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    Treasure of the Dead Sea Scrolls
    Treasure of the Dead Sea Scrolls
    Treasure of the Dead Sea Scrolls
    Ebook115 pages1 hour

    Treasure of the Dead Sea Scrolls

    By OpherSegal

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    About this ebook

    In 1952, a French archaeologist discovered a Dead Sea Scroll unlike any other. In the back of a cave in Qumran near the Dead Sea, he found the oddity - a scroll written on almost pure copper. It told of more than sixty locations where an enormous quantity of gold, silver, and Temple implements were hidden from the Romans in the first century CE. Was this scroll a map to the treasures from the Second Temple in Jerusalem? Or, was it only half the answer? After sixty years, the mystery will be solved. The race is on to see who will have the insight and skill to correctly translate the Copper Scroll and find the treasure.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpherSegal
    Release dateJun 22, 2014
    ISBN9781310836466
    Treasure of the Dead Sea Scrolls
    Author

    OpherSegal

    Opher Segal is a veteran writer, producer, and journalist who has been actively involved with the Dead Sea Scrolls for the past three decades – translating, writing commentaries, and publishing about the Scrolls. He produced and hosted the show, “Kaleidoscope,” which aired on Time Warner Cable for twenty years. Many of the leading experts on the Dead Sea Scrolls appeared on the show. Segal co-produced “Treasures of the Jewish World,” which aired on the Trinity Broadcasting Network for seven years.He has lectured extensively on international law, political science, and the psychological aspects related to the Middle East. He is the author of over fifteen hundred articles on a broad range of subjects, from religion and politics to sports and music. Segal has a Master’s degree in Psychology from California State University, Los Angeles. He lives in Southern California.

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      Book preview

      Treasure of the Dead Sea Scrolls - OpherSegal

      Treasure of the Dead Sea Scrolls

      Opher Segal

      Copyright 2014 by Opher Segal

      All rights reserved.

      Smashwords Edition

      8391 Beverly Boulevard #573

      Los Angeles, CA 90048

      www.ophersegal.com

      Designed by Sue Schoenfeld

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work of this author.

      Many thanks to Roy B. Blizzard, president of Bible Scholars, for his contribution as archaeological advisor and story line contributor.

      Table of Contents

      1. Khirbet, Qumran

      2. Jerusalem

      3. Venice, California

      4. Langley, Virginia

      5. En route to Paris

      6. Ben Gurion Airport

      7. Amman, Jordan

      8. En route to Khirbet, Qumran

      9. Amman, Jordan

      Epilogue

      Map

      Suggested Reading

      Praise

      About the Author

      CHAPTER 1

      Khirbet, Qumran in the Judean Desert, 1947

      In the winter of 1947, several shepherd cousins, members of the Ta’amireh Tribe, tended their flocks along the Eastern slope of the Judean escarpment in Israel, eight miles south of Jericho along the northwestern side of the Dead Sea. While their sheep grazed, they would search for lost or hidden treasure in one of the many caves along the escarpment. The three Ta’amireh Bedouins were Jum’a Muhammed, Muhammed Achmed el Hamed, and Kahlil Musa. Youngest of the trio, Muhammed Achmed el Hamed, was nicknamed edh-Dhib (the wolf) because they said his father was fierce like a wolf. Older cousin Kahlil had a passion for exploring caves and looking for treasure, hopeful that someday he would locate a cache of gold stashed away in ancient times or an artifact of value. While tending the flocks, he would explore the caves in hopes of satisfying his curiosity and fulfilling his dream.

      Jum’a Muhammed happened upon two holes in the side of a rock projection just above the plateau where their flocks grazed. Jum’a amused himself by throwing rocks into the small openings in the cliffs. A rock went into the cave opening along the escarpment a mile north of the ruins known as Qumran. The rock shattered something inside, but the entrance to the cave was so small the cousins couldn’t get in to see what had broken. As the sun was starting to set, the three agreed to return at a later time, and they retired to their camp for the night.

