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explores the discovery of the ancient manuscripts in the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea in 1947.
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00:00It is the lowest place on the face of the earth.
00:05The sea is so salt, nothing can live in it.
00:10Yet, in small settlements along the west bank of this dead sea,
00:15Jewish scholars once sought refuge from the moral decay of their time.
00:20The refuge ended shortly after the time of Christ.
00:23Roman conquerors were tightening their stranglehold on the Holy Land.
00:30Even the suggestion of dissension was intolerable.
00:36So, the emperor's legions crushed the desert settlements of the rabbis.
00:43A Jewish sect called the Essene apparently knew the end was coming.
00:49For generations they had collected the wisdom of their people
00:53and the earliest known versions of the Old Testament.
00:57These treasures they hid in the caves that only they knew existed,
01:01in the mountains behind their settlement.
01:04Nineteen centuries later, the treasure would be rediscovered.
01:08It would be a vindication of the faith of millions,
01:11evidence of the Bible as a factual history of the birth and heritage of mankind.
01:19A Monthly's Lesson
01:21handsome
01:33A Monthly's Louise
01:36Young rabbis pursuing their studies in Israel are the latest
01:49greatest in a long line of revered scholars.
01:53The scripture they recite was written down centuries ago.
01:58On a barren desert shelf overlooking the Dead Sea, an ancient wisdom was thus preserved.
02:04Only a few fragments have so far been recovered.
02:16This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.
02:20The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily
02:25the only ones, to the mysteries we will examine.
02:31No other city has inspired such passions.
02:34Jerusalem.
02:35Her ancient walls have seen so much.
02:41Pilgrims coming from all over the world.
02:46Jews mourning past outrages in prayers before stones quarried 2,000 years ago for Herod.
02:55Moslems visiting the site of Mohammed's ascension on a hill remembered by Jews for Abraham's
03:01sacrifice.
03:03Winding past sacred monuments are streets filled with mystery.
03:08The passers-by are a polyglot of creeds and cultures.
03:11For the moment they coexist, yet Jerusalem is a city wearied by war.
03:19Visitors are drawn to the nearby town of Bethlehem.
03:23There, commercial banners proclaim the birthplace of the Prince of Peace.
03:27From that time to this, Bethlehem has been a trading place for nomads from Judea.
03:34In 1947, one of these nomads found his way to a small shop hoping to sell a rotting parchment
03:42he'd found in the desert.
03:48The desert beyond Bethlehem is Judea.
03:52Green things are rare in the land of the prophets, but a spring emerges from the mountains at
03:57a place called Ein Feshka.
04:01For as long as history has been recorded here, fresh water has flowed, nourishing vegetation
04:08and refreshing wayfarers.
04:11In recent times, Ein Feshka was Arab territory, part of the Kingdom of Jordan.
04:17In the Six-Day War, Israel pushed Jordan out of Jerusalem, out of Bethlehem, and out of Judea.
04:26Now, the Israelis hold the entire west bank of the Jordan River and Dead Sea.
04:33Israel's 1967 blitzkrieg was intended to push Arab forces back to the east bank of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea,
04:41thus giving the tiny Jewish state a defensible border with its hostile neighbors.
04:46The west bank is hostile enough without the thunder of competing armies.
04:51It is hot and dry and mountainous.
04:54The greenery and cool breezes of Jerusalem are only a short drive away,
04:58but they might as well be on the other side of the moon.
05:02Nowhere is the harsh reality of life on the west bank more apparent
05:06than at an ancient mountain sanctuary 30 miles south of the spring at Ein Feshka.
05:13Today, cable cars make the journey to the top an easy one.
05:19In the time of Rome's dominion over the Hebrews, the trip meant climbing a trail called the Snake.
05:28By whatever route to the top, one encounters an astonishing monument to the human struggle for freedom.
05:38The place is Masada.
05:41Two thousand years ago, a people called the Zealots lived here.
05:47They looked at the corrupt world below and felt safe.
05:52Masada was the largest of the west bank settlements maintained by religious patriots in defiance of Roman authority.
06:02On their mountain top, the Zealots even had room to grow livestock and crops.
06:07From their lookouts, they could see the other side of the Dead Sea and watch invasion routes from the north.
06:21An elaborate complex of reservoirs was cut into the mountain to store runoff from rare winter rains,
06:27enough to quench Masada's thirst all summer.
06:32No enemy could approach the walls of the city without being seen.
06:37The Zealots were prepared for just about everything.
06:42But they had not anticipated the tenacity of the Roman legion.
06:48The army was marching south from Jerusalem.
06:55Rome was expanding the frontiers of empire.
06:59The legionnaires brought engines of war.
07:03They were prepared for a long siege.
07:08From the summit of Masada, it is still possible to see the outlines of the Roman encampments
07:17below.
07:20The battle raged three years.
07:24By then, the Zealots knew the end was near.
07:30They drew lots to implement a desperate plan.
