contents - Description: Description: Description: Description ...

thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the LORD, which
is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither
shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to
keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot
against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I
deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name. He shall call upon
me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour
him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS
The ruins of the settlement of Khirbet Qumran stand on a cliff, a mile away from the
northwest shore of the Dead Sea, in the Jordan Valley. It is there, just south of Jericho, and
twenty miles east of Jerusalem, that one of the most important archaeological discoveries in
religious history was made.
Early in 1947, three Bedouin shepherds from the Ta’amireh tribe had their flock in the area,
and while Jum’a Muhammad was looking for a stray goat, he discovered a cave in the cliffs. He
threw a rock into the hole, and heard the sound of breaking pottery. Two days later, his cousin,
Muhammed Ahmed el-Hamed, returned and crawled into the small cave, which measured 6 feet
by 20 feet. The cave contained many earthenware jars, about 2 feet high and 10 inches wide.
Though many were broken, 9 were believed to be intact. Inside one of the jars, he discovered
three leather rolls wrapped in linen. In a subsequent visit, four more leather rolls were
discovered. These rolls turned out to be ancient scrolls, which have been referred to as the ‘Dead
Sea Scrolls.’
A Christian shopkeeper, Khalil Iskander Shahin (known as “Kando”), and George Ishaya
(Isaiah) Shamoun, members of the Syrian Jacobite Church in Jerusalem, heard about the
discovery and went to Qumran to verify the Bedouin’s claims, finding some scroll fragments.
They later met with the three shepherds to examine their findings.
One of the Bedouins sold 3 of the scrolls to the Muslim sheik of Bethlehem, and Kando
purchased the other 4, which consisted of a 22-foot long scroll containing the entire text of the
Book of Isaiah, the Genesis Apocryphon, the Habakkuk Commentary, and the Manual of
Discipline (also known as the Community Rule), which had split into two. These 4 were in turn
sold to the Syrian Metropolitan (Archbishop) Athanasius Yeshua Samuel, head of the Syrian
Jacobite Church. Samuel later sent George Isaiah back to Qumran to carry out secret extensive
excavations. It is believed that other scrolls were discovered, the contents of which have not been
revealed.
In September, 1947, Samuel took the four scrolls to Homs (north of Damascus), Syria, where
he met with the Patriarch of the Church. During his return trip, he again sent a team to Qumran.
Samuel got in touch with Professor Eleazar Sukenik of the Hebrew University’s Department
of Archaeology in order to have the age of the scrolls determined. Meanwhile, in November,
1947, Sukenik was contacted by someone identifying himself only as an Armenian antique
dealer, and he was able to purchase the other three scrolls, which turned out to be The War of the
Sons of Light With the Sons of Darkness (also called The War Scroll), the Book of Hymns (also
known as the Psalm of Thanksgiving Scroll), and another copy of Isaiah.