Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Dead Sea Scrolls scholar who deciphered the Copper Scroll and worked on editing the Qumran fragments.
On the island
Eight records
I've Got a Little List (from The Mikado)
The guest sang this as his fourth disc.
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:24Did the Bedouins have any idea they had stumbled on something of great value?
No, none at all. He I take it was rather disappointed that he'd not found any jewels and and gold and silver in these uh jars, but he took the scrolls away with him and unrolled them and couldn't read them, of course, and eventually disposed of them to a dealer in Bethlehem. And the dealer got rid of them to his uh spiritual superior in Jerusalem, who eventually sold the lot for a quarter of a million dollars in America.
Presenter asks
4:29How much is now known about the people who hid these scrolls?
Well, we knew something of them from the ancient historians. They were called Essenes. We now know a good deal more because we have their original writings. We know they lived down there by the Dead Sea from about 100 BC. They were led there by a priest whom they greatly revered, whom they call the teacher of righteousness. And they apparently left in about 68 AD. Now the documents about the life and discipline of this sect does show, I believe, an affinity with the tenets of Christianity. Yes. This is really the most exciting part and important part of the scrolls is they do fill in this important background before Jesus came and before the New Testament. It's this type of Judaism from which Christianity sprang. Yes. It is indeed possible that Jesus visited and worked with these people. It's possible, I think, that he visited them. I doubt whether they would have had him working with them because they would have required a three-year probation. It's difficult to fit that into the New Testament chronology.
Presenter asks
5:57How is all this work and research being financed?
Well, this of course has been the difficulty. The archaeological societies out there have contributed towards the digging up of the place itself, but our work on editing the fragments has been done individually, and um some of us have had great difficulties in finding money where our universities don't help us.
Presenter asks
6:17Do you believe there are further hoards of these documents to be found?
Oh yes, there's no doubt at all that this is now must be regarded as a veritable storehouse of hidden manuscript treasures right along the western shores of the Dead Sea at least and perhaps the eastern shores. And largely unexplored territory. So it's possible that somewhere there there are contemporary references to the ministry of Jesus. I shouldn't be surprised, particularly in the area in which we've been working recently, the Kidron Valley, which is the escape route from Jerusalem. And if the Jesus followers went this way in 68 AD, they could well have taken with them the words of Jesus and things like that. And these may well be found any day.
Presenter asks
7:25Are the indications in the copper scroll explicit enough to justify a search for the buried treasure?
Er yes, I think so. The details are explicit, but the general locations, they are using place names which we don't always identify, or at least not quite sure how they identified them.
“He I take it was rather disappointed that he'd not found any jewels and and gold and silver in these uh jars, but he took the scrolls away with him and unrolled them and couldn't read them, of course, and eventually disposed of them to a dealer in Bethlehem.”
“This is really the most exciting part and important part of the scrolls is they do fill in this important background before Jesus came and before the New Testament. It's this type of Judaism from which Christianity sprang.”
“some of us have had great difficulties in finding money where our universities don't help us.”
“So it's possible that somewhere there there are contemporary references to the ministry of Jesus. I shouldn't be surprised, particularly in the area in which we've been working recently, the Kidron Valley, which is the escape route from Jerusalem. And if the Jesus followers went this way in 68 AD, they could well have taken with them the words of Jesus and things like that. And these may well be found any day.”