What the Dead Sea Scrolls Really Say

Speaker: Hershel Shanks, Founder & Editor of Biblical Archaeology Review

Location: Washington DCJCC

Part one discusses the ruins of Qumran near the 11 caves in the Judean Desert where more than 900 scrolls were found, comprising what has been called the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. This lecture considers whether the people living at Qumran were a strange sect of Jews called Essenes, what the scrolls tell us about the development of the Hebrew Bible, and how the scrolls also help to elucidate Judaism in the crucial period before the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.

Part two: Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls important for understanding the origins of Christianity as a Jewish movement? What does "Son of God" mean in Judaism? In Christianity? To what extent is Christian doctrine anticipated in the scrolls? Part two also examines the so-called "Dead Sea Scroll in Stone" and whether it relates to a messiah. Finally, this lecture explores the mysterious Copper Scroll which describes 64 sites with buried treasure, possibly from the Jerusalem Temple.