We've all heard of them, we know them, we love them, the Dead Sea Scrolls, ladies and gentlemen, but what are they? We read about Essenes, about a Teacher of Righteousness and Sons of Light and Sons of Darkness, about a Zadokite document, a Temple Scroll, a Copper Scroll, we read more about each of these and we realize that our interpretation is significantly colored by the author. We are indebted to him and dependent on him, and nothing which doesn't fit his worldview will enter his exposition on the scroll or scrolls which are his subject matter. We watch him poke around in the dirt and we see the smug look on the workman's face as he holds the wheelbarrow.
This is not intended as an indictment of the scholarship of the Dead Sea Scrolls- they have, at their own snail's pace, given us the benefit of their careful and painstaking work; but now that they've presented their work, interpretation is anyone's prerogative. It is because a crucial connection between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible has been overlooked that I have undertaken to write this book, and by supplying this missing connection, I believe that many of the pieces that are scattered can be fused together. The catalyst to do this is faith in what the Bible teaches, which is the right of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to the Promised Land.
From "The Sciences" magazine, published by the New York Academy of Sciences (March/April 1993), p 8: "In all likelihood neither (Robert H.) Eisenman (co-author of The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered) nor anyone else will ever learn the truth about the scrolls." Unfortunately, much of the focus has been on making a connection between the scrolls and Christianity, usually by speculation and a certain amount of "healthy skepticism." But how healthy is a skepticism which glosses over potential truth?
From Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, edited by Hershel Shanks, p 237, "The Mystery of the Copper Scroll," by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr.:
The total amount of gold and silver (listed in the Copper Scroll) is so large that the question arises whether the treasure was imaginary. Milik
believed so and compared it to ancient documents from Jewish folklore purporting to describe the concealment of the treasure and sacred vessels from the First Temple. Documents of that kind, however, are very different in character from the Copper Scroll. Typically, they refer to Moses and the holy objects whose construction he supervised, such as the Ark, the incense altar, the lampstand (menorah), etc. They often credit Jeremiah or some other famous figure of the past with concealing the sacred treasures. There is nothing of this kind in the Copper Scroll. It is plodding and businesslike. Neither Moses nor Jeremiah is there, nor is any famous relic- neither the Ark nor the ashes of the red heifer. In fact, it is extremely difficult to imagine that anyone would have gone to the trouble to prepare a costly sheet of pure copper and imprint it with such an extensive and sober list of locations unless he had been entrusted with hiding a real and immensely valuable treasure and wanted to make a record of his work that could withstand the ravages of time.
So close. Why is Jeremiah denied here? Because it's "plodding and businesslike." Can't a prophet make a list? But Jeremiah is, as Mr. McCarter mentions, a "famous figure of the past" associated with hidden treasure. Any good detective would follow up on this lead, and history is essentially detective work.
To date, the only other translation of the Copper Scroll besides Milik's is that of John M. Allegro, known to some people as the author of a particularly unique book, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, in which he depicts Jesus as a code name for a type of Israelite peyote. An interesting idea. Anyone who has read Revelation would have to look twice at the theory. But in his book The Treasure of the Copper Scroll, which includes the (disputed by Milik) translation and transcription of the scroll, Allegro mentions the prophet Jeremiah The Treasure of the Copper Scroll
[From: Allegro, John M., The Treasure of the Copper Scroll, Doubleday, Garden City, NY 1960 pp 56-57. All parenthetical notes are Allegro's.}
It was not until six months after the opening and the first decipherment of the copper scroll that news of its general contents was released from Jerusalem to the general public. The initial reaction of most people was to dismiss the scroll as a fairy tale, and this, indeed, was the purport of the first press announcement made from Jerusalem.
Tales of buried treasure are to be found in any folklore, and Jewish literature has them in full measure. There they largely concern the fabulous wealth of King Solomon and the Temple he built. The Bible dwells lovingly on the splendour of this building, lavishly equipped in all respects, and the pride of its chief architect (I Ki 6). Its double doorway, some fifteen feet wide, was inlaid with gold, as were the walls, panelled with cedar and engraved with palm trees, open flowers, chains and cherubim. Around the main hall were placed items of sacred furniture: the golden candlesticks, the table for the shewbread, and a small cedarwood altar overlaid in gold leaf. In the innermost sanctum, the Holy of Holies, stood the great olivewood cherubim, fifteen feet high and sheathed in gold, guarding the Temple's most sacred possession, the Ark of the Covenant. This was a wooden box, said to contain the two stone tablets engraved with the Ten Commandments. The sacred utensils included shovels and fleshhooks, tongs, cups, snuffers, basins, spoons, and firepans, most of which had their equivalents in the later Temple in existence at the time of our scroll (cf. Item 12).
Solomon's Temple was destroyed by the Assyrian armies of Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century B.C., and the disposal of its wealth forms the basis of many a legend, handed down from generation to generation. The Second Book of Maccabees, for example, makes Jeremiah the chief custodian of the treasure after the fall of Jerusalem. Following a divine warning, the prophet "commanded the Tabernacle and the Ark to accompany him" and went to Mount Nebo on the eastern side of the Dead Sea. There he found a cave in which he placed the Tabernacle, the Ark, and the incense altar , and then sealed its entrance. Even the prophet's followers did not know its whereabouts, but he promised that it would be revealed when "God shall gather His people together again, and receive them unto His mercy" (2: 4-8). Another version elaborates the story still further: only Aaron would bring forth the Ark, and only Moses would be allowed to touch the stone tablets inside. The location of the cave is here specified as "between the two mountains on which Moses and Aaron lay buried" (Torrey, JBL Monogr. I, 36).
