Wednesday, September 30, 2009

THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM is hosting a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition next year which will include the Vision of Gabriel inscription:
Dead Sea Scrolls at last coming to Milwaukee Public Museum

By Jackie Loohauis-Bennett of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Sept. 30, 2009

After years of international negotiations, the Milwaukee Public Museum has announced that its exhibit of the legendary Dead Sea Scrolls will open on Jan. 22.

"Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts, Timeless Treasures" is the largest temporary exhibit ever produced by the museum, with more than 200 artifacts.

The show pulls together authentic Dead Sea Scroll fragments, illustrated manuscripts and archaeological findings from Israel, Jordan, France, England, Switzerland and the United States. The scroll segments and other texts in the Milwaukee exhibit have shed new light on the history of two religions: Judaism and Christianity.

"These are the greatest treasures of humankind," said Milwaukee Public Museum president Dan Finley. "You can't put a value on these words. These words changed the world."

The scroll fragments coming here contain parts of the earliest known texts of the Hebrew Bible - the Christian Old Testament - and some texts in the exhibit contain tantalizing references to a Messiah figure.

The exhibit also features pages from the oldest existing version of the Hebrew Masoretic text, as well as pages from hand-copied medieval Bibles and early printed Bibles, including the Gutenberg Bible.

Exhibit highlights include:

•  A fragment of the Copper Scroll, a one-of-a-kind scroll written on deteriorating metal that took scholars more than four years to cut open and translate.

•  A fragment of a version of the book of Daniel dating from between 50 B.C. and A.D. 50. This is its first display in any exhibit of Dead Sea Scrolls.

• A fragment from Ecclesiastes dating from the second century B.C.

•  The recently discovered Jeselsohn Stone with a late first century B.C. text called "Gabriel's Revelation," an apocalyptic prophecy attributed to the Angel Gabriel. The text speaks of a Messiah called Simon who will rise from the dead after three days. An exhibit label reads that this text is "interpreted by some that the story of Jesus' death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time. However, the translation 'after three days' is uncertain."

[...]
Earlier brief notes of the exhibition are here and (presumably) here. Background to the Vision of Gabriel is here and here.