Dead Sea Scrolls Shown in Seattle

Ancient Texts Bring New Found Interest

At the end of September, I took the opportunity to fly out to Seattle to visit my eighty-one-year-old grandmother. While she was the primary reason for my trip, she was not the sole reason. That’s because, before I went, my sister mentioned something to me that piqued my interest. As one trained in the original languages of the Bible, Greek and Hebrew, I was overjoyed to hear about a Dead Sea Scroll exhibit at the Pacific Science Center in downtown Seattle. The Pacific Science Center was exactly where I went before driving two-and-a-half hours south to see Grandma. I figured this would be my only chance to see the Scrolls in my life. Thanks, Grandma, for wanting me to see the exhibit. 

The exhibit itself was fascinating. The Pacific Science Center did an outstanding job in setting up a display that is intellectual, yet practical. Whether the visitor to the exhibit was new to the Bible or well versed in it, the Pacific Science Center made sure to provide an educational experience for all visitors. 

The exhibit gave intellectual appeal because of the history behind the Scrolls and their discovery by Bedouin shepherds in 1947. If you know anything about the Bedouins, you’ll know they are Muslim. Imagine that, Muslims stumbling on to manuscripts of the Bible. Ironic? No, just the hand of God at work.

The hands-on displays at the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit allowed the visitor to gain an appreciation for archaeology by filling a large plastic container with dirt and plastic scale models of artifacts buried under the surface for people to find. Other practical displays demonstrated the complexity of re-constructing clay pots with Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions on them. It was also interesting to see coins and other secular documents from the Dead Sea Scroll era.  Since the Dead Sea Scrolls are made up of mostly fragments, one practical display contained 50,000 jigsaw puzzle pieces to demonstrate the complex nature of the work Bible scholars experienced when piecing together and translating the Scrolls.