Biblical Geographic

For more photos of Qumran, visit: Qumran Photos

Qumran is known for the amazing story of the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls by some Bedouin goat herders, amidst the struggle of the birth of the State of Israel in 1947. Nearly 900 scrolls in a variety of physical conditions, were discovered here during the years of 1947 to 1956. Being about 1000 years older than any other manuscripts previously found, they bear witness to the accuracy of the translation of the Old Testament in later texts and give us an insight into the period surrounding the time of Christ.

How amazing that these scrolls, which were hidden at Qumran at the fall of the Jewish commonwealth in 70 AD, were again found at its revival in the re-establishment of the Jewish State (on 14 May 1948). These scrolls reveal for us of the lives of the Essenes, a sect within Judaism committed to piety and communal life, who took literally the biblical injunction, Let not this book of the law cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, Joshua 1:8.

Today many of the scrolls found at Qumran may be viewed in the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Remnants of the scriptorium and numerous copper scrolls, are today located within the collection of the Amman Archeological Museum at the citadel, Amman (Jordan).

The Old Testament has been almost completely verified in the Dead Sea scrolls with very little variation to the Bible we can hold in our hands! Several books, including Deuteronomy and Isaiah have numerous copies. The only book not represented in the scrolls is the book of Esther.

Prior to the finding of the Dead Sea scrolls, the Aleppo Codex, [once preserved in the synagogue in Aleppo, and moved hastily following riots and the burning of the synagogue] was the oldest known complete MSS of the majority of the Old Testament. Segments out of Genesis are now missing from the tome, but the remainder is now housed at the Shrine of the Book where portions are often on display.

I would like to share a comment by HP Mansfield that really impressed me whilst visiting Qumran with him in 1987, the same year that he died, which helps us to feel the real meaning that the Bible can have to us:

“Another viewpoint which we may overlook is that you can go and buy a wide-margin Bible, a very good one for AU$120 [AU$180 now (Ed.)] It is not hard to get AU$120 and buy a Bible, so much so, we could buy Bibles so frequently and easily that we possibly lose the real power and significance of the book we have. The value of that book is lessened through the printing presses of today. But as in the days of the Essenes, going back to Deut 17, the requirement of the King of Israel when he came to the throne was to write for himself a copy of the law that he might read upon it every day, that he might himself apply those principles and that his heart may not be lifted up against others. In the days we are speaking of, when you wanted a Bible, you wrote it by hand, and they didn’t just do it in a scribble with a ball-point pen: they did it properly on parchment and they loved it, there was part of their own lives in that Bible, it meant something to them. And when they knew the Romans were coming, they preserved their holy books, putting them in the caves there because they thought so much of them at that time. If you see a hand-written Bible, you can understand that the writer has poured something of his life into it. Same if you see a well-marked Bible of today: the person treasures their Bible – I would not sell my Bible for $10 000 and I could buy a brand new one, with better binding for AU$120. It is priceless because to me, it is life itself. When you put yourself into a book, or do anything that requires work, it will mean something to you. When you get something for nothing, you treasure it for about the same value. The people are gone but the books remain and that is an important feature of what happened here: a witness to loving care of the Bible, the Word of God. They counted every letter to make sure they didn’t leave any out. We don’t do that; we get it the easy way. We do not concentrate; we have lost the power of it today. To concentrate upon a matter, to take out the Word of God and ponder it and then be motivated by it. These people, whatever they believed, they were moved by it. They made perfectly sure that there wasn’t a mistake. The drama of history is shown here, the Romans coming down here – where are they today? But Israel is here. What did Hadrian say? “Never again will a Jew enter this city”, – but they have! Whenever you see dedication, you see something worth pondering over.”

