The exhibition, developed by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in collaboration with Montreal's Museum of Archaeologiy and History, where it was shown earlier this year, covers a period of roughly 1,900 years, from the 12th century before the birth of Jesus to the seventh century AD. It's a span that includes seminal events of ancient Western civilization -- the destruction of the First Temple and the exile of the Jews to Babylonia, their subsequent return and the construction of the Second Temple, and the schisms in Judaism that ultimately gave rise to Christianity.
The Ottawa exhibition even contains scroll fragments that have not yet been displayed In Israel, including the so-called Isaiah B portion.
For Adolpho Roitman, the 47-year-old curator of the Shrine of the Book, which houses the Israel Museum's entire collection of Dead Sea Scroll fragments, the artifacts on display speak as much to Christians as they do to Jews.
"These aren't just relics," he said yesterday, during a promotional visit to Toronto. "They tell us about how people actually lived and the issues they faced. And it's part of our common cultural inheritance. So they belong to all civilizations. And that's the purpose of the exhibition -- to understand the human beings who lie behind the artifacts."
For example, lamps from the early Christian era often contain images of either the Menorah, the seven-pointed Jewish candelabra, or the Christian cross -- evidence of common cultural roots. "That's what the exhibition represents," Roitman said, "a meeting of cultures."
In academic circles, a debate about the authenticity of the biblical historical narrative is now raging, pitting so-called minimalists (those who think the Bible is largely a good piece of fiction) versus the maximalists (those who insist on its literal truth). Roitman, who is also an ordained conservative rabbi, says he puts himself somewhere in the middle of this argument. He does not reject the biblical account, but does concede that at the time that most historians believe it was written, there was a clear ideological dimension to the project.
At the same time, the Dead Sea Scrolls -- now numbering more than 900 in all, they were first discovered by an Arab youth in 1947 in the caves at Qum'Ran, near the Dead Sea -- as well as the House of David stele and the carved pomegranate used by high priests in the Temple, clearly belie the minimalist stance that nothing in the Bible is historically reliable.
Most of the scrolls are believed to have been written by a break-away group of deeply devout Jews, who in the first century before Christ rejected Temple rites and moved to the western shores of the Dead Sea. Some historians believe these were Essenes; others think they were Saducees. "It's like looking at the history of a political party," explains Roitman. "One group breaks away, but keeps some policies of the old party. Then another group splits and it keeps some of both. But this happened 2,000 years ago, so it's very difficult to establish the facts."
Ancient Treasures and the Dead Sea Scrolls continues to April 12 (819-776-7000 or 1-800-555-5621).