07:35The Zealots had chosen death by their own hands rather than surrender.
07:41The man chosen by lot to see the deed done had fallen on his own sword.
07:50The Zealots might have been hardened in their resolve by news of what had happened at Qumran.
07:56Like Masada, Qumran was a community of devout Jews who sought refuge from oppression and immorality.
08:03Their settlement lay in the Romans' line of march from Jerusalem to Masada.
08:12Qumran was much smaller, with none of Masada's formidable defenses.
08:18Its people were more disposed to prayer than politics or war.
08:24The Romans crushed them and moved on.
08:29For perhaps 200 years, the Qumran sect had struggled for survival in the desert.
08:34They had dug a canal to carry rainwater from reservoirs in the mountains.
08:39The canal led to an elaborate system of channels inside the settlement.
08:50These, in turn, fed a network of smaller channels which emptied into large and small cisterns.
09:01Use of the precious fluid, both for ceremony and survival, was decided in council debate.
09:08Debates took place in a large hall.
09:13Only full initiates could speak.
09:17Ritual cleansing in special pools was part of an initiation process which might take several years.
09:28It was the only way to become a participant in community life.
09:33If the new member was favored, he might gain access to another part of the settlement.
09:38In a small room facing the sea, Qumran's most important work was done.
09:43Here, scribes bent over plaster benches, copying holy scriptures, their work illuminated by a window open to the sky.
09:52In another room, potters worked to prepare the jars which would hold the scrolls.
10:01Others tanned hides for parchment.
10:04Work came to an abrupt halt in the spring of 31 BC.
10:08The Roman historian Josephus marks this as the time of a terrible earthquake.
10:13Major damage which might have been caused by that quake is evident at Qumran.
10:19Did the community then scatter to the hills?
10:23Open graves at the walls of Qumran may be evidence of the heavy price exacted by nature.
10:30New construction on the site of cleared wreckage indicates the settlement slowly came back to life.
10:38The dedication of the community was not to be thwarted by a catastrophe of God's making.
10:43Perhaps the Qumran settlers felt their faith was being tested.
10:47When the final crisis came, the people of Qumran would be ready.
10:53The flocks of goats and sheep grazing on the hills between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea belong to nomadic desert Arabs called Bedouin.
11:08They are a clannish people, hardened to life in the wilderness.
11:12Few outsiders ever get close to them.
11:15Since the 17th century, the Tamira tribe has eked out a living near the banks of the Dead Sea.
11:22The terrain is harsh and tending the livestock is hard work.
11:28On a hot summer's day in 1947, a young Tamira goat herd went chasing astray.
11:35His name was Muhammad Adib and he was about to make history.
11:42Two thousand years before Muhammad, others had followed the same path into the wilderness.
11:49The young Bedouin, who couldn't read and knew nothing of history, was walking in the footsteps of scholars who had devoted their lives to preserving the past.
12:02The adventure Muhammad was embarked on would soon vindicate their labors.
12:06Cool blackness had caught the boy's eye.
12:11It was a cave.
12:13Playfully, Muhammad dropped the stone.
12:20He had found the hiding place of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
12:27When the news of the discovery reached me in Jerusalem, I was a fellow of the American School of Oriental Research in the year 1947-48.
12:39On February 15th, a few days before...
12:42Professor John Trevor was the first scholar to see Muhammad's discovery, as agents for the Bedouin quietly sought to determine its worth.
12:51It was Wednesday, the 18th of February, when the Syrians called to the American School to get some information about some manuscripts that they had.
13:04I was amazed by their description.
13:06It didn't make too much sense to me.
13:08So I said, well, the only way I can give you information is to see the documents.
13:12So they agreed to come over the next afternoon.
13:15And when they arrived, they had a satchel with five documents wrapped in Arabic newspaper.
13:22They handed me one very small one, and I tried to open it, and it was very brittle.
13:28Before I had a chance to do more than simply notice it was in Hebrew, then they drew my attention to this large scroll.
13:34And when I began to look at what was before me, I was puzzled.
13:38And immediately when I began to compare this script with the Nash Papyrus, I saw evidences of great antiquity.
13:45The Nash Papyrus had been dated in the second century, first century B.C.
13:50And I thought to myself, well, perhaps then this could be as old as the Nash Papyrus,
13:55which would make it a thousand years older than the oldest known biblical manuscript in Hebrew.
14:01But then I suddenly realized that I had not checked the manuscript for authenticity.
14:06Could it be a forgery was the question that plagued me all that night.
14:09So the next morning I made arrangements to get into the old city and go to the monastery.
14:13And then they brought out the scroll again, and I began to unroll it very carefully,
14:18looking for evidences of corrections particularly that might give an indication of authenticity.
14:24And I finally came to column 33, and there suddenly was the evidence that I was looking for.
14:30For here on this column are two corrections made by two different hands,
14:35and no forger could possibly have produced the phenomenon of those corrections.
