Recently I was driving along Interstate 605 in Los Angeles
County when I glimpsed a billboard mentioning
”
The Dead Sea Scrolls.
”
Recently I was driving along Interstate 605 in Los Angeles County when I glimpsed a billboard mentioning “The Dead Sea Scrolls.” Traveling too fast to get the details, I checked the Internet the next day and discovered that Azusa Pacific University was hosting a fascinating exhibit that was scheduled to close on July 18.
“Treasures of the Bible: the Dead Sea Scrolls and Beyond” was located in the Hugh and Hazel Darling Library, transformed into a setting reminiscent of an ancient Egyptian tomb surrounded with photographs of the Palestinian wilderness. The University president and several faculty members narrated an 11-minute introductory video.
In 1947, an Arab youth searching for a lost goat near an ancient ruin now called Khirbet Qumran made a remarkable discovery. Hidden in caves near the northwest corner of the Dead Sea were large jars that turned out to contain nearly 900 scrolls.
Left untouched for almost 2,000 years, these are the earliest documentary evidence of the Hebrew Bible (to Christians, “The Old Testament”). The exhibit had several parts.
The Inspired Word focused on five fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls on display, precious artifacts that belong to the University. These ancient fragments of irregular shape and smaller than a dinner plate, were subjected to infrared photography, allowing the writing to be read.
Scholars have been able to identify them as portions of the books of Deuteronomy, Daniel, Leviticus and possibly Exodus. It is remarkable how accurately they match in content the next oldest biblical texts available, which were written nearly 1,000 years later.
The Translated Word explained that the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek in the third century B.C.E. “to preserve Jewish law for scholarly study and support Jewish instruction in new cultural settings.” Christians, too, regularly translated the Bible into the “vernacular” (language of ordinary people) to help their mission of spreading the Gospel and making converts.
Among the examples of the earliest Bibles on display was a Vulgate (Latin) version attributed to St. Jerome (late fourth century,) the most influential book in the Middle Ages. Around 1380 a team under the direction of John Wycliffe began work on the first English translation. Church authorities, however, outlawed translations of the Bible without permission and penalized those who owned or even read copies in English.
The Printed Word explained how the invention of the printing press “greatly increased the production of texts in any language.” As the Bible began to circulate among the populace more widely, the Catholic Church faced challenges to its authority. Many important examples were displayed, among them the following:
– A Gutenberg Bible (1455) was the first printed using moveable type.
– A Luther Bible (1594) is still the standard translation among millions of German-speakers.
n A Tyndale Bible (1552), written in English, was produced in Germany to avoid punishment by English authorities. Tyndale was captured, imprisoned and executed for his efforts.
– A Coverdale Bible (1535) was the first English translation given Royal approval. It was part of Henry VIII’s establishment of an independent English Church.
– A Great Bible (1540) named for its large size, 15 inches by 10 inches, was approved for use in Church of England parishes.
– A Rheims-Douay Bible (1610) was produced by Roman Catholics who had fled to France, the first English version authorized for use by Catholics.
– A King James Bible (1611) that became the standard English translation for centuries because of the beauty of its language.
The Word in the New World focused on the Bible in the United States. To facilitate missionary work among the Native Americans, John Eliot produced a version in the Algonquin language in 1676. There were also pages on display of Bibles written in various other native languages.
During the American Revolution, it was illegal to print any King James Bibles in the colonies. To fill this void, a printer named Robert Aitken began publishing a pocket-sized version in 1782.
To boost sales, he secured endorsements of both congressional chaplains and got Congress to issue a proclamation recommending “this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States.” It was the only Bible in U.S. history to ever receive such an official position.
In a section on Technological Developments, there was a tiny Microform Bible, the complete text readable through a microscope, which had traveled to the moon and back aboard Apollo 14 in 1970. A hint of things to come was a digital Bible displayed on the screen of a cell phone.
In explaining the importance of this exhibition, author William Yarchin explains that it concerned “the remarkable story of a book. It also concerned the people who wrote the book, copied it, transmitted it and translated it, sometimes at the peril of their lives.
The Bible has been more widely published, circulated, and translated in more languages and dialects than any other book in history.”