To view a map of Qumran visit: Qumran Google Map

The well named as “Abraham’s well” was a subject of contention. For a period of time the well was controlled by the Philistines until Isaac his son restored the ownership of the well again. Abraham was to reprove Abimelech (My father is king) over “a well of water” that his men had violently taken away Gen 21:25. This was to be a direct contrast of the reproof of Sarah in Gen 20:9f. In both accounts a rebuke over association with Abraham as the father, and then confirmation that through covenant that Abraham was to be the father through who real righteousness would be established.  Abimelech would declare this; “God is with thee in all that thou doest” and confirmed in the ritual of covenant sacrifice of seven lambs, by themselves, that is “God was in them, in all that they were doing”  and they did not belong to the Philistines. The meaning of this ritual became enshrined in the place of Beersheba, the well of the seven.

It is most remarkable that Abraham sojourned in the land of the Philistines for many days, and then following these things takes his son to demonstrate the sacrifice of the most remarkable lamb of all time, the lamb of God who came into the world to take away sins, Gen 22.

Jacob left from Beersheba the well of the oath, to go to Haran, Gen 28:10.  On arrival he came to a well that was stopped  by a great stone, Gen 29:3.  Representing national Israel who could not see the manifestation of God because of being bowed down with great traditions. The men were waiting for someone to move the stone, and yet Jacob himself could move the stone when he arrived, having previously made a stone the place of his head, departing alone with just his staff (RSV), Gen 28.

Beersheba became the limits of the land. From Dan to Beersheba, the place of apostacy to being with God in everything that we do. This is the course of all spiritual men.

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Masada was a desert fortress built by Herod the great. As a response to personal threats early in his life, Herod became obsessed with the construction of grand buildings with particularly strong points for his own safety. Alongside Masada thses included: Macherus on the east of the Dead Sea in Jordan, Herodius near Bethelehem, Caesarea Maritine on the western seaboard, the temple and other buildings in Jerusalem, a building at Macpelah at Hebron and an elaborate palace structure at Jericho.

The man’s building prowess is extra-ordinary! The details and engineering within the buildings were astonishing.  On the northern end of the plateau at Masada Herod built a three tiered palace for himself  overlooking the vast vistas of the northern Dead Sea.

After the death of Herod, some of the final last stands of the Jewish zealots happened at Masada. Vast storerooms of grain, and sufficient water collected in vast ccisterns and clever rain harvesting through conduits meant that long term resistence to seige could be undertaken here. But the roman garrisons were able to the task. Building long stone ramps leading up to the walls, the romans were finally able to break into the stronghold. Remains of these ramps remain very clearly at the site today, and walls surrounding one of the roman camps can be seen in the following photograph at the base of Masada

Within the stronghold were Mikva’ot, the cleansing places for the Jewish people. This ceremonial structure allowed the washing of the people before religious tasks. It was used extensively to remove the taint of disease, reproductive issues of women, the ceremonial cleaning for men before sacrifice, the washing of utensils for eating and within the tasks for the conversion of the proselyte. But the Jewish nation had lost the concept of spiritual cleanliness. To wash the outside of the platter, and not clean the heart made a mockery of holiness. The nation had become a leprous house, and should have searched whether there was plague with their heart 1Kings 8:38 So in the fall of the northern tribes, and language so often used by the Lord of the nation at AD70, “I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up into your nostrils, yet ye have not returned to me saith Yahweh Amos 4:10  “I will slay the last of them with the sword, he that fleeth of them shall not flee away and he that excapeth of them shall not be delivered… though they climb to heaven thence will I bring them down” Amos 9:1,2

But the disaster of AD70 and the destruction of the zealots is not the end of the picture. “I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob” Amos 9:8 God would “destory all the sinners of my people” Amos 9:10 but would raise up again the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof, that they shall possess the remnant of Edom (Herod an Idumean!) and of all the heathen that is not called by my name. Here was a a wonderful opportunity for gentiles to be included within the camp of Israel, realised with God would bring agin the captivity of his people. Masada stands as a silent witness to the terrible wrath of God against the sin of his people, and also a silent witness of the end of gentile people that call on his name with his nation.

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