The Words That Have Changed Our World

The words that changed the world; In the 1947 a Bedouin boy, Muhammed, was looking for his goat, which had gone astray in some caves near the Dead Sea. He began throwing rocks in nearby caves, because that way seem less time consuming than actually going into each cave individually. In one cave he heard a strange noise, unlike the other caves, he heard something smash. Fearing that there were demons in the cave, he ran off, but later retuned and ended up making one of the biggest archeological discoveries ever! What he found were parts of writings, now famously known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Fast forward to the 2009; as soon as I heard that part of the Dead Sea Scrolls were coming to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto; I put it on my to do list this summer! When I told my mother about it her enthusiasm was not comparable to mine. Once again she launched into the story about how she was disappointed when she went to Expo 67, in Montreal, where they were showing parts of the Dead Sea scroll. Much to her dismay, instead of see a huge scroll like she anticipated, there were just scraps of paper. (I believe they do have full scroll of Isaiah, but as far as I know, it probably won’t leave Israel until hell freezes over. Scraps or not, I was determined to go see the exhibit!) Scraps or not, this was my chance to see Ancient History, with my own eyes.

My interest in Biblical History began at an early age of five. My mother always thought that fairy tales were too deranged sick to read to small children; she instead decided to read to me Bible stories, not only because she wanted me to be well read, but also, she thought perhaps it would help me to grow up to be a more moral person. So I would put on my fuzzy jammies and curl up with mama every evening, to embark on another adventure with the patriarchs, or wander the through wilderness with those finicky Israelites. I just couldn’t get enough, I would beg my mother, “just one more story”, when she tried to send me to bed.

When we finally got to the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), in Toronto, the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit was packed with people of all ages and walks of life. Obviously, I wasn’t the only History geek in the crowd. It was kind of annoying, all these people getting in my way, especially when I was trying to read the explanation of a particular artifact, and someone’s head suddenly blocked my view. As well as loaning pieces of this great document, Israel had also lent the ROM other artifacts from that time period, like oil lamps and coins, to set the stage.

It was very dark in the room where they kept the pieces of the scroll, on loan. The room was also eerily quite, there were few hushed conversations between the museum patrons, as if we were attending a funeral or something. Most noticeable was the recording of a female voice softly singing the Psalms in Hebrew giving the room a very consecrated atmosphere. It was indeed a very sacred moment in the presence of these texts that had so strongly influence many different cultures and religions over the centuries.

There were several cases with pieces of very old, brown paper that was torn and ripped. (When the Bedouins found pieces of the scroll, they sometimes ripped them into smaller pieces so they could make more money); you could still see the black, Hebrew letters on the paper, written 2000 years ago. It was amazing. Approximately, 900 pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found between 1947-1956. Above the cases were the translations of what they said in modern English and French. These documents were from both the Old Testament as Christians have know it for centuries (they found every book of the Old testament/Hebrew scriptures, except the Book of Esther), and the aprochrapl, religious writings not accepted as part of the traditional cannon.

What I love so much about the written word in general, is that it has such great potential for one human to communicate to another. For example, some people kept diaries or wrote letters during the Second World War. Though these people may have died a long time ago, we can still learn about them, what they thought and felt, from their own words directly. This is why the Dead Sea Scrolls are so important, because the writings left behind unequivocally connect us all to our past and bring History alive with words.