Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011
THEN On Sept. 22, 1991, after over 40 years of being under scholastic lock and key, a library in California announces that it will make a nearly complete copy of the Dead Sea scrolls available to all scholars. The group of scholars who previously had exclusive access to the scrolls is now angry, calling the release “theft” and saying it will lead to improper interpretations. The scrolls, the first of which were discovered by Bedouin goat herders sealed in jars in a cave near the Dead Sea in 1947, are considered the greatest archeological find of this modern era. The authorship of the scrolls, which were written between about 200 B.C.E. and 68 C.E., is unclear. They contain biblical writings in both Hebrew and Aramaic, hymns, and some beliefs of the sect that lived near the caves. The scrolls are bought by academics who release portions of them over the following decades. NOW To date, the scrolls remain a source of fascination for many. Starting next month, 20 of the Dead Sea Scrolls, alongside a large collection of biblical artifacts, will be put on display in Times Square in New York. Of the Dead Sea Scrolls that will be displayed, four of them will make their world debut. Ownership over the scrolls has remained a point of dispute over the years. Last year, when a portion of the scrolls was put on display at a museum in Toronto, Canada, the Jordan government called on the Canadian government and the United Nations to force Israel to hand over the scrolls to Jordan. According to Jordan, a large portion of the scrolls was seized by Israel from one of its museums during the Six-Day War in 1967, a claim that has been dismissed by Israel.
