Never forgotten

Labor Day weekend ... gone but not forgotten. This was the weekend my husband and I traveled to St. Paul, Minn., to see the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. That was the primary reason for the trip. But along the way, coming and going, it was a blessed experience. We spent Saturday night at Owatonna, Minn., and attended church the next morning in the St. Paul suburb of Maplewood. Through music and the preaching of The Word, we participated in a very uplifting and powerful worship service at Trinity Baptist Church (Baptist General Conference). Communion/Lord's Supper was held in the middle of the service, rather than at the end, and joyous music surrounded it. Two of  the songs (found on You.Tube.com) are below ....
 "Lead me to the Cross" by Brooke Frasier, 2006:



 "The Power of the Cross" by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend, 2005:


 

The message, "A Clear Sign of Salvation," was taken from 1 John 2: 3-6.  Obedience is a fruit of the spirit ... Obedience is a result of our salvation. Our love for God shows itself in our obedience to Him, His commandments, His instructions, His will.


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Sunday afternoon we found our way to the Science Museum of Minnesota and spent two hours just examining the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition, which encompasses way more than the scrolls. There really weren't that many scroll fragments to see, probably about a half dozen. And we couldn't take pictures and postcards weren't available either. Other down sides (we thought) of the exhibit was its use of B.C.E. and C.E., which stand for Before Common Era and Common Era.

The exhibit was mind-boggling. It opened your eyes to what life was like when Jesus walked the earth, what people were like, lifestyles, education, how the scrolls were made and who was responsible for copying them, why scrolls were read, different versions of Scripture, how days were determined, and much more.

Among notes I took:

• Only about 10 percent of Judeans could even write their own name.
• The Pharisees/upper class elite did most of the scroll copying and reading
• Jewish women did not wear jewelry during mourning
• The solar (sun) and lunar (moons) were both used in determining days, hence resulting in lots of confusion, especially when festival time rolled around
• There were really two burials. The first burial allows the bodies to decay; the second burial is permanent - the bones are gathered; the wealthy people placed these bones in stone boxes called ossuaries that may have had family names or other inscriptions on them, and then housed in the family tomb.    

Going through the exhibit, which included use of personal audio phones, I began to think of C.E. as Common Error rather than Common Era.

The original scroll is copied and edited and a new edition is made. There was always an original work, but with all the copying and editing and recopying, error was common, and since only a few people could write, let alone read, the reading of the Scriptures was done by the upper class elite or the Pharisees. It is little wonder the majority of the peoples heard God's Truths at all when His truth was open to such widespread interpretation.


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Page excerpts from the new handwritten St. John's Bible were viewable as well. Wow! the book is huge,magnificent, whimsical ... a creative masterpiece. Artwork depicts events of recent times. It is truly an exceptional work.