Sarah Karissa and Nathan had the great experience of seeing the magnificent Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit which is at the Milwaukee Public Museum until June 5.   Get thee to the exhibit!

Here are some of the highlights of  what we saw

• many original Dead Sea Scrolls fragments. (I nearly set off the alarms leaning over the glass case trying to read the Hebrew on one manuscript!)
• facsimilie of the great Isaiah scroll – awesome!  (Find out how it was purchased through an ad in the Wall Street Journal here.)
• John C. Trever’s fortuitous photography of the great Isaiah scroll.  His story was very interesting. Many small details seemingly hap and stance resulted in what is now the best facsimile of the original mansucript of the Isaiah scroll. His photos remain the best source for study of the scroll. You can read about Dr. Trever’s life here. Scroll down to the Introduction to read about the production of the facsimile through the work of Dr. Weston Fields
• According to the exhibit presentation we very likely saw the ossuary of Simon of Cyrene (Mark 15:21-22)
• Great archeological pieces of the intertestamental era and an enlightening presentation of the history that led up to the New Testament era and the production of the DSS manuscripts and their storage near the Dead Sea and the community of Qumran.
• A nice representation of the continued life of the Bible and Bible Translation including German, English, Algonquin and Ho Chunk (native American language translations) and even a nice display of the new St. John’s Bible being produced on parchment in a similar fashion to many of the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves.