Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Dead Sea Scrolls

Starting point is 00:00:00 In early 1947, a teenage Bedouin herder was looking for a lost goat from his flock when he came across a cave near the Dead Sea. Randomly, he threw a stone into the cave and was surprised not to hear the sound of the stone hitting a cave wall, but rather the breaking of pottery. He found a collection of clay jars, some of which were sealed, containing scrolls wrapped in linen. This accidental discovery began one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century. Learn more about the Dead Sea Scrolls, how they were. were found and what they contain on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Starting point is 00:00:34 What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The story of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. is one of the greatest in the history of archaeology.

Starting point is 00:01:18 And one of the things that makes the story so great is that it starts with a couple of young goat herders. The story begins with three members of the Palestinian Taha Mirya tribe, Muhammad Etib, his cousin Juma Muhammad, and their friend Khalil Musa. They were tending their goat in an area known as Kumran, just northwest and overlooking the Dead Sea, sometime in late 1946 or early 1947. The details of the story differ slightly,

Starting point is 00:01:44 depending on which of the men tells it. One of Muhammad's goats went missing, so he went to look for it when he came across a cave located on the side of the hill. The cave was actually first identified by his cousin. Thinking that his goat might have gone into the cave and not being able to see inside, he threw a stone in it. What he heard was not what he was expecting. Instead of the rock hitting a wall or even hitting the ground, he heard the sounds of clay pots breaking. Curious about what he found, Muhammad entered the cave and discovered several ancient clay jars, containing scrolls. Not recognizing their significance, he took seven of the scrolls back to his camp,

Starting point is 00:02:22 showed them to his family, and stored them in a sack. The scrolls were mostly made of parchment and papyrus and were wrapped in linen cloth. The boys hung the scrolls in a bag attached to a tent pole, occasionally showing them to other people. Eventually it was suggested that the boys take the scrolls to an antique dealer in the nearby town of Bethlehem. They first took the scrolls to an antique dealer by the name of Ibrahim Esha, who claimed that the scrolls were worthless. They then showed the scrolls around until it was suggested that they visit Cahill Ascander-Shaheen, aka Kondo, who was a cobbler and a part-time antique dealer. Kondo saw the value in the scrolls, or at least he recognized that there were scholars out there

Starting point is 00:03:03 who would pay good money for the scrolls. He paid the boys 28 Jordanian pounds, or the equivalent of a little under $400 in U.S. dollars today. Kondo then turned around and sold the scrolls to two other buyers for a hefty profit. Four of the scrolls were sold to Athanasius Yeshua, a Christian and the Syrian Orthodox Archbishop of Jerusalem. The other three were sold to Eliezer Sukarnik, an Israeli archaeologist who purchased them on behalf of the new government of Israel.

Starting point is 00:03:33 Sukhanik was one of the founders of the Department of Archaeology at Hebrew University and was one of the first people to recognize the importance of the discovery. Another scholar who had early access to the scrolls was John C. Trevor of the American Schools of Oriental Research, now known as the American Society of Overseas Research. Trevor was able to analyze the scrolls and realize that they were very similar to the Nash papyrus. The Nash papyrus were four papyrus fragments with Hebrew writing that were found in the Egyptian desert in 1906. They were the oldest Hebrew manuscripts known at that time in the oldest known biblical texts. The four scrolls purchased by Athanasia Samuel were eventually taken to the United States during the 1948 war, where he tried to sell them to various universities. Having not found a buyer after several years of trying, in 1954 he put out a classified ad in the Wall Street Journal that read, quote,

Starting point is 00:04:26 The four Dead Sea Scrolls, biblical manuscripts dating back to at least 200 BC are for sale. This would be an ideal gift to an educational or religious institution by an individual or group, end quote. The classified ad caught the eye of Yigal Yehden, an Israeli archaeologist and the son of Eliezer Sukhannik. He secretly negotiated the purchase of the remaining original seven scrolls on behalf of the Israeli government. These original seven scrolls, however, were only just the beginning. As of 1948, the implications of the discovery of the scrolls were becoming apparent as word about them began to spread. However, no one knew exactly where the cave was where they were discovered. The West Bank at the time was controlled by the government.

Starting point is 00:05:08 of Jordan. The Jordanians gave permission for a search of the cave to take place. The search was successful, and on January 28, 1949, the original cave where the Bedouin boys found the first scrolls was rediscovered. The cave was dubbed Cave One. An excavation of Cave 1 began in the months that followed, leading to the discovery of more scroll fragments and other artifacts. This, however, was just the beginning of excavations and explorations at the Kumran site. Heer should note that the area around the Dead Sea is particularly well suited to the preservation of materials like parchment and papyrus due to its very dry conditions. It's the same reason why so many fragile artifacts have been discovered in the Egyptian desert. The dry air

Starting point is 00:05:51 prevents the growth of mold and the decomposition of organic materials, which otherwise don't last very long. In 1951, a large-scale excavation of the site began. The biggest discovery was that of more caves, Cave 2 was discovered in February 1952, which eventually yielded over 300 fragments from 30 different texts. In March of 1952, Cave 3 was found, and before the year was done, they had also discovered caves 4, 5, and 6. Eventually, by 1956, 11 caves had been discovered, which at the time was thought to be the last ones in Qumran. However, there proved to be even more. In 2017, a 12th cave was discovered, but it appeared to have been looted back in the 1950s. In 2021, the discovery of even more scroll fragments was announced from a cave several kilometers

Starting point is 00:06:40 away from the Qumran site. The big question is why was the discovery of some scrolls and scroll fragments so important? It's because about 40% of the text which were found were from the Old Testament. Almost the entire Old Testament or Torah is represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls. These include the books of Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Numbers, Ezekiel, Samuel, Isaiah, Judges, Psalms, Daniel, Job, Ruth, kings, and Proverbs. Another 30% of the text were from non-canonical religious texts which were not included in the Hebrew Bible. These include the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Tobit, and the wisdom of Syrac.

