This group saw themselves as the “true Israel”
Loved Ones…on August 30th, 2008 I met with friends in Raleigh North Carolina…an English Physicist….Richard…. and his beautiful wife from Lima, Peru and together with my spouse Blanca (from Cusco, Peru) …where Richard enquired if I was interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls?....”Yes”….I responded….and with that started a visit to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh….which was hosting an exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls — objects of great mystery, intrigue and significance — are widely acknowledged to be among the greatest archaeological treasures ever discovered.

A small sub group of the Essenes was the Gnostics…Our Lord Jesus the Christ Himself was a Gnostic.

Gnostic means you know…you know from experience…you do not believe….You Know! I myself am a Gnostic….from experience….direct experience.

The Dead Sea Scrolls date from 250 BCE to 68 CE and are our bridge to a period that laid the foundation of western traditions, beliefs and practices throughout the past two millennia.

Among the Scrolls are some 207 biblical manuscripts that represent nearly every book in the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament) and that predate any previously known copies by more than 1,000 years.

Thanks to the generosity of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) the Museum of Natural Sciences will display 12 authentic Dead Sea Scrolls during the six month exhibition (six different scrolls each three-month period) representing portions of the books of Genesis, Isaiah, Deuteronomy, Exodus and others.

All Scrolls are fully interpreted with translation of text and background information. Also included in the exhibition will be more than 100 authentic artifacts from Qumran, the ancient settlement on the northwestern shores of the Dead Sea in Israel closest to the caves where the scrolls were discovered.

The Dead Sea Scrolls were initially discovered by Bedouin herders and then by archaeologists between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves near Qumran.

More than 100,000 fragments were discovered and pieced together into over 900 separate documents. In addition to biblical manuscripts, sectarian (non-biblical) manuscripts were recovered that reflect a wide variety of literary genres: biblical commentary, religious legal writings, liturgical (prayer) texts, and compositions that predict a coming apocalypse.

These Scrolls, some of which are also on exhibit, reveal the fascinating transition between the ancient religion of the Bible and Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity.

Most scholars believe the Scrolls were copied and composed by a group that broke away from mainstream Judaism to live a communal life inQumran.

This group saw themselves as the “true Israel” and viewed those living in Jerusalem, including the priesthood at the Temple, as corrupt.

It is also believed that when the Romans invaded Qumran around 68 CE, the community hid their manuscripts in nearby caves.

This exhibition is made possible by the scholars of Israel, and curators and conservators of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The IAA oversees Israel’s antiquities and ancient sites, their excavation, preservation, conservation, study and publication, as well as the country’s national treasures. The National Treasures Department is in charge of registering and documentation of all the antiquities in the country, as well as advising museums and scholars, initiating exhibitions and lending objects for display. All the objects that will be exhibited belong to the IAA.

The Artifact Conservation Department of the IAA was established in 1988 as the professional arm specializing in conservation. The department is charged with preserving the archaeological and cultural heritage of the country for the education of future generations.

In 1947, young Bedouin shepherds, searching for a stray goat in the Judean Desert, entered a long-untouched cave and found jars filled with ancient scrolls.

That initial discovery by the Bedouins yielded seven scrolls and began a search that lasted nearly a decade and eventually produced thousands of scroll fragments from eleven caves.

During those same years, archaeologists searching for a habitation close to the caves that might help identify the people who deposited the scrolls, excavated the Qumran ruin, a complex of structures located on a barren terrace between the cliffs where the caves are found and the Dead Sea.

Within a fairly short time after their discovery, historical, paleographic, and linguistic evidence, as well as carbon-14 dating, established that the scrolls and the Qumran ruin dated from the third century B.C.E. to 68 C.E.

They were indeed ancient! Coming from the late Second Temple Period, a time when Jesus of Nazareth lived, they are older than any other surviving biblical manuscripts by almost one thousand years.

Since their discovery nearly half a century ago, the scrolls and the identity of the nearby settlement have been the object of great scholarly and public interest, as well as heated debate and controversy. Why were the scrolls hidden in the caves? Who placed them there? Who lived in Qumran? Were its inhabitants responsible for the scrolls and their presence in the caves? Of what significance are the scrolls to Judaism and Christianity?

This exhibition presents twelve Dead Sea Scroll fragments and archaeological artifacts courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority as well as supplementary materials from the Library of Congress.

It is designed to retell the story of the scrolls' discovery; explore their archaeological and historical context; introduce the scrolls themselves; explore the various theories concerning the nature of the Qumran community; and examine some of the challenges facing modern researchers as they struggle to reconstruct the scrolls from the tens of thousands of fragments that remain.

The Dead Sea is located in Israel and Jordan, about 15 miles east of Jerusalem. It is extremely deep (averaging about 1,000 feet), salty (some parts containing the highest amount of salts possible), and the lowest body of water in the world. The Dead Sea is supplied by a number of smaller streams, springs, and the Jordan River.
Because of its low elevation and its position in a deep basin, the climate of the Dead Sea area is unusual.

Its very high evaporation does produce a haze yet its atmospheric humidity is low. Adjacent areas to it are very arid and favorable for the preservation of materials like the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Bible's description, in Genesis 19, of a destructive earthquake near the Dead Sea area during the time of Abraham is borne out by archaeological and historic investigation. While no evidence remains of the five cities of the plain (Zeboim, Admah, Bela or Zoar, Sodom, and Gomorrah) their sites are believed to be beneath the waters at the southern end of the sea.
Archaeological sites near the Dead Sea include Masada, Ein Gedi, and Qumran (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found).

