The Faces behind the Scrolls

Also a children’s guide

The discovery of seven, two-thousand year old scrolls by Bedouin shepherds in a cave near the northern Dead Sea

during the winter of 1946—1947 proved to be one of the most important archaeological discoveries in human history.

The scrolls generated tremendous excitement, since they were a thousand years older than any biblical manuscripts

known at the time, apart from the small Nash Papyrus, dated to the second century BCE.

The discovery was initially greeted with a combination of suspicion, skepticism, and amazement, owing to the “Shapira

Affair” that had taken place dozens of years before, but which remained deeply embedded in the collective memory.

In 1883 the Jerusalem-based antiquities collector and dealer Moses Shapira was suspected of forging scrolls which he

claimed came from the Dead Sea region and ultimately took his own life. These events were undoubtedly in the minds

of the heroes of this exhibition when they first encountered the seven scrolls.

Three of the scrolls were purchased by Eleazar Sukenik of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the first to notice the

writings’ nature and significance. He concluded that the scrolls were copied during the late Second Temple Period and

that they originated in an Essene genizah (a repository for worn copies of Jewish texts). His assumption became the

cornerstone of modern scroll research.

Sukenik was unable to purchase the remaining four scrolls, which are the focus of this exhibition. Their story is

told here through the individuals who recognized their importance and devoted efforts to preserving, studying, and

revealing them to the public. Today, it is possible to look back upon the moments of