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The Mystery of the Copper Scroll By Chris Mitchell CBN News Middle East Bureau Chief Saturday, July 11, 2009 JERUSALEM, Israel - In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd wandered the hills of Qumran in search of a missing sheep. He threw a stone into a cave, hoping to drive the lost animal outside. Instead, the sound of shattered pottery drew the shepherd inside the cave. There he stumbled on the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century: the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Copper Scroll In the years that followed, archaeologists found eleven caves and more than 900 documents here at Qumran....

They were hidden inside some phylacteries discovered during some excavations sixty years ago but never opened. The news was announced at a conference at the Faculty of Theology in Lugano. . . So there are now nine Qumran scrolls to keep experts busy. The discovery was made very recently and was announced a few days ago at the international research seminar. . . “The new discovery shows that the research being carried out on the Qumran is not complete yet. There are a thousand reasons, especially political ones, why the material unearthed is still being studied and why the the...

An archaeologist says he discovered nine tiny scrolls with biblical text from the Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed, according to news reports. The newfound scrolls, which date back to about 2,000 years ago, were hidden inside three leather tefillin cases, also known as phylacteries, traditionally carried by observant Jewish men, Italian news agency Ansa Mediterranean reported. These cases were first pulled out of the caves in the 1950s, but their contents apparently were not examined until now....

A team of scholars has discovered what might be the oldest representation of the Tower of Babel of Biblical fame, they report in a newly published book. Carved on a black stone, which has already been dubbed the Tower of Babel stele, the inscription dates to 604-562 BCE. It was found in the collection of Martin Schøyen, a businessman from Norway who owns the largest private manuscript assemblage formed in the 20th century. Consisting of 13,717 manuscript items spanning over‭ ‬5,000‭ ‬years, the collection includes parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Buddhist manuscript rescued from the Taliban, and even...

Dr. Vendyl Jones, the inspiration for the “Indiana Jones” series, told Israel National Radio that he is sure he will uncover the hidden Ark of the Covenant before the Fast of Tisha B’Av this summer. The explorer and teacher, who published a book in 1959 predicting the Six Day War based on his analysis of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt up until the First Temple Period, says that employing the same biblical analysis to modern times points to major events that will “turn the world right side up” this coming June. Dr. Jones left his post as a Christian pastor...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: the sacred text that people revered in the past was not the same one we study today. An ancient version of one book has an extra phrase. Another appears to have been revised to retroactively insert a prophecy after the events happened. Scholars in this out-of-the-way corner of the Hebrew University campus have been quietly at work for 53 years on one of the most ambitious projects attempted in biblical studies -...

They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave. They could, just possibly, change our understanding of how Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and how Christianity was born. A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007. A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol. A Jordanian Bedouin opened these...

A recent study has sought to determine by sophisticated new methods whether Khirbet Qumran was home to a Qumran community of sectarian Jews, the Essenes of Qumran. The new study by Eyal Regev of Bar-Ilan University examines the architectural plan of Qumran and applies so-called “access analysis” to map the site’s spatial organization in order to uncover the social ideology of the Essenes of Qumran. Regev characterizes this approach to studying the Qumran community as social archaeology, “now an established field of research which uses archaeological records to reconstruct the belief system and social organization of past societies.”

"Shelley, I want you to meet the guy who has cracked the code on the Copper Scroll." With that intriguing introduction, I shook hands with Jim Barfield. We stood among the kiosks of Israeli goods during a lunch break at a Christian Zionist conference in Forth Worth, Texas. "Congratulations," I replied, "but what's the Copper Scroll?" "A treasure map," Barfield answered, "from the prophet Jeremiah." I gave Barfield and his companion a quick once over, trying to determine whether they were the well-intentioned kind of crazy or scary crazy. A small-town Oklahoma man with impressive posture, Barfield sported long (really...

JERUSALEM - A skeleton discovered near the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found may be the 2,000-year-old remains of John the Baptist, an American professor announced Thursday. But Israeli archaeologists disputed his theory as being far-fetched and said the burial site unearthed is probably that of an 18th century Bedouin man. Professor Richard Freund, director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, was part of an expedition at Qumran in the Judean Desert that made the discovery on Monday. Freund said there was "circumstantial evidence" that the well-preserved skeleton may...

Skeleton 'may be John the Baptist' A professor claims a skeleton discovered near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found may be the remains of John the Baptist. He suggests the phrophet who annointed Christ may also have been the leader of the tribe to which the burial ground belonged. Israeli archaelogists say his theory is far-fetched and that the burial site unearthed is probably that of an 18th century Bedouin man. US professor Richard Freund at a Centre for Judaic Studies in Connecticut, has been art of an expedition in the Judean Desert. Professor Freund says there is "circumstantial...

w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m Not a shard of truth Sensational claims have been made about bonesfound in Qumran, but no, this is not John the Baptist,say the heads of the dig. In August 2002, Time Magazine carried a headline that aroused curiosity: "Digging for the Baptist." The reference was to an archaeological dig being carried out for the past two years or so in Qumran, near the shore of the Dead Sea. The dig is headed by Prof. Hanan Eshel, head of the...

If Alabamians got excited about former Chief Justice Roy Moore's granite monument of the Ten Commandments, imagine how they'll react when the world's oldest known copy of the Ten Commandments arrives in Alabama for display. The parchment from the Dead Sea Scrolls contains a complete handwritten Hebrew text of the commandments dated to within 30 years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. It will be part of a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit that starts Jan. 20 and ends April 24 at the Gulf Coast Exploreum in downtown Mobile. The exhibit will feature 12 scrolls from the Israel Antiquities Authority,...

QUMRAN, West Bank — The discovery of a 2,000-year-old toilet at one of the world's most important archaeological sites is focusing renewed interest on a question that has preoccupied scholars for more than half a century: Who lived at Qumran? In a new study, three researchers say they have discovered the outdoor latrine used by the ancient residents of Qumran, on the barren banks of the Dead Sea. They say the find proves the people living here two millennia ago were Essenes, an ascetic Jewish sect that left Jerusalem to seek proximity to God in the desert. Qumran and its...

THE Vatican is to abandon decades of secrecy and obstruction to allow changes in the Bible based on revelations in the Dead Sea Scrolls, more than half a century after they were discovered. The extent of the changes is expected to be disclosed this month, but the revised version of the New Jerusalem Bible will take five years to complete.The scrolls have been the subject of controversy between Jewish and Roman Catholic scholars since they were found in caves at Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea in 1947. The Vatican has been accused of keeping them secret ...

Mystery of Dead Sea Scroll unravels By Claudia Joseph 31 March 2002 It is a mystery that has baffled religious scholars for 50 years. Now the secret of the Copper Scroll, one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, may finally be unravelled. Robert Feather, a member of the Institute of Metallurgists, will claim in a television documentary tonight that he has cracked the secret code of the Copper Scroll Mr Feather rejects current thinking that the copper document was written by the Essenes monastic sect 2,000 years ago. A member of the Jewish Historical Society, and the Egypt Exploration Society, Mr...

More Observations on the Stone Dead Sea Scroll Text July 8, 2008 (from Taiwan) By bock - Posted on July 8th, 2008 am writing from Taiwan, but I am not immune to the news about the new Stone "Dead Sea Scroll". I have made available by link in the News We Are Watching window Time's latest article on this. Thanks to Craig Blomberg for noting where access to the text can be found. The BAR site also in the News We Are Watching window gives access to both English and to the Hebrew text. Now you do not have to...

ordan's tourism minister said Thursday that her country was seeking the help of Western nations to regain possession of the Dead Sea Scrolls Israel seized from a Jerusalem museum during the 1967 Mideast war. Maha Khatib said Jordan has given up hope that Israel would directly give back the more than 2,000-year-old scrolls and now hoped Western nations would return them to the Arab kingdom when they host them in exhibitions. Israel rejected the Jordanian claim to the scrolls, which include the earliest known version of portions of the Hebrew Bible and have shed important light on Judaism and the...

DEAD SEA SCROLLS: THREAT TO CHRISTIANITY? Fr. William Most The first scrolls were found in 1947. Other finds followed: in 1952 Cave 3 was found, including the Copper Scroll. The most important Cave for our purposes was Cave 4, discovered in 1954. About 20% of the scrolls were soon published, but the remainder were held out for 35 years. A 6 year campaign by the Biblical Archaeology Review, led by its Editor, Hershel Shanks, finally resulted in the liberation of the balance. Some photos came to Robert Eisenman of the Dept. of Religious Studies at State University of California at...

Fierce warriors once occupied the famous complex where the Dead Sea Scrolls were written, new research suggests. Ruins of the Qumran site—in the present-day West Bank—resemble a monastery, but scholars have argued over its uses before the religious sect who penned the scrolls moved in somewhere between 130 and 100 B.C. Using the world's first virtual 3-D reconstruction of the site, historians recently found evidence of a fortress that was later converted into its more peaceful, pious function....