthed the Copper Scroll. Unique in many ways, this 2.4m long scroll was made of copper instead of perishable animal skins. Fully one millimeter thick, the copper is 99% pure. An extraordinary relic of our ancient past, the beautifully embossed scroll is now in the Citadel Museum in Amman! It is unique in another way: while the other Dead Sea Scrolls contain Biblical texts, commentaries, hymns and narratives, the Copper Scroll reads like a simple inventory; a dry text giving enigmatic clues to a still undiscovered vast fortune. For five years, scholars and researchers struggled to decode its contents. Finally, after cutting it into 23 segments, they succeeded. To their amazement, the scroll turned out to be a roadmap leading to a fabulous treasure that included incredible quantities of gold and silver! The Copper Scroll "lists 64 hiding- places in Jerusalem and in various districts of Palestine (sic), where gold, silver, Temple offerings, scrolls, etc., are said to be deposited. [The archeologist J.M.] Allegro reckons that the treasure must have amounted to 3000 talents of silver, nearly 1300 talents of gold, 65 bars of gold, 608 pitchers containing silver, and 619 gold and silver vessels. In other words, using the post-biblical value of the talent as a yard stick, the total weight of precious metal must have added up to 65 tons of silver and 26 tons of gold" (Geza Vermes, The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English, Pg. 583). But whose treasure was it? Did it come from the treasure trove of the fabulous Temple built by the legendary Shlomo Hamelech "who made silver as stones in Jerusalem"? Was it removed from Bayit Sheini and hidden just prior to its destruction in 70CE to prevent the Romans from stealing it? Did the treasure belong to the exotic sect of ascetic sectarians who actually lived in Qumran? Or was the Copper Scroll a two thousand year old grotesque hoax? The academic community was divided. "It almost goes without saying that the document is not a historical record of actual treasures buried in antiquity. The characteristics of the document itself, not to mention the fabulous quantity of precious metal recorded in it, place it firmly in the genre of folklore. The Copper Scroll is thus best understood as a summary of popular traditions circulating among the folk of Judea put down by a semi-literate scribe" (Fr. Joseph Milik, "The Copper Document", Biblical Archeologist, Sept. 1956, p. 63). However, many other scholars contended that the scroll indeed pointed the way to a real - and massive - treasure. A. Dupont- Sommer and S. Goranson maintained that the scroll described the hidden fortune of the Essenes; J.M. Allegro and N. Golb posited that the Copper Scroll contained the key to the lost treasures of the Mikdash. The press took an interest. Among those entranced by the news accounts of this unique find was one Vendyl Jones of Sudan, Texas. He read with great interest how the Copper Scroll listed the hideaways of sacred articles such as the "Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant." Energized, he began a quest that was to change his life. <to be continued> Catriel's book in progress: The Temple of Jerusalem, A Pilgrim’s Perspective; A Guided Tour through the Temple and the Divine Service [The
Parshat Mishpatim Homepage]
|
