If any of you were in San Diego for AAR/SBL last year, you may have had the opportunity to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. Well, if you're near New York City, you have your chance again. Opening up last Sunday there is a new DSS exhibit at the Jewish Museum!
Here are the details from the website:
The Jewish Museum’s exhibition will include six Dead Sea Scrolls. They represent the important transformation that occurred in Jewish worship from sacrifice to Bible study and prayer, the debates among Jewish groups of the Second Temple Period, and the indirect connections between the scrolls and early Christianity. The scrolls include a part of one of the earliest copies of the Hebrew Bible in existence, the Book of Jeremiah, which dates to 225-175 BCE. Other texts that will be shown include an apocryphal Jewish work, the Book of Tobit, which was not included in the Hebrew canon but was eventually accepted into some versions of the Christian Old Testament; early examples of prayers from Words of the Luminaries; and Aramaic Apocryphon of Daniel, which mentions a son of God. Also shown will be excerpts from two sectarian compositions, the Community Rule, which lays out the regulations for joining and being a member of a sect, and the War Scroll, which describes a great war at the end of days. Three of these scrolls have never been exhibited, while three others have never been seen in New York.
This is a rare opportunity not to be missed!The exhibit will run from September 21, 2008 - January 4, 2009.
It should be pointed out that the Jewish Museum has put together a fascinating exhibit which breaks from the previous "Qumran-Essene" tendency to cater to take sides in the current scholarly debate over scroll origins. There are excellent reviews of the exhibit on the Wall Street Journal and Jewish Week websites. I have linked them in the comments to this (also informative) article: http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/dead-sea-scrolls-coming-new-york
Posted by: View from Here | October 26, 2008 at 01:16 AM