What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? Where Were They Found? Maps of Qumran Area Who Wrote the Scrolls? What is BYU's Involvement? What is FARMS? What is CPART? Article - LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls The Book- LDS Perspectives on the Dead Sea Scrolls Video Highlights and Offer

LDS Perspectives on the
Dead Sea Scrolls

reprinted from the January 1999 edition of KBYU Magazine

Dr. Weston Fields

There were Roman artifacts from the time of Christ, coins, potsherds, knives, spearheads, everything that evoked ancient Judea. But Dr. Fields had not come to shop. He had arranged for David to take them to the home of Abu Daoud, also known as Mohammed El Dhib, or Mohammed the Wolf. As the patrons finally left, David pulled himself slowly out of his chair and closed his shop for the afternoon. Only David, and some Bedouin tribesmen knew where Abu Daoud, now in his 75th year, lived. The drive through Jerusalem to Bethlehem was short, the car small, the heat unbearable and the checkpoint nerve-wracking. "We should not have any trouble today, there haven’t been many shootings or stonings in Bethlehem lately."

Abu Daoud

He led the group to a small apartment in Bethlehem where several generations of Abu Daoud’s family lived together. With tape recorder and cameras ready, the team listened to a story that had been told many times while Abu Daoud’s grandchildren played at his feet. The story was much the same as in the history books. While tending his flock in 1947, a young Abu Daoud threw a stone into a cave and hit something. He returned later with some rope and entered the cave to discover large pots that were sealed. As he opened two, he found nothing. The third jar, however, contained scrolls wrapped in linen. Disappointed that he had not found gold, he returned to his tent with the scrolls and left them next to the door where the children played with them. "There were four bundles, we didn’t know what they were," continued Abu Daoud, "We didn’t know the writing was Hebrew and we didn’t know they had any value. We kept them lying around the tent, and the children played with them. One of them broke into pieces and we threw it in the garbage pile. Later we found that the wind had blown all the pieces away." Weston sighed. Through the translator, Mohammed was asked if he knew the contents of the scrolls. "The story of the trouble between the Jews and the Arabs?" he offered. The translator corrected him as he shared that the scrolls contained the oldest copy of the Hebrew Bible. "Hurmph…If I had known that, I would have let them all blow away."

Mohammed has since died, but his legacy remains one of the most remarkable finds in archaeology. Fifty years after Abu Daoud discovered them, the Dead Sea Scrolls still evoke a sense of mystery and intrigue, not to mention controversy. Who left these ancient documents, hidden carefully in sealed jars, deep in caves along the marled cliffs of the Dead Sea? What can they teach us about the world during the time of Christ?

On to Page 2 »