From the shores of the Dead Sea comes an exhibit of renowned historical significance that has arrived on the Hawaiian Islands for display at the Hawaii Temple Visitor’s Center through March 2006.
The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit was flown to Oahu from Europe, where it had toured England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, Denmark, and a host of other countries. It contains pieces of authentic pottery, a collection of certified roll replicas (the originals remain secured in the Middle East), a Roman soldier’s sword, a model of the city Qumran (where the scrolls originated), a model of metal plates, literature, paintings, and pictures of the caves where the scrolls were discovered, and many other items.
"We’ve been working on getting this here for almost two years," said Kerry Muhlestein, an assistant professor of Religious Education and History at BYU-Hawaii, who was instrumental in getting the exhibit to Hawaii.
"To me this exhibit is a part of a real university education," he said. "Every university student should have the chance to find something that may or may not be important for their field but is intriguing and important and have some hands on experiences with it as well as to be able to learn from good scholars in any field of study."
The scholars in this case will be scroll experts from all over the world who will be speaking at the university as part of a special lecture series throughout the duration of the exhibit. These speakers will be discussing the significance and historical contributions made by these important documents. All presentations are open to the public (see below for details).
The exhibit itself had its beginning about 15 years ago, when BYU and its affiliated Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies (FARMS) became an integral part of the scientific group involved in the translation, study, and electronic preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Together, they created a traveling exhibit in response to public interest in the scrolls.
"There isn’t a single exhibition like this available on the island," Muhlestein said, "It has traveled all over the world and now this museum-like collection is here for students and community members alike to go and see. I think it gives everyone who wants to a chance to have a real academic experience and a chance to learn from some international scholars."
Many are familiar with the fascinating discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. As the story goes, a Bedouin shepherd boy left his flock of sheep and goats to search for a stray amid the cliffs along the shores of the Dead Sea, known as Qumran. Spying a cave on the hillside, he cast a stone into the dark interior and heard something shatter. He would later discover that the cave was full of several large clay jars which held the scrolls. The rest is history.
This 1947 discovery of ancient biblical and non-biblical scrolls and scroll fragments lead to a series of similar finds in another nearby caves during the next nine years. Known as the Qumran collection, it contains more than eight hundred different works written in Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic.
Additional scroll fragments were later discovered at several other sites extending south along the western shore of the Dead Sea. Today, these Judean desert documents are collectively known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
In conjunction with the exhibit, the before-mentioned special lecture series will kick off Thursday, January 19, at 10 a.m. in the McKay Auditorium with Dr. Donald Parry, an associate professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at Brigham Young University. Parry is one of the international Dead Sea Scrolls editors. He has traveled the world with this exhibit lecturing about its significance to people of many denominations.
Other featured speakers include Dr. Jared Ludlow, chair of the History Department at BYU-Hawaii, who received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern Religions at UC-Berkeley and the Graduate Theological Union; Dr. Victor Ludlow, a professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU, previously a Danforth Fellow at Harvard and Brandeis Universities, where he received his Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies; Dr. Larry Schiffman, an orthodox Jew who is also internationally known as a scroll scholar. He is the Ethel and Irvin A. Edelman Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University; author of several scroll works, such as "Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls" and "Oxford Encyclopedia of the Dead Sea Scrolls."
The BYU-Hawaii Department of Religious Education is co-sponsoring the exhibit, along with the Hawaii Honolulu Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitor’s Center.