Like the scrolls themselves, the nature of the Qumran settlement has aroused much debate and differing opinions.

Located on a barren terrace between the limestone cliffs of the Judean desert and the maritime bed along the Dead Sea, the Qumran site was excavated by Pere Roland de Vaux, a French Dominican, as part of his effort to find the habitation of those who deposited the scrolls in the nearby caves.

The excavations uncovered a complex of structures, 262 by 328 feet which de Vaux suggested were communal in nature.

In de Vaux's view the site was the wilderness retreat of the Essenes, a separatist Jewish sect of the Second Temple Period, a portion of whom had formed an ascetic monastic community.

According to de Vaux, the sectarians inhabited neighboring locations, most likely caves, tents, and solid structures, but depended on the center for communal facilities such as stores of food and water.

Following de Vaux's interpretation and citing ancient historians as well as the nature of some scroll texts for substantiation, many scholars believe the Essene community wrote, copied, or collected the scrolls at Qumran and deposited them in the caves of the adjacent hills.

Archaeological and historical evidence indicates that the excavated settlement was founded in the second half of the second century B.C.E., during the time of the Maccabees, a priestly Jewish family which ruled Judea in the second and first centuries B.C.E.

A hiatus in the occupation of the site is linked to evidence of a huge earthquake. Qumran was abandoned about the time of the Roman incursion of 68 C.E., two years before the collapse of Jewish self-government in Judea and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E.

About two thousand years elapsed between the time the scrolls were deposited in the caves of the barren hills surrounding the Dead Sea and their discovery in 1947. The fact that they survived for twenty centuries, that they were found accidentally by Bedouin shepherds, that they are the largest and oldest body of manuscripts relating to the Bible and to the time of Jesus of Nazareth make them a truly remarkable archaeological find. Since their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls have been the subject of great scholarly and public interest.

For scholars they represent an invaluable source for exploring the nature of post- biblical times and probing the sources of two of the world's great religions. For the public, they are artifacts of great significance, mystery, and drama.

Interest in the scrolls has, if anything intensified in recent years.
Media coverage has given prominence to scholarly debates over the meaning of the scrolls, the Qumran ruin, as well as particular scroll fragments, raising questions destined to increase attention and heighten the Dead Sea Scrolls mystery.

Did the scrolls come from the library of the Second Temple or other libraries and were they hidden to prevent their destruction by the Romans?
Was the Qumran site a winter villa for a wealthy Jerusalem family or was it a Roman fortress?
Was it a monastery not for Essenes but for a Sadducean sect?
Does this mean we need to revise our view of Jewish religious beliefs during the last centuries of the Second Temple?
Do the Dead Sea Scrolls provide clues to hidden treasures?
Does the "War Rule Scroll" refer to a pierced or piercing messiah?
Since the late 1980s, no controversy has been more heated than that surrounding access to the scrolls and the movement to accelerate their publication.

The push by scholars to gain what the "Biblical Archaeology Review" characterized as "intellectual freedom and the right to scholarly access" has had significant results.

In 1988, the administration for scroll research, the Israel Antiquities Authority, began to expand the number of scroll assignments. By 1992, they included more than fifty scholars. In 1991, a computer-generated version as well as a two-volume edition of the scroll photographs were published by the Biblical Archaeology Society.

Late in the same year, the Huntington Library of California made available to all scholars the photographic security copies of the scrolls on deposit in its vault. Closing the circle, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that it too would be issuing an authorized microfiche edition, complete with detailed indices.

The Dead Sea Scrolls include a range of contemporary documents that serve as a window on a turbulent and critical period in the history of Judaism.

In addition to the three groups identified by Josephus (Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes), Judaism was further divided into numerous religious sects and political parties. With the destruction of the Temple and the commonwealth in 70 C.E., all that came to an end.

Only the Judaism of the Pharisees--Rabbinic Judaism--survived. Reflected in Qumran literature is a Judaism in transition: moving from the religion of Israel as described in the Bible to the Judaism of the rabbis as expounded in the Mishnah (a third-century compilation of Jewish laws and customs which forms the basis of modern Jewish practice).
The Dead Sea Scrolls, which date back to the events described in the New Testament, have added to our understanding of the Jewish background of Christianity. Scholars have pointed to similarities between beliefs and practices outlined in the Qumran literature and those of early Christians. These parallels include comparable rituals of baptism, communal meals, and property. Most interesting is the parallel organizational structures: the sectarians divided themselves into twelve tribes led by twelve chiefs, similar to the structure of the early Church, with twelve apostles who, according to Jesus, would to sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

Love Ones…Our Lord Jesus the Christ was born around June 27th 4 B.C….as Jesus of Nazareth…He was an Avatar for the Age…mortals who came close to Him…who met…who touched his cloak…recognized an Ultra terrestrial was in their immediate presence….that is what made them Gnostic…persons who knew from experience…
I you desire more information I highly recommend reading THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY. The definitive new translation of the Gnostic scriptures, compete in one volume…James M. Robinson (General Editor) …and reading GENESIS OF THE GRAIL KINGS by Laurence Gardner.
At this time I petition for…my friends… the loving Richard and Carolina of Raleigh N.C. and all their loved ones to be surrounded and enclosed with the White Light of the Holy Spirit…I petition and ask that in the name of Mother and Father God.
You and all your loved ones are always in my prayers,

Samuel Joseph Bell
www.angelicinfusion.com
- posted by Samuel Bell @ 1:44 PM