BYU-Hawaii ReligiousEducation and History Professor Kerry Muhlestein prefaced his March 10 lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls by saying he's frequently asked why members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are so interested in the ancient Hebrew documents. In response, he said LDSscholars have contributed significantly to their study and members of the Church perceive a number of parallel ties with modern practices and doctrine.
Muhlestein, one of those who helped arrange for the traveling Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit to come to the Laie Temple Visitors Center, explained "there has been a lot of participation by Latter-day Saints in the translation of the scrolls,"headed by Dr. Donald W. Parry, BYU Associate Professor of Hebrew Language and Literature, who delivered the first lecture in the series accompanying the special display.
"There are four international editors at BYU, and that's more than there are at any other university in the world," Muhlestein said. "They have ended up making a significant contribution to Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship just in the texts that they have translated and the articles they have contributed."
"Latter-day Saints have done the only DNA analysis on the parchments," he continued, noting that most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written on animal skins "which had been tanned and specially prepared for writing. The analyses have actually helped piece fragments together," because DNA could show which fragments came from the exact same animal.
"Latter-day Saints have contributed significantly by way of multispectral analysis, meaning that many of the scrolls are so decayed you cannot read them; but using light that's visible through a lot of different equipment, they are able to detect some of the writings."
He added their success has led to invitations to work "on the largest cache of ancient papyri ever found, at the Herculaneum in a Roman village...that were kind of carbonized when Mt. Vesuvius exploded," as well as the Vatican Library.
"Perhaps the most valuable contributions," he continued, "has been in the form of computerized[Hebrew and Aramaic word] searches" that resulted in the 1999 publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls on CD-ROM: the FARMS Electronic Database of mostly nonbiblical texts.
"This is the premier tool for Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship right now," Muhlestein said, noting the CD includes several types of images of the scrolls, which can also be searched interlineally.
"This has really advanced scholarship in many ways and made it more universal. One of the problems that existed with Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship for a very long time was the limited access to the texts. Accessibility to these scrolls has been revolutionized by the existence of this database, where anybody can look at any of the Hebrew texts and any of the translations. WordCruncher™ software [developed at BYU] is the search engine they use."
To give an idea on how important a step this was, Muhlestein pointed out that international"conferences have happened in Paris, Madrid, Jerusalem — and Provo." BYU also put together the traveling exhibit that's currently in Laie.
Turning to why Latter-day Saints care so much about the Dead Sea Scrolls, Muhlestein said, "One of the reasons is because they see a lot of parallels between either themselves, or actually more so with the peoples of the Book of Mormon."Some of the examples he cited, that are also familiar to some other Christians, include:
- "The people at Qumran left Jerusalem because they felt the people there were wicked and were going to be destroyed."
- "They feel that they are heirs of Israel under a new covenant, that the people in the old covenant have become so corrupt...that God is reestablishing a covenant with a new group."
- The Qumran community was ruled by a council "of twelve men and three priests...much like Latter-day Saints have a First Presidency consisting of three members and a quorum of twelve apostles."
- "The Genesis Apocryphon in the Dead Sea Scrolls talks about healing through the laying on of hands," by telling how Abraham cured pharaoh.
- "They had rituals that seemed to be like baptism. They also emphasized that you would choose to be in the covenant, not just be born into it...and live righteously."
- "They had teachings about Melchizedek...and they even have a book called Melchizedek."
"Many Christians are intrigued by these parallels, but also somewhat bothered," Muhlestein said. He added because Latter-day Saints believe that the full gospel was present and available starting with Adam, with intervening periods of apostasy where people lost the truth, "we are not surprised when we find evidences of that Christian-like gospel existing before Christianity. We're somewhat unique in that belief."
"One thing I hope you'll take away from this is, while we can learn a lot about the Dead Sea Scrolls, about early Judaism, about the transmission of texts," he said, "in my personal opinion I think...we can actually learn a lot more from studying the scriptures."
Other scholars have told him, "We find that we can get about four or five times as many people out to a Dead Sea Scrolls lecture than we can to a Book of Mormon lecture."
"So, while I'm glad that we're interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls," Muhlestein said, "I hope that we will take that excitement and transfer it to the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Book of Mormon."
Dr. Lawrence Schiffman, Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, will deliver the final two lectures in the series. On March 17 at 10 a.m.in the Little Theater he will speak on the topic, "Are the Dead SeaScrolls Historical Texts?"; and on Sunday, March 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Laie North Stake Center on, "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism."
The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit is open every day at the Laie Temple Visitors Center from 9a.m. to 9 p.m. through March 29.
Dr. Muhlestein will also give a fireside presentation on the Dead Sea Scrolls for the two BigIsland stakes on April 23 in the Waimea chapel.
More information on the Dead Sea Scrolls can be found at http://farms.byu.edu/dss/.