Bits & Pieces

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Copper Scroll Coming to U.S.

In “Bits & Pieces,” BAR 18:06, we announced that some fragmentary Dead Sea Scrolls from Israel are to be exhibited at the Library of Congress, starting April 29.

Not to be outdone, Jordan will allow the famous Copper Scroll to be brought to this country perhaps as early as this summer.

While here it will be taken to the Getty Conservation Institute, where preservation work will be performed. The scroll will also be photographed inch-by-inch by Bruce Zuckerman of the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center in Claremont, California. Zuckerman is now the leading photographer of ancient Near Eastern texts, including cuneiform tablets.

The Copper Scroll is one of the most intriguing of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Written on thin copper sheets, it contains a laundry list of 64 hiding places of huge quantities of gold and silver. Many scholars believe it is a guide to the Temple treasure hidden from the Romans sometime before Jerusalem was burned and the Temple destroyed in 70 A.D.^a Although some efforts have been made to find these hiding places, so far all such efforts have proved unsuccessful.

Los Angeles to Host Scroll Series

“The Extraordinary Work of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” a seven-part lecture series, will take place weekly at 7:45 p.m. from April 21 through June 1, 1993, in Gindi Auditorium on the campus of the University of Judaism, 15600 Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles.

BAR editor Hershel Shanks inaugurates the series with a general introduction. Subsequent lectures will include Michael Wise, of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, on “The Scrolls. Masada and Josephus”; Edward Wright of the University of Arizona, on “The Messianic Age and the Birth of New Religions”; and Lawrence Schiffman, of New York University, on “Sacred Time, Sacred Space: The Enigma of the Temple Scroll.” A rare opportunity to hear two views—from a priest all a rabbi—of the impact of the scrolls on early Christianity and Judaism will feature Joseph Fitzmyer, professor emeritus at Catholic University of America, and Joseph Baumgarten, of Baltimore Hebrew University, David Noel Freedman, editor of the Anchor Bible series, will speak on “The Biblical Texts from Qumran,” and Bruce Zuckerman, of the University of Southern California, and Kyle McCarter, of Johns Hopkins University, will make a joint presentation on “The Secret Treasures of the Copper Scroll.” They will demonstrate how the latest photographic and computer technologies can enhance our ability to see and read the scrolls.

Registration for the series is $98; individual lectures are $16 (on a space-available basis). The series is jointly sponsored by the California Museum of Ancient Art and the University of Judaism Department of Continuing Education and is made possible by a grant from the Simmons Family Charitable Foundation. For further details and a brochure write the California Museum of Ancient Art. P.O. Box 10515, Beverly Hills, CA 90213, or call (818) 762-5500.

Must Reading

As of the November Religious Bestseller List of Publisher’s Weekly, BAS’s book on the Dead Sea Scrolls (Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, edited by Hershel Shanks) was the only Dead Sea Scroll book to remain on the list. It has also remained on the bestseller list longer than any other of the recent books on the subject..

Dead Sea Scroll Predictions for 1993

The Dead Sea Scrolls continue to fascinate the tabloids. The December 29 issue of the Sun featured “Dead Sea Scroll Predictions for 1993.”

The article quotes a Dr. David Minor, a “noted biblical historian” but not otherwise identified, as saying that “Newly released transcripts of the ancient scrolls provide a chilling glimpse into the new year … [T]hey also provide a detailed description of what will occur in the final days leading up to the year 2000 and the second coming of Christ.”

Among the predictions for 1993:

• “A UFO spaceship ‘with voyagers from another planet’ will crash land ‘in the bosom of a mighty power’ of the world—and bring greetings of peace from other universes. Researchers say the aliens will land at the U.S. Capitol to meet with American lawmakers.”

• “Elvis’ grave will be dug up—and found to be empty! Scholars base this shocking prediction on the Dead Sea Scrolls passage: ‘A great hue and cry shall erupt the world over when the tomb of a beloved minstrel shall be found barren.’”

• “Communication with the dead will be possible via new cellular telephones that can reach the spirit world. The miraculous innovation will prove once and for all that our deceased loved ones are not really dead at all—but just living in another place without their bodies.”

• “Scientists will discover a vaccine for the common cold.”

According to Dr. Minor, “All of these predictions will surely happen because they are foretold in the Dead Sea Scrolls.”