Yesterday, Kathy and I had a once -in-a-lifetime encounter with the ancient world.  It came when we visited the Milwaukee Public Museum to see “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible: Ancient Artifacts,  Timeless Treasures.”   I had read up on the exhibit and interviewed its curator on the morning show,  but what really made us bound and determined to see the exhibit was the way that our friend Kate Barrow breathlessly described it.  We knew right then and there that this was something we simply should not and could not miss.

It was first and foremost a chance to view actual Dead Sea Scrolls. . .  not facsimiles but actual scrolls (or to be more precise,  fragments of actual scrolls).   It was also a chance to see other artifacts from the era when the scrolls are  believed to have been written.   The exhibit then ended with a remarkable collection of Bibles, including a page from an actual Guttenberg Bible – an actual Martin Luther Bible – a King James Bible from the era of King James himself – and several pages from a magnificent new Bible being created for St. John’s University that combines calligraphy and artwork in stunning new ways.

The top of the marquee is of course the actual Dead Sea Scroll fragments,  and there is something breathtaking about seeing them. . .  or just being in the same room with them.  (The importance of this part of the exhibit is heightened by the fact that the room in which the actual scroll fragments are viewed is kept especially cool and especially dark- the better to insure that they are preserved as perfectly as possible.)   There is also a marvelous on-screen video in which one can see how the fragments are identified and reconstructed-  a painstaking process requiring incredible patience and skill.    There are also some fascinating facsimiles, including one of the largest single Dead Sea Scroll, known as the Isaiah Scroll,  which when fully unrolled spans the length of one long wall.   (Certain important verses have their English translation listed below-  such as the passage “For unto us a Child is Born.”  It was incredible to see that passage – so well-known by now – as it appeared on this ancient scroll, knowing that centuries earlier someone whose name is utterly lost to history wrote these words so carefully and expertly.)

Seeing the scrolls was amazing- but so was seeing some of the artifacts from this era.   There was pottery,  beautiful ossuaries (small burial urns), glassware,  coins and mosaics.  But my very favorite artifacts were the frying pans!   That’s right- there were two different cooking pans that – except for being a little rough and unpolished looking – could have been in any modern day kitchen.  Nothing in that entire exhibit brought history thrillingly to life as much as those two frying pans!

The exhibit climaxed with a collection of Bibles that was as moving as anything else we saw….  and it was especially neat to see a page from a Guttenberg Bible, which is the moment in history when an important book like the Bible suddenly became accessible to ordinary people in a way that had never before been possible. (Typically in these Bibles,  the vast majority of text was printed,  but the over- sized first letter of each chapter would be hand-painted.  It was quite interesting to see a Bible from this era in which space had been left for those large hand-painted first letters-  but the filling in had never occurred,  so the top of each chapter featured a block of empty white space.) Among the other interesting Bibles was a pocket-sized edition that had belonged to a civil War soldier. . . and an earlier American Bible which was translated into one of the languages of the Native Americans to be used by missionaries.

All in all, this felt like an utterly priceless opportunity. . . roughly akin to the opportunity which a lot of people had back in the 1970’s to see artifacts from the tomb of King Tut.  (I am so envious of my friend Marshall for getting to experience that.)   I cherish of what Kathy and I saw yesterday in the same way I cherish  the exhibits which presented the outfits of Jackie Kennedy . . .or the paintings of van Gogh . . .or notable costumes from famous productions of Puccini’s Turandot . . . or amazing props and costumes from the Harry Potter movies. . .   unique exhibits gathering together precious artifacts that almost certainly will never be gathered together again in quite the same way.    Such opportunities should never be taken for granted,  although I have to confess to having let way too many such opportunities slip by me.

But not this time.

pictured above:  Photography was strictly forbidden,  but as I stepped away from the very end of the exhibition and into the outer hallway,  I couldn’t resist the urge to swing around and snap one little photo.  Fortunately I wasn’t observed or I would likely have been led out of there in handcuffs!