      Muhammad el-Hamed got up early the next morning before his cousins awoke and made his way to the cave. He enlarged the opening so that he was able to squeeze into the cave to investigate. When his eyes acclimated to the darkness of the interior to the point that he was able to ascertain the contents, he found ten tall pottery jars, each about two feet high. Disappointed, he discovered the jars were empty except for two. One contained nothing but dirt but the other contained three scrolls, two of which were wrapped in linen. He unwrapped the linen tied around one of the scrolls and revealed a delicate parchment covered with handwritten Hebrew text. As he unwrapped the scroll, a blue aura appeared to hover over the scroll and fill the cave.

      What the Bedouin had discovered after two thousand years was the first of what became known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls remain the greatest written archaeological find in history. In 1965, Israel built a special museum, the Shrine of the Book, to display them to the public. Built over a period of seven years, the white dome-shaped structure resembles the ceramic jars in which the scrolls were discovered.

      Shrine of the Book Museum, Jerusalem, Israel, 2003

      Joseph Simons was a tour guide at the Shrine of the Book. He was a thin Israeli, forty years old, with a serious face. He wore a museum uniform with a gold name tag. Joseph was leading a group through the museum and explaining which of the scrolls that were on display were originals and which were facsimiles.

      Because of the antiquity of the scrolls and the delicate parchment upon which they were written, extended exposure to light could cause further – and maybe irreversible – deterioration. As a result, to protect this archaeological treasure, facsimiles were made from the scrolls and are displayed instead of the originals. Twenty people stood in a loose circle around Joseph, tourists from a handful of countries who followed a handful of religions. A twelve-year-old boy stood out from the rest of the group. He’d already asked more questions than anyone else. The smart, precocious, skinny boy with glasses was like a magician’s assistant – his questions kept coming on cue. "Hidden in the year 66 CE, just before the Jewish war with the Romans that began in 68 CE, they are by far the oldest written Biblical texts that we have today. Some of the scrolls are actual recordings of events in real time before the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls were written by the Zealots of Qumran, a group who believed that the end of days had arrived.

      "No one knew the significance of what they had in their possession. The scrolls were brought to an antiquities dealer in Bethlehem, named Kahlil Iskandar Shahin, nicknamed Condo, in March of 1947. Condo happened to be an active member of the Syrian Orthodox Church. He spoke with another church member named George Isaiah, who spoke with Athanasius Yeshuh Samuel, a high church official, known as a metropolitan, who was associated with St. Mark’s Monastery in Jerusalem. At this early period, no one knew what the scrolls contained, in what language they were written, or what they might be worth. Condo and George Isaiah negotiated a deal to purchase the scrolls from the Bedouin, and the metropolitan purchased four scrolls from Condo for the equivalent of one hundred dollars. The scrolls were later identified as a Biblical Book of Isaiah, the scroll relating to rules of the community known today as the Manual of Discipline, and a commentary on the Book of Habakkuk. Later, four additional scrolls were removed from the cave; a collection of psalms known as the Thanksgiving Scroll, another partial copy of Isaiah, an eschatological text known as the War Scroll, and an Apocryphon known as the Genesis Apocryphon. The latter four scrolls wound up in the hands of Professor Eleazar Sukenik, from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

      "And still, no one knew the significance of what they had in their possession. The metropolitan who had purchased the scrolls from Condo arranged for a representative from St. Mark’s Monastery to meet with a representative from the American School for Oriental Research in Jerusalem to have a look at one of the scrolls. His task was to use that scroll to help identify the scrolls in general and inform the metropolitan of their worth. The representative from the American School for Oriental Research was a visiting professor, Dr. John C. Trevor, who was doing postgraduate studies at the Oriental School, was an expert in both Hebrew palaeography and photography, and had brought with him much of his photographic equipment. After unrolling the scroll, it only took a moment to identify it, for there, word for word, in Biblical Hebrew, was the very first verse of the Book of Isaiah, ‘Chazon yeshayahu ben-amotz asher chaza al-yhudah viyerushalim (a vision of Isaiah, the son of Amotz, that he envisioned concerning Judah and Jerusalem).’"

      The boy took everything in, as if he was visiting Disneyland. He glanced back and forth between the intriguing Isaiah Scroll that dominated the center of the museum, and his Rubik’s cube. He solved it within seconds, holding the cube with all sides having matching colors. Another young boy in the group bumped into him and knocked the Cube out of his hand. He shook his head and picked it up with one hand while waving the

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