That's what a neighbor asked when she cancelled her Friday night plans to go with us to the lecture and exhibit of Biblical treasures.
Every seat was taken and people stood around the wall. Over 250 people came out to learn more about the veracity of God's word.
Fellowship Bible Church NWA sponsored the event with Azusa Pacific University (from the greater Los Angeles area) and the generous Green family (who own Hobby Lobby and The Green Collection, the world's largest private collection of rare biblical texts and artifacts).
THE EXHIBIT
The antiquities on display included two fragments from the Dead Sea scrolls, a Cuneiform clay tablet from the Sumerian civilization (1950-1750BC), a Hebrew scroll written on deerskin from the 15th century, a complete copy of the first King James Bible, a leaf from both the Guttenberg Bible (written in Latin, mid-1400's) and the Tyndale Bible (the first Bible to be translated from Greek/Hebrew to English, mid-1500's), an early Geneva Bible, a small "Bishop's Bible" that Queen Mary ordered toward the end of the 1500's...and the first American Bible, the Aitken Bible from the late 1700's.
Tyndale's 1496 prayer was answered two years later when King Henry VIII ordered a Bible, which was then written based on Tyndale's translation. In 1611, the prayer was answered again as the Bible ordered by King James also drew from Tyndale's translation. In fact, all the Protestant Bibles printed in English lean heavily on William Tyndale's efforts.
Before the Bedouin goat herder chunked a rock into this Qumran cave, our earliest Bible was dated 1,000 AD. But the Lord gave us new evidence in 1946 when this cave gave up text from EVERY book of the Old Testament except Esther. This new evidence could be dated TO A THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE CHRIST!
Cave One gave us seven complete scrolls, including every chapter of Isaiah. Cave Four in 1952 gave us 122 Bible scrolls or fragments and 15,000 fragments from Biblical and extra-Biblical books.
The scrolls were written by the Essenes, a communal scholar/scribes sect of Judaism who drew aside to dedicate themselves to prayer, expressions of faith, and to preserve God's Word. One group of these Essenes lived close to Qumran. It is thought that in 70AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, they came through Qumran on the way to destroy Masada and killed the Essenes. Many of their scrolls were torn into pieces.
Azusa Pacific University sent this man, Dr. Robert Mullins, and Dr. Robert Duke...both archaeologists with Ph.D.'s in Biblical history, as well as about six additional staff who had lovingly carried the exhibits. In fact, one prof held the Dead Sea Scrolls in his lap for the flight rather than check them through the airlines. They all stood beside the artifacts for three twelve-hour days, explaining and interacting with the public.
Dr. Mullins gave the lecture and as he bounded to the podium, our church blasted the theme from Indiana Jones. This professor's gray hair might be in a ponytail, but his passion for God and his enthusiasm for what he does is like a youth. Take a look at Dr. Mullins HERE.
The good teacher's qualifications? He teaches at Azusa but has lived over twenty years in Israel, got his Ph.D. from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote his dissertation in Hebrew, speaks fluent modern Hebrew, and over many summers has excavated numerous sites in Israel.
MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS
*We loved hearing Dr. Mullins cause Scripture and archaeology to mesh. It's exciting to hear him tell how a discovery close to Dan became the first time King David was authenticated by evidence outside of Scripture. Something belonging to Tiglath-Pileser (1115-1077BC), an Aramean King of Damascus, had the inscription: "House of David".
*We should all appreciate the Green family because they underwrite a "Green Scholars Initiative" program which trains undergrads in the project of reading/translating/publishing those 15,000 fragments from the Qumran caves (as well as other projects). More than 60 universities around the world participate in this initiative. Hollywood may tout fictional characters in "National Treasure" and "The Da Vinci Code", but the Green Scholars are true treasure hunters.
*Did you know the Aitken Bible was known as "The Bible of the Revolution"? I didn't. England had banned the colonies from printing a Bible, wanting instead for us to import Bibles and pay taxes. The Colonial Congress tried but failed to import 20,000 Bibles from Holland and Scotland. Then a brave Scottish-American named Robert Aitken in Philadelphia bucked the King and undertook the printing task. By 1782 the colonists' dream of a Bible in their language became reality. Today this book is very rare; of the original printing of 10,000 copies, only an estimated 30-40 remain.
*One of the exhibit tables included a tiny microfiche Bible that had been taken to the moon. We thought the exhibitor said it was taken on the Apollo 13 mission. A friend beside me had worked on that flight in 1970 and rightly said "But that flight didn't make it to the moon." The professor smiled and said "You're right!" Houston had forgotten to include it on Apollo 12...then Apollo 13 packed it, but something malfunctioned and the mission returned to earth...and finally the Bible made it to the moon on Apollo 14.
When Dr. Mullins began his talk, he quoted Jesus to say if we remain silent about God, the rocks will cry out. They do. The layers of civilization have piled up, but the discoveries declare that what God has said is TRUE.
If you google Wiki's page on "Dead Sea Scrolls", you will see that not everyone has a piece of this treasure. Azusa Pacific has 5 fragments, the University of Chicago has 1, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has 8, a private collection has 60, the Museum of Jordan has over 25, and the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem/government of Israel have over 15,000.
Azusa's fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls are very special. One is from 8th chapter of the Deuteronomy scroll. The piece of scroll proclaims the same thing Jesus repeats when He tells the devil "man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God". (Deuteronomy 8:3/Matthew 4:4)
And all God's people said "AMEN!".
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