The DSS Exhibit in Milwaukee – A Review

I just returned from a visit to the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The exhibit is attracting tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of visitors. The crowd that comes is a cross-section of area demographics; male and female, young and old, white and black, Jew and Christian; if anything, the crowd is younger than average with respect to usual museum crowds. Most who visit concentrate their attention on the scrolls and all the doodads on display which are meant to conjure up life in Palestine from the third century bce to the first century ce. Ever the contrarian, I concentrated my attention on the visitors themselves, on overhearing their conversation.

The main topic of conversation: the exploration of the distance between what they had been taught about key figures, key events, and key documents of their religious heritage, based on their upbringing therein, and what the scrolls, papyri, ossuaries, coins and pottery vessels suggest about those very same things. An exercise in decipherment. The sleuthing is a riot to watch.

What does the DSS exhibit do to those who visit it? It needs to be noted that the exhibit covers more than the Dead Sea Scrolls. It introduces Palestine in the Greco-Roman antiquity in general. It showcases fragments of ancient manuscripts of both the Old and New Testaments. It displays magnificent examples of illustrations from the St. John’s Bible, a work in progress. There is a display of Bibles ranging from ancient fragments to copies of ESV and The Message. There are vintage photos of Kando, de Vaux, Harding, Trever, and Sukenik. A life in pictures of Golda Meir. All this and more is part of the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum. Talk about synecdoche.

I would say this, based on conversation I heard: among Jews and Christians of all stripes and ages, historical consciousness and religious faith are not only compatible, they are mutually reinforcing. An exhibit like this reaffirms the ties that bind for those who visit. If you went into the exhibit with a love for Israel, the Bible, and/or your religious heritage, Jew, Protestant, Catholic, whatever, you left the exhibit with your pieties affirmed.

I enjoyed the exhibit very much. It was fun to stand in front of the facsimile of the Isaiah scroll, 20 some feet in length. As soon as people found out that I could read the darn thing, I was fielding requests right and left.

“Where does it say, ‘You are my witnesses’?” asked one. “אתם עדי,” I replied. “You must be a JW.”

“Where does it say, ‘Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’?” “אביעד שר שלום. Here it is.” When I found it, I was surprised to find:

 אבי עד שר השלום

Learn something new everyday.

“Where is that passage that says,” ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed’?” “Here it is:

 והואה מחלל מפשענו מדוכא מעונתינו ומוסר שלומנו עליו ובחבורתיו נרפא לנו

The differences from MT are minor, but they are interesting.

It is great fun to be able to read Hebrew from a scroll more than 2000 years old. Next time I go (three other groups so far have requested my presence), I’m going to bone up on Pesher Habakkuk beforehand, so I can read from the facsimile of that on exhibit. 

Comments

[Steve Pable]

Was that "right and left" or "right *to* left"? ;)

Thanks for the review-- very helpful to get a bigger picture of the breadth of the exhibit, as well as an appreciation of the participant reaction. Because in many ways, that's what makes the whole display so significant. It's far different than just lingering over some old fossils or antiques. Indeed the emotional & spiritual response of the viewer becomes an integral part of the exhibit.

[JohnFH]

I find the old stuff abnormally interesting. But people's reaction to it is fascinating in its own right.