SENIOR BLUES TRIP, Wednesday, September 20 th.
Professor George Brooke who has had lifetime fascination and study of the Dead Sea Scrolls gave a very interesting talk to our group sat amongst all the exhibits and display cases.
Of course none of the Scrolls were actually there, but there were facsimiles and photographs, and a reproduction of the Copper Scroll, which gives a very realistic view of what they actually look like.
The Scrolls were found by a shepherd who was tending his sheep on the banks of the Dead Sea in 1947. He threw a stone towards one of his sheep who was hiding behind a rock, when the stone landed, it didn't sound like a stone hitting rock or sand, so the shepherd went to investigate, and found a broken urn with some Scrolls in, quite well preserved.
They had Hebrew writing on them written onto Lambskin.
From 1947-1956 eleven caves containing around 850 manuscripts were discovered at or near Qumran, some well preserved, others in tiny fragments.
They provide the fullest contemporary evidence for Judaism at the turn of the era, and fall into three categories.
1. Biblical Scrolls.
2 Accounts of the life of a religious movement,probably the Essenes.
3.Scrolls reflecting almost the whole range of Jewish Literature from the late Second Temple period.
The exhibition is free, and I would recommend a visit, the entry to the library is through a doorway on the right hand side of the Cathedral building in Abbey Square, you have to go up the steps in front as you walk through the archway in Northgate st, go up the steps and turn right.