Breaking news today out of Israel -- the Dead Sea Scrolls will be digitized and available online within the next couple of years. Again, this is another example of how technology is changing how much information we can have access to.
For years, this treasure trove of ancient texts (including several of the earliest copies we now have of parts of the Hebrew scriptures) has been kept behind lock and key. In order to preserve the texts (some of which are still uncatalogued as scholars are still trying to piece them together), very few people had access to these texts.
Soon, anybody who is interested can safely look at any of these ancient fragments and texts from basically anywhere in the world.
I'm excited about this, not just as a pastor or a person who loves history, but as someone who watched overflow lines of people who were excited to see several pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Chicago a few years ago. (If memory serves, attendance was higher to see the Dead Sea Scrolls than for the last Chicago blockbuster museum exhibit -- King Tut.) Through a fluke (the museum decided to start extended summer hours one week early, I happened to see the exhibit when there was no line, so I had a more relaxed opportunity to examine some of these texts. It was fascinating to be so close to these texts and to see them in their present condition.
Here's the New York Times article announcing this decision.
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I should not comment later in the day, when cynicism and ennui engulf me.
When others than scholars who read old manuscripts see them, what do they see? A connection with the past? Information? Validation that humanity has a cultural and spiritual history? Or a vehicle of inspiration to focus their spirits on God? Why do I doubt that, at least as a universal or even widespread phenomenon. Ditto the Constitution. Everyone swears by it and reveres the documents, but Gallup, etc., has run polls on acceptance of constitutional doctrines (e.g., need a search warrant to search your house), and a majority of CITIZENS reject the notions.
And so with the Bible. In this political silly season, everyone is waving it and thumping it. It's a good symbol. As good as a flag pin. How often do you think that they open it and read it?
If objects are a way to faith, great. If they are magical amulets, I'll pass. The Shawnee (indigenous to this area) often carried a "opawaka," which was a stone or mineral (usually rounded from a river or creek) which the individual carrying it believed was a sort of spiritual lens through which s/he encountered the Manitou (roughly, the Great Spirit of all, and to many, the concept of Christ was not inconsistent with the Manitou, that was just another name for God and Christ was another revelation to them.) As such, the opawaka was not magical per se, but a focusing device. Used thus, the scrolls would be a wonderful thing to experience.
I'm waiting for either of the political convention chairpersons to call for a recess and instruct the delegates to take off the silly hats, put down the signs and repair to their rooms to pray in solitude where they aren't showing off. I know that concept is in the Gospels, now I gotta find it.
Roger-the-Heretic
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