Sara and I had the opportunity to go and see the Dead Sea Scrolls over the Christmas Season at the San Diego Natural History Museum. It was such a sought after exhibit that we had to register online and pay for a reservation time to walk through the exhibit.
The gallery was broken up into two sections: On the main floor the discovery was illustrated and explained and details about Cumran where they found the scrolls (Sara was actually able to go to this site when she was in Israel). The second part which was in the lower level were the actual scrolls 12 from the collection in Israel. Each of us was given a audio device with a keypad and each display has a number to punch in that described the exhibit piece. The lights we dimmed in the lower section so the scrolls are not exposed to too much light.
The scrolls were all different – some small some large, some well preserved some fragments pieced together, there was even one that was bronze however that one did not contain a biblical text. Most notibly was the earliest text of the ten commandments, and a very early account of David and Goliath which brought to light a mistake in translation that made Goliath nearly 8 feet tall and this earlier translation had him closer to 6 (6 was proably still tall in that area). It was a very unique experience and increased our appreciation for the bibles we just get to pick up and read. Sorry no pictures no cameras were allowed.
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