This last week is the very last week the Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Ancient Times was at The Leonardo in Salt Lake City. The exhibit lasted from November 22, 2013-April 27, 2014, which is today. I've known about this exhibit since Summer of last year, and I finally saw it.
The whole exhibit was amazing, costing $24, which seemed steep at first, but was worth every penny.
A few Dead Sea Scrolls were on display, along with over 600 artifacts from that era.
The first room we entered into was dark with writing on the wall, the same phrase written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and English. Suddenly the Hebrew phrase was lit, and a narration sounded throughout the room, beautiful melodic inflections. The English phrase was read next. I wish the Aramaic and Greek phrase were read as well, but alas, they weren't.
Then we entered a larger room with a path for everyone to walk on, sand and rocks on the side, screens with video everywhere. Another narration sounded, this time live as a women came out and explained the pots, ending with the pots the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered.
The year was 1947 near the Dead Sea. Goat herders discovered a cave with several clay jars, inside were animal skins, papyrus, and parchments written in unfamiliar languages to the herder. From 1947 to 1956 there were 972 documents discovered, the oldest surviving record of the Hebrew Bible, all books accounted for except the Book of Esther.
"None of the dead can rise up and answer our questions. But from all they have left behind, their imperishable or slowly dissolving gear, we may perhaps hear voices, which are only now able to whisper, when everything else has become silent."
~ Bjorn Kurten, Finnish Paleontologist
There were two levels to the exhibit, and unfortunately we were only able to take pictures on the top level. No photography whatsoever was allowed below, so this was all I was able to snap. Old coins, tools, ceramics, oil lamps, and other neat things.
The bottom level was where the majority of the artifacts were displayed. Usually when I go to a museum people gloss over the information listed by each object, but during the Dead Sea Scroll exhibit everybody was reading everything. It was nice, slowing the experience down as I took everything in.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were displayed in a giant circle table, very careful light and temperature controls in place. There was a passage about the New Jerusalem, a War Scroll, the Damascus Document, a Jubilee, Psalms, and a passage from the "Book of Watchers" to name a few. Very interesting. Purely amazing that they're so well intact, even through the excerpts are scattered fragments.
The very last room of the exhibit was very special. They recreated the Western Wall from Jerusalem, with scraps of paper for everyone to write prayers on a place in the wall cracks. And in the middle of the wall was an actual stone from the wall that, "Fell from the southwest corner of the Temple's outer wall during the fighting. It is a remnant of the retaining wall that enclosed it, 2000 years ago."
The stone was the only thing we could touch in the entire exhibit, and I just let my hand rest on the stone after writing and placing my prayer. It was extraordinary.
What I wrote:
"Dear Lord, My God and King. Help me, in these Last Days, when wrong is right and right is wrong, when the righteous shall be persecuted for thy sake. Please bless me with strength to endure and serve thee, for I love thee with all my heart. Patiently waiting and living in thee. Sarah"
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