One may do this by paying close attention to the wording of the exhibition labels as they pertain both to the items described and to the relevant claims and assurances, and by posing the following questions while doing so: Are the labels of the present exhibition fair and accurate? Are they inclusive of general scholarship on the Scrolls? Are the various theories pertaining to the Scrolls and Khirbet Qumran explored? Are there any discussions of the challenges facing modern Scroll researchers? Does the exhibition actually enable visitors to understand the nature and working methods of archaeologists, historians and others involved in research on the scrolls? In sum, is the exhibition intellectually honest?įinally, there is the question of the exhibition's overall equitability, a matter that has to be viewed in the light of salutary developments of the past decade pertaining to the ethics and social responsiveness of American museology. In the absence of any such caveats, and with thousands of citizens of Chicago and the surrounding areas streaming in daily to experience the exhibition, it has become a matter of pressing importance to determine the fidelity of these newly reiterated assurances and of the emphatic advance claims of Field Museum personnel that the exhibit would be fair and inclusive. In the new exhibition itself, however, there are no indications of supplementary placards or of any accompanying pamphlet such as were prepared at the Library of Congress. (See Scrolls from the Dead Sea, Field Museum edition, 2000 A.D., p. Amir Drori, the head of the Israel Antiquities Authority. And again a beautiful catalogue accompanies the exhibition, incorporating, in addition to photographs and descriptions of the several new manuscripts, almost all of the details of the original one - including even the above-cited words of assurance of the Librarian of Congress - except for the fact, however, that the words are no longer attributed to him at all, but rather to Gen. Six years later, after numerous peregrinations in the States and Europe, the exhibition has now arrived, with some additions and subtractions, at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, where it is being viewed daily by thousands of visitors. 343-354 the opposition to the traditional theory of scroll origins had already been reported on extensively in the New York Times beginning in 1989 and continuing through the period of the 1992 conference on the Scrolls held in New York City and sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences and the Oriental Institute.) (On the question of the success or failure of this attempt, see my remarks in Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?, pp. Since the descriptions for the individual exhibits, as prepared under the supervision of the Israel Antiquities Authority, presented arguments only for one theory of origin of the Scrolls - i.e, that they were the writings of a Jewish sect living at Khirbet Qumran, in proximity to the caves where the Scrolls were found - the Library attempted to live up to its above-cited assurances by posting additional placards in the exhibition hall and distributing an accompanying pamphlet, which at least gave viewers a glimpse of the serious opposition to the traditional theory already then developing among scholars. The exhibition enables visitors to understand the nature and working methods of archaeologists, historians, linguists and paleographers. We introduce the texts with transcriptions, translations and explanations explore the various theories concerning the nature of the Qumran community, its identity and its theology and discuss the challenges facing modern researchers as they struggle to reconstruct the texts and contexts from the thousands of fragments that remain. The catalog relates the story of the scrolls' discovery and illuminates their historical and archaeological context. Hailing this event in the beautiful catalogue that accompanied the exhibition, the Librarian of Congress, James H. In 1994, with the freeing of the Scrolls seemingly accomplished once and for all, some of the most interesting of them were put on display at the Library of Congress. By Norman Golb, Ludwig Rosenberger Professor in Jewish History and Civilization
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