Dead Sea Scrolls
Last Friday was "Grandmother Day," the day once a year when Grandmother takes me out on the town to do whatever I want. Since being married, she has taken Brooklynne (and now Halleigh) with us too. This Year we went to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the NC Museum of Natural Science.
There was no photography allowed in the exhibit, so here's a picture from lunch beforehand at the the Raleigh Times Bar. The food was pretty good, but the service was marginal and the atmosphere really was kind of bar-ish, which we should have expected from the name.
Anyway, the exhibit was great for making you ask questions about the scrolls, like where did they come from, were they related to the nearby settlement and how, why were they hidden, and how do we integrate them into our knowledge of our religion? But the exhibit was less good about answering those questions, or maybe explaining the options at least. I mean, I'm not looking for the museum folks to tell me how to interpret the meaning of the scrolls, but the exhibit mentioned several theories about the scrolls without giving a reasoned arguement for each.
For instance, Qumran, the ancient settlement discovered nearby, has been described by scholars as a religious commune, a military outpost, a pottery factory, or a library. But I never really got a sense of why someone might think it was a pottery factory or a military outpost, etc. I wanted to know wher ethe facts fit and where they didn't fit for each theory. I wanted to know the rationale for the various interpretations so I could make a decision for myself.
I guess the exhibit was designed to whet your taste for more knowledge, and they certainly had alot of ground to cover in the alloted space. And no matter how glossy the narrative, you really can't describe how neat it is to be a thin layer of glass from a piece of the oldest known copy of Dueteronomy.
The exhibit is expensive ($56 for the 4 of us), but well worth the price. If you have a free afternoon, I would encourage you to stake out a few hours and experience some of the greatest historial and religious artifacts on the planet.
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The room with the actual scrolls is really powerful. To see these sacred writings that are thousands of years old is one thing, but on top of that, they say pretty much the same thing that our Old Testament says... THAT is pretty freaking amazing! Through travel and wars and reformations and revivals and all sorts of other earthly trials, the scriptures have maintained their original message. How powerful is God's protection?!?! It just felt awesome (not like totally cool, but awesome as in awe inspiriting).
***A tip for taking kids, bring a carrier, they will not let you take a stroller through the exhibit