Great
Isaiah Scroll on View to the Public
Swords
into plowshares: The Isaiah scroll and its message of peace, the most complete
biblical Dead Sea scroll ever found, will be on view to the public for the
first time in over forty years in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum
from May 19 through August 30.
 |
The Isaiah scroll – the
most complete biblical Dead Sea scroll ever found.
Photo
by the Israel Museum |
(IFM) On the
occasion of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel, the Israel
Museum presents two major sections of the Great Isaiah Scroll – the
most complete biblical Dead Sea Scroll document ever found and
one of the world’s greatest archeological treasures – in
a special installation in the Shrine of the Book.
For the first
time in over forty years, the public will have the rare opportunity
to view the two longest sections
of the
Scroll, featuring Isaiah’s celebrated message of peace: "They
shall beat their swords into plowshares…" (Isaiah
2:4). In order to illustrate this important message, artifacts
from the days of the prophet Isaiah (8th century B.C.),
including a bent scimitar and agricultural tools, will be displayed
together with the Scroll as part of this special exhibit.
The Isaiah
Scroll (Manuscript A) is one of the first seven scrolls discovered
in 1947 in a cave near Qumran,
on the northwestern
shores of the Dead Sea. Of the 220 biblical scrolls found in
the area, the complete Great Isaiah Scroll is one of the best
preserved and the only one containing an entire biblical book.
Dating from approximately 120 B.C., it is also one of the oldest
Dead Sea Scrolls, some one thousand years older than the oldest
manuscripts of the Bible known to us before the Scrolls’ discovery.
Coinciding
with this display, the Israel Museum will hold a major academic
conference on July 6-8, 2008, celebrating sixty years
since the discovery of
the Dead Sea Scrolls, with participating experts from Israel and worldwide.