14:39Then I knew that I was looking at a manuscript that was 2,000 years old,
14:44the oldest biblical manuscript yet discovered.
14:46News of the discovery touched off a stampede.
14:50Jordanian authorities called on the famed desert police for help.
15:02The Bedouin weren't about to tell anyone where the cave was.
15:05It would be up to the police to find it before more scrolls got into the wrong hands,
15:10and bidding climb too high for scholars to compete with private collectors.
15:20In time, the police succeeded.
15:23They found not one cave, but a virtual honeycomb in the hills behind Qumran.
15:28The Bedouin, however, had found them first.
15:31They were picked clean.
15:33No one could be sure how many of the caves had actually contained anything of value.
15:40Scroll hunting had become the full-time occupation of the Taamira tribe.
15:45Every likely crevice was explored.
15:48The Bedouin had approached the task with the same cunning that had made them successful smugglers and highwaymen.
15:55Clearly, the only choice authorities had was to deal with the Bedouin.
16:00Government archaeologist Joseph Saad checked into the Winter Palace Hotel in Jericho,
16:07posing as an agent for a wealthy collector.
16:10There, Saad met secretly with his superior to fix the price they were willing to pay.
16:16They settled on a maximum fee of one pound sterling per square centimeter of scroll fragment.
16:22Negotiations were set to take place in a run-down hotel on the other side of town.
16:29Representing the Bedouin was a Bethlehem merchant named Kando.
16:35It was to him that Muhammad had brought the first scrolls.
16:42Eventually, the bargain was made.
16:48Although neither side really trusted the other, a relationship now existed that could enable scholars to unravel the mystery of the scrolls.
17:01Kando and his young Bedouin friend Muhammad even traveled to Amman, Jordan to dine with the Director of Antiquities.
17:14There, for the first time, officials heard the full story of the amazing discovery.
17:20By now, experts had a much clearer understanding of the importance of the scrolls.
17:33Basically, the scrolls provide a 2,000-year-old verification of the accuracy of the Old Testament as known to modern men.
17:41The uniformity of the versions was astonishing.
17:52In 1952, another amazing discovery was made.
17:56Two rolled strips of copper were found near Qumran.
18:02When cut apart, they revealed an inventory of buried treasure.
18:09The wealth represented in the list was enormous.
18:13Gold and silver bullion.
18:16Huge quantities of coins and sacred artifacts.
18:20Could this be the treasure of Jerusalem lost in the Roman attack of 70 A.D.?
18:25If it is, the Jews must have hidden the wealth in secret places throughout the city.
18:31What has become of the treasure?
18:34Why would the list be hidden at Qumran?
18:42The ruins are mute.
18:46Clearly, however, the settlement was recognized in its own day as far more important than the size of its membership would suggest.
18:57Some scholars believe John the Baptist lived here as a boy, watching the scribes work at their writing tables.
19:06Jesus was certainly at least aware of the community and of the scripture being copied and sealed away in the large clay jars unique to Qumran.
19:15Time capsules to be opened in a distant age.
19:24From the other writings of the sect, we know that the community believed it was living in the last days before God's judgment.
19:31The ultimate triumph of light over darkness.
19:34Even as they labored to accumulate and preserve the Jewish scriptures, they prepared for the final struggle with the forces of evil and the new age to come.
19:47In this way, the Qumran settlers anticipated the apocalypse.
19:54When it came, they were unprepared for the result.
19:57The Qumran community continued for over 200 years to live here in this site with that daily expectation that the new age was about to begin and they would be involved.
20:12But instead, exactly the opposite happened.
20:15Instead of there being the sons of light who would destroy or defeat the sons of darkness, the sons of darkness came down in the form of the Roman Vespasian army and defeated the sons of light.
20:29The written contributions of Qumran live on in Jerusalem's shrine of the book.
20:36Qumran's spirit is alive too.
20:39Many of today's Jews are following the traditions established there so long ago.
20:44All who value faith are in some way indebted to the people who labored in the desert to preserve it.
20:52Qumran was destroyed and its inhabitants put to the sword.
20:56Perhaps, however, the ultimate victory they prayed for was theirs after all.
21:02We know that the Essenes sent emissaries to Masada when they saw the end was near for Qumran.
21:10Perhaps they sent them elsewhere.
21:12The map will give us a clue.
21:14The east bank of the Jordan and Dead Sea is in many ways a mirror image of the west.
21:20For Jerusalem, there's Amman.
21:22For Eilat, there is Aqaba.
21:25Why should the Essenes and Zealots not have established settlements on the east bank also?
21:29The political boundaries of today meant nothing then.
21:34The east bank has been untouched by archaeologists.
21:38What treasures may lie in these hills?
21:42Qumran was created to rise above the corruption and violence of its age.
21:47Peace has not yet come to the west bank of the Dead Sea.
21:51If it ever does, perhaps men can concentrate on finding more of the treasures Qumran left behind.
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