Dave W's chit chat thread

[Dave-W]

View of the dead sea from atop Masada. Jordan is on the far side of the water.

 

[Dave-W]

The other side of the mountain, where the Romans came up to re-take it.

 

[Dave-W]

Returning to the bottom of the mountain, this is the visitor center and restaurant.

 

[Dave-W]

These stones were the lottery that was drawn up when it became evident that Rome was going to break thru. The person who drew the bad lot was to kill everyone in the compound and then commit suicide. That was because Rome would have made their lives living hell had they been captured alive.

 

[Dave-W]

After leaving Masada, we went a bit farther north to the site of the Qumran community, a kind of doomsday cult started in the first century bc and finally destroyed by Rome circa 70 ad.

This is Sonia, our tour guide. She is explaining how the Dead Sea Scrolls were found by a Bedouin shepherd boy in 1947. How God had kept those manuscripts hidden from the world for almost 2000 years, only to be brought to the light of day when Israel became a nation again.

It was interesting. In Matt 5 our Lord said this:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ "

No where was the phrase "hate your enemy" found. For 1800 years scholars were looking for it. Eventually they figured it was some scribal error in transmitting the text. But when they started translating the Dead Sea Scrolls, there it was. In the Charter of the Qumran community.

There are fragments of every book of the OT. Ruth was missing until just last year when it was found among some of the scraps NOT translated yet. And there are a few copies of Isaiah. Many noted orthodox Jewish scholars have suggested that Isaiah was a fake, written AFTER Christ was crucified since chapter 53 so closely described the crucifixion and resurrection. But there it was, and the parchment dated to almost 200 bc.

Good stuff!

 

[Dave-W]

These hills are full of small caves, many of which contained the scrolls.

 

[Dave-W]

This is the cave where the first scrolls were found.

 

[Dave-W]

This is leading back to where even more archeological digs are happening.

There is a visitor center that displays several scrolls and has a video of reconstructed life in the community. But since everything is very light-sensitive they allow no pictures.

 

[Dave-W]

Ah yes - here is one more pic from Qumran, but I did not take this one. It is of my Dear Wife Sharon and myself by another one on the tour.

 

[gerbilwoman]

Nice pictures!

 

[redleghunter]

View attachment 238756

This was a couple swimming in the Dead Sea behind the hotel.

Did you have a nice 'float' in the Dead Sea?

 

[redleghunter]

View attachment 239123

After leaving Masada, we went a bit farther north to the site of the Qumran community, a kind of doomsday cult started in the first century bc and finally destroyed by Rome circa 70 ad.

This is Sonia, our tour guide. She is explaining how the Dead Sea Scrolls were found by a Bedouin shepherd boy in 1947. How God had kept those manuscripts hidden from the world for almost 2000 years, only to be brought to the light of day when Israel became a nation again.

It was interesting. In Matt 5 our Lord said this:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ "

No where was the phrase "hate your enemy" found. For 1800 years scholars were looking for it. Eventually they figured it was some scribal error in transmitting the text. But when they started translating the Dead Sea Scrolls, there it was. In the Charter of the Qumran community.

There are fragments of every book of the OT. Ruth was missing until just last year when it was found among some of the scraps NOT translated yet. And there are a few copies of Isaiah. Many noted orthodox Jewish scholars have suggested that Isaiah was a fake, written AFTER Christ was crucified since chapter 53 so closely described the crucifixion and resurrection. But there it was, and the parchment dated to almost 200 bc.

Good stuff!

Read this book last year:

https://www.amazon.com/Second-Thoughts-Dead-Sea-Scrolls/dp/1597527009

By Biblical scholar FF Bruce. He does a nice job of breaking down the earlier Qumran discoveries and devotes most of the book to what was discovered of the Qumran community.

 

[Dave-W]

Did you have a nice 'float' in the Dead Sea?

Salt content is so high it would have made my blood pressure dangerously high.

So no.

 

[Dave-W]

By Biblical scholar FF Bruce. He does a nice job of breaking down the earlier Qumran discoveries and devotes most of the book to what was discovered of the Qumran community.

Our guide did too. She noted that within the previous few months they finally found fragments of the book of either Esther or Ruth, completing the entire canon of OT scripture. She also went into the Jewish scholars that insisted Isaiah had to have been written AFTER christianity got started, but the DSS Isaiah fragments dated to about 200 bc.

 

[redleghunter]

She noted that within the previous few months they finally found fragments of the book of either Esther or Ruth, completing the entire canon of OT scripture.

Thank you I did not know that.

She also went into the Jewish scholars that insisted Isaiah had to have been written AFTER christianity got started, but the DSS Isaiah fragments dated to about 200 bc.

Yes that did stop up a few mouths. I really like the virtual Great Isaiah scroll at The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls site:
Digital Dead Sea Scrolls

 

[Tarvorok]

I'm not sure if I can add anything related to the topic, but I just finished installing two one terabyte hard drives into my secondary gaming rig and now I need to do the mundane task of reinstalling Windows. (That's always a joy.)

 

[Dave-W]

My wife brought me cupcakes for my birthday today:

 

[Tigger45]

Happy birthday Dave!

 

[Dave-W]

Thanks!

 

[Bumble Bee]

Yum happy birthday.