The land of Israel may have more museums per capita than any other country in the world. But of all the museums in the country, none can compare with the Shrine of the Book and its sacred treasure. Designed to mimic the clay lids of the jars that contained the world-famous Dead Sea Scrolls, the museum houses Israel’s greatest national treasure.
You’ve heard the story. A teenage Ta’amireh Bedouin, Muhammed Ahmed el-Hamed, eased himself into a cave on the eastern edge of the Judean wilderness. He was seeking treasure–and what treasure he found! The first three manuscripts he found included the now-famed Isaiah Scroll (IQIsa). These scrolls were sold for #P7 ($28.35) to a monk in the Syrian Orthodox Church, the oldest extant manuscripts of the Scriptures–older by 1,000 years!
But the monk, Butrus Sowmy, didn’t know that. He needed help to decipher the strange letters. He thought he could find that help at the American Schools of Oriental Research, on Saladin Road just north of Herod’s Gate. Due to the Jewish-Arab tensions at the time (it was only months before the birth of the state of Israel), many of the personnel at the School had gone elsewhere. John Trever, studying the plants and animals of the Bible, had been appointed Acting Director.
On a cold February afternoon, Sowmy and his brother, Ibrahim, laid three scrolls of cream-colored leather on Trever’s desk. One was considerably larger than the other two, about 101/2″ long and 6″ in diameter. To this manuscript the scholar first turned his attention.
It unrolled easily. Because he had left his camera at the Palestine Archeological Museum, the best Trever could do was meticulously copy a few lines of the scroll and, using this, seek to determine what he was looking at. The script was puzzling to him. Finding a well-preserved section, he painstakingly reproduced the text from a portion near the bottom of the fourth column from the end.
After the two men had left with their precious cargo (having no idea how precious it was), John Trever and another Fellow at the School, William Brownlee, began examining the precious scrap. What could it be?
The lines that were copied included the double occurrence of an unusual form llw’. Literally, it would be translated, “by not.” The Hebrew dictionary gave five columns on the common word lo’, “not.” At the end was a paragraph including every reference to llw’ in the Old Testament. Two references in Chronicles didn’t match; nor did another in Amos 6:13. But the next reference showed two occurrences in Isaiah 65:1. Trever writes, “With growing expectancy, I turned to it (in his Hebrew Bible). There, word for word, and almost letter for letter, was exactly what I had copied from the manuscript! It was a scroll of Isaiah, without a doubt!”
A facsimile of this 24-foot scroll occupies the central place of honor in the Shrine of the Book (see inset). On my first visit there, I asked the attendant if he could show me the section of the scroll which we call chapter 53. As I began to quote it (in case he was unfamiliar with this portion), he turned on his heel and stalked off, spitting out the words over his shoulder, “You Christians! You’re all the same!”
What irony! Of all the ancient Bible scrolls discovered at Qumran, the best preserved was the roll of Isaiah–and he, the most eloquent and exacting portraitist of the suffering Messiah! I, one of the despised goyim, had discovered Israel’s Light, and He had illuminated my dark Gentile heart. Yet here, on public display in the heart of Israel–a heart still veiled in unbelief–was her most majestic portrait of Him.
Oh, the verse that showed John Trever he was holding in his hands the book of Isaiah? Isaiah 65:1 declares:”I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not: I said, Behold Me, behold Me, unto a nation (goy) that was not called by My name.”
Seven centuries after Isaiah laid down his pen, Paul, who met the Messiah on the Damascus Road, quoted this verse (Rom. 10:20). It was God’s intention, he said, that by saving Gentiles the Lord would move the hearts of Israel to seek their own Messiah. “Behold Me!” He pleads to us. If we do, those who would never think of looking in Isaiah–whether Jew or Gentile–will see the same lovely likeness of Him reflected in our lives.