Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible
A wing of the Milwaukee Public Museum is being transformed into the ancient Middle East, as curators prepare for a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Timeless Treasures.
It's one of the museum's largest undertakings-- putting together an exhibit that will take visitors on a journey of history and faith.
Carter Lupton, curator of ancient history, said it's one of the biggest projects he's ever worked on. And it's an exhibit with much public appeal.
"It's just a great archaeological story. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of the most famous archaeological stories of the 20th century," he said.
Bedouins stumbled into the scrolls in the 1940's. More than 900 ancient scrolls were discovered in 11 caves in Qumran, along the Dead Sea. They are the oldest surviving writings of the Bible, containing fragments of nearly every book in the Old Testament.
Now some of those scrolls will be seen for the first time, right here in Milwaukee.
Ellen Cinsky, Senior Vice President of museum programs, said these last few weeks will be hectic.
"We've been working at this for over a year now, and we are in the final processes of getting this together."
The exhibit is the largest temporary exhibit ever created at the museum. Artists are still painting palm trees, building walls, and creating the essence of the ancient Middle East.
"To set a context, to set a feel for what life was like in this part of the world at the time of the scrolls," Lupton explained.
The first rooms in the exhibit set the scene. Cases will hold artifacts from the time of Jesus. Visitors will see what it was like to live in ancient Jerusalem.
The next part of the exhibit tells the story of the Bedouins who found the scrolls.
A replica of a cave in Qumran takes you to the room in which the actual scrolls will be on display.
Climate-controlled, heavily secured cases will hold the ancient writings.
Censky said the scrolls in this exhibit come from 12 institutions in six countries.
"We have some scrolls that have just never been seen before," she told us. "The objects are so special that we aren't even allowed to handle them."
Couriers will fly into Milwaukee and deliver the scrolls in person... Locking them into their special cases.
Couriers will also deliver ancient copies of the Bible itself... And pages from the first printed Gutenberg Bible.
Lupton is excited about the upcoming exhibit. "We'll really carry the story of biblical text of the Dead Sea Scrolls thousands of years ago up to the middle ages and into modern times."
So why spend over a year on such a complicated, expensive endeavor?
Censky said that's what the public museum is all about.
"The goal of this museum is to bring the world to this museum, so to bring the things that most Milwaukeeans won't be able to travel to see, to bring those here so that Milwaukeeans can go out into the world just by going to the museum and seeing what we have here."
Tickets are on sale now. "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible" opens January 22.
There will also be a lecture program in which biblical and Dead Sea Scroll experts will fly into Milwaukee and speak.
Tickets for that are also available online.
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