Starting point is 00:07:23 The remaining 30% of the texts found in the caves were not biblical, but dealt with the communities and sex that lived there and created the text. One was a manual for military strategy and organization, and another was a set of rules. for the community that created the scrolls. One scroll called the Habakkuk commentary gives details on people who lived at the time, but it only uses titles to describe the people, not names. One person is known as the righteous teacher, and he has enemies known as the wicked priest and the man of the lie. Most of the texts are written in Hebrew, with some in Aramaic and a few in Greek. Most of the texts were written on parchment, which is made from animal skins, usually sheep or goats. There are some on papyrus, and one scrolls.

Starting point is 00:08:04 which was actually engraved in copper. There are several reasons why this discovery was so important. The first is that it's very rare to find any writing that's this old for the reasons I previously gave. Second is that it was the biggest discovery in the history of biblical scholarship. It allowed researchers to compare ancient texts to contemporary versions to see how they changed it in translation or may have changed over time. Third, the text provided a great deal of insight into life during what is known as the Second Temple period of Jewish. history, roughly from 516 BC to the year 70. One big question is, who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Starting point is 00:08:43 As the scrolls were written over a period of several centuries, there likely wasn't a single group that was responsible for their creation. They were likely created by different groups over time and then deposited there for safekeeping. However, the most popular theory attributes the creation of most of the text to a group called the Aesines. The Aseans were a Jewish sect that emerged around the second century BC and continued into the first century. They're mentioned in the history text by writers such as Josephus and Pliny the Elder. They were known for being a very strict messianic religious sect that lived communally. They also tried to discover hidden meanings in religious texts.

Starting point is 00:09:20 Authors from other groups may have contributed to the texts as well, including scribes from the Pharisees and Sadducees. One of the biggest challenges in interpreting the Dead Sea Scrolls was the fact that so many of them were nothing more than fragments. There were over 30,000 different fragments that have been found. Some of them were quite large and intact, and others were only a couple of millimeters in diameter. In many cases, just a few characters were enough to know at least what book of the Bible it belonged to. There has been an ongoing quest to analyze and, if possible, assemble all 30,000 pieces.

Starting point is 00:09:53 But imagine 30,000 jigsaw pieces belonging to an unknown number of jigsaw puzzles with an unknown number of pieces missing. advances in technology have been used to analyze and better understand the Dead Sea Scrolls. Photos were originally taken of the scrolls and fragments, but eventually infrared photos were taken to capture details which could not be seen by the naked eye. In the 1990s, NASA participated using multispectral imaging with technology taken from interplanetary probes. DNA analysis of individual parchment fragments has been conducted, so it's possible to find which fragments are part of the same piece of parchment. Digital photography began in 2011 with Google actually taking high-resolution images of all the scrolls and fragments.

Starting point is 00:10:37 These images are up to 1.2 gigapixels in size and provide researchers the ability to see things that can't be seen with the naked eye. The digital images will also allow the public to finally be able to view the entire collection. The most recent technology which has been used to analyze the fragments is artificial intelligence. AI is being used to analyze ink and hand. writing to determine the number of authors on some of the scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls have not been without their share of controversy. When the scrolls were discovered and when most of the excavations took place, the West Bank was controlled by the Jordanian government. Most of the scrolls and fragments found, other than the original seven, were held in the Palestinian Archaeological Museum in

Starting point is 00:11:19 East Jerusalem. During the Six Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and took control of the Palestinian Archaeological Museum. They then moved the scrolls and fragments to the Israel Museum in West Jerusalem in a special facility known as the Shrine of the Book. Today, some of the scrolls are on public display at the Shrine of the Book. The scrolls on display are rotated so they don't suffer from exposure. Currently, both the governments of Jordan and the Palestinian Authority dispute the ownership of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1967, some of the scroll fragments were actually stored in Bank Vault in Amman, Jordan, where they still reside today. The Dead Sea Scrolls were unquestionably one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century,

Starting point is 00:12:03 alongside the discovery of the Palace of Gnosis in Crete, the Tomb of King Tutankhamen in Egypt, and the terracotta warriors in Shian, China. Our understanding of ancient Jewish life and the origins of the Bible was greatly advanced, all because of a young man in search of his missing goat. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Meredith over on podcast addict. She writes,

Starting point is 00:12:34 I'm really enjoying this podcast. My child likes it and it doesn't bore parents. I'm learning things too. Update, we're about two-thirds of the way to joining the Completionist Club. It's a great podcast for anyone who is curious about a wide variety of topics. Many episodes have spurred us into research topics more deeply. Others have simply reinforced things we already learned, and some are just fun little tidbits that are fun to hear.

Starting point is 00:12:55 Thanks. Well, thank you, Meredith. I'm always glad to hear when parents and their children listen to the show together. While the show isn't designed for children per se, it's suitable for kids so long as they're sufficiently curious. And as I always like to say, the show is as child safe as history will allow. Remember, if you leave a review or send a boost to Graham, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Dead Sea Scrolls

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.