Greg Black, age 11, of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, for his question:
What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
The Christian Gospel turned a page of history and separated the centuries into B.C. and A.D. As the Christmas season draws nigh, thoughtful persons pause to think about what this really means. Obviously the gentle revolution occurred when enough human hearts and minds were ready to accept it. The Dead Sea Scrolls take us back to that time and introduce us indirectly to some of the people who were there and helped mankind turn that page of history.
For almost 2,000 years, Christians of various denominations disputed and even fought each other, determined to prove which group had the right religious answers. Through those 2,000 years, the Dead Sea Scrolls remained hidden in their secret caves. But there was nothing dead about them. Far from it. They held the answers that could settle those religious disputes, once and for all.
Through those centuries, nobody could have proved when they were written. Had they been found, no doubt they would have started more squabbling. Then in 1946, scientists discovered how to use radiocarbon to give the approximate date of certain biochemicals created by once living plants and animals. It was time for the sacred scrolls to come out of hiding. In 1947, the first seven scrolls and numerous fragments were found in a cave. They included several copies of Old Testament Books, plus detailed plans and rituals for the New Testament churches.
The ancient scrolls were written on long strips of leather, wrapped in linen and fitted into pottery jars with tight lids. Radiocarbon tests indicated that they date back to just about when the page of history turned from B.C. to A.D. This was dramatic news indeed. Other nearby caves by the Dead Sea were searched and 100 or so more scrolls were found written on leather or papyrus and a few on sheets of copper. The scripts were in several languages of those times.
Scholars came from all over the world to solve the mystery of who wrote them. They found some answers in an old ruin near the north shore of the Dead Sea, not far from the caves where the old library of scrolls had been hidden when the region was sacked by the Romans. The evidence revealed that this ruin in the desert wilderness of Galilee belonged to a devoted religious sect, known as Essenes or Nazarenes.
Some of the scrolls predict the role of their coming Messiah. Others outline the simple duties of the commune, allowing plenty of time for peaceful contemplation of deep ethical and spiritual ideas.
In those days, the word Essene meant saintly and it is known that these religious persons came forth to teach the ordinary folk in the cities of Judea. It is possible that Jesus studied in their retreat by the Dead Sea and came forth to preach the Gospel of peace and goodwill to all mankind. If this was so, then the sacred scrolls faithfully kept their secrets until the world most urgently needed them to clarify his gentle teaching.