"The 'Teacher of Righteousness' oversaw Qumran, site of the Dead Sea Scrolls," Shannon Lipscomb, Mobile Exploreum speaker reported. Her audience was the October meeting of "Men's 710 Second Tuesdays," a men's monthly breakfast and speaker program at Zion Lutheran Church in beautiful Silverhill. Miss Shannon ought to know, because the folks at the Exploreum have been working with the Israel Antiquities Authority to bring this major exhibition of Qumran-related artifacts to Mobile for some time. She noted that the Scroll fragments of texts from 28 Books of the Bible were discovered in 1947 near Qumran. These along with other archaeological finds reveal the life of the Essene Jewish community in Qumran, the rule or governance under which they lived, its pottery, and its locale. Taken together, this will be the largest collection of Dead Sea Scroll segments ever assembled in the United States.
Additionally, a scale model of the community of Qumran, a presentation of the ecology of the Dead Sea area, and discussion of conservation efforts related to preservation of fragile fragments outside the arid Qumran area, will be detailed in the Exhibit coming to Mobile's Gulf Coast Exploreum, January 20 to April 24, 2005. Ten of the world's top Scroll scholars will be present at this exposition as well. A Lecture Series and Virtual Tour of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem circa 2000 years ago, has been organized by the Exploreum with input from the Israelis as an added feature to the Exhibit.
Miss Shannon commenced her presentation with the story of a Bedouin shepherd boy discovering the fragments in 1947 and the journey of those fragments into mainline archaeological recovery efforts at that time. The history of the Qumran community as we have it from 250 BC to 68 AD was reviewed. Her slide presentation included discussion of the sectarian, the apocryphal and pseudographal, and the Biblical components to the fragments. The epigraphs reflected in the fragments are remarkable, demonstrating the integrity of today's Bibles. Simply stated, there have been no changes, no additions, and no subtractions from the Books of the Bible as present in these 2000 year old fragments.
The Exploreum plans to permit access to 200 visitors per hour to see these fragments once the Exhibit opens. The Scrolls will be here only 95 days. All ticketing will be "timed" so that there will be a staggering of admissions, allowing as many people as possible to see this remarkable exhibit during its brief tenure here in Alabama.
Shannon Lipscomb serves as Public Relations Director for the Exploreum. Additional information is available on the Exploreum's website for this exhibit
www.scrollsmobile.com
and at www.exploreum.net.