[We can only speculate on what peculiar iconoclasm causes Allegro to refer to the Babylonian armies which destroyed Jerusalem as "Assyrian," which is a different empire.]
and directs his reader to the apocryphal 2nd Book of Maccabees, (2:1-8)2nd Book of Maccabees (2:1-8):
[From: Goodspeed, Edgar J., trans., The Apocrypha, Vintage Books, NY, 1959 (1 & 2 Maccabees, pp. 373-493).
It is also found in the records that the prophet Jeremiah ordered those who were carried away to take some of the fire, as has been described, and that after giving them the Law, the prophet charged those who were carried away not to forget the Lord's commands, and not to be led astray in their minds when they saw gold and silver idols and their ornamentation. And with other similar exhortations he told that the Law should not pass from their hearts. It was also in the writing that the prophet, in obedience to a revelation, gave orders that the tent and the ark should accompany him, and that he went away to the mountain where Moses went up and beheld God's inheritance . And Jeremiah came and found a cave-dwelling, and he took the tent and the ark and the incense altar into it, and he blocked up the door. And some of those who followed him came up to mark the road, and they could not find it. But when Jeremiah found it out, he blamed them and said, "The place shall be unknown until God gathers the congregation of his people together and shows his mercy. Then the Lord will show where they are, and the glory of the Lord will appear, as they were shown in the days of Moses, and when Solomon asked that the place might be made very sacred."
[Jeremiah, keep in mind, was the prophet at the time of the destruction of the first Temple by Nebuchadnezzar's armies, around 586 BC. There followed a 70 year long captivity in Babylon which ended when the city was taken by the Medeo-Persian armies in 539 BC and the Persian king, Cyrus, issued an edict allowing the Jews to return and rebuild their Temple. The rebuilding of the Temple by Nehemiah, mentioned here, was in 515 BC.]
As we are about to celebrate the purification of the temple, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Chislev, we think it necessary to inform you, so that you too may observe the Camping Out festival and the kindling of the fire, when Nehemiah, who built the temple and the altar, offered sacrifices. For when our forefathers were being taken to Persia, the pious priests of that day took some of the fire on the altar and hid it secretly in the hollow of an empty cistern, where they made it secure, so that the place was unknown to anyone. Many years after, when it pleased God, Nehemiah was commissioned by the king of Persia, and sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden the fire to get it. But when they reported to us that they could not find any fire but only muddy water, he ordered them to dip some out and bring it to him. And when the things to be sacrificed had been put in place, Nehemiah ordered the priests to sprinkle the water on the wood and the things that were laid on it. And when this was done and some time had passed, and the sun, which had been clouded over, shone out, a great blaze was kindled, so that they all wondered. And the priests uttered a prayer while the sacrifice was being consumed- the priests and all present, Jonathan leading and the rest responding, as Nehemiah did. And this was the prayer: "O Lord, Lord God, creator of all things, who are terrible and strong and upright and merciful, who alone are king and good, the only patron, who alone are upright and almighty and eternal, who save Israel from every evil, who chose our forefathers and sanctified them, accept this sacrifice on behalf of all your people Israel, and watch over your allotment, and make it holy. Gather together our scattered people, set at liberty those who are in slavery among the heathen, look upon those who are despised and abhorred, and let the heathen know that you are our God. Afflict our oppressors and those who are violent in their arrogance. Plant your people in your holy place, as Moses said." Then the priests struck up the hymns. And when the things that were sacrificed were consumed, Nehemiah ordered them to pour the water that was left on large stones. And when this was done, a flame was kindled, but when the light shone back from the altar, it went out. And when the thing became known, and the king of Persia was told that in the place where the priests that were deported had hidden the fire, water had appeared, and with it Nehemiah's people had burned up the things they sacrificed, the king, after investigating the matter, made the place a sacred inclosure, and the king exchanged many different gifts with his favorites. Nehemiah's people called this Nephtar, which is translated "Purification," but most people call it Nephtal.
, an account of Jeremiah hiding things (the ark of the covenant for one) in an unidentified cave.
Item 9. In the cistern which is nineteen cubits in front of the eastern gateway, in it are vessels, and in the hollow that is in it: ten talents (The Treasure of the Copper Scroll, Allegro, p 35).
I'm just pointing out that things are hidden in cisterns and their hollows, in this instance vessels, which could be used to carry oil.
Why don't scroll scholars follow up on this, as a lead if nothing else?
(I have been able to turn up one reference to Jeremiah's scrolls in the scholarship of the Dead Sea Scrolls- in The Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls, by Hugh J. Schonfield. Ironically, this author, like Allegro, is destined to be remembered for a quirky interpretation of the New Testament- The Passover Plot, in which he argues that Jesus faked his death in order to be the Messiah because He knew that the world needed a Messiah, was willing to undergo the pain of a crucifixion, but lacked the faith to go through with the death part. [Actually, it's not such a quirky interpretation- it is prominent in certain Gnostic writings.] However, his mention of Jeremiah's scroll in The Secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls is brief, is not pursued within our context, and gets lost in his theory of the "secret code" behind the Hebrew of the scrolls.)
Now, Scroll scholarship agrees on certain basics: the Qumran community were priests, and therefore obviously concerned about God, about the Temple, and about Israel. Obviously, Jeremiah was also concerned about God, about the Temple, and about Israel. But was he concerned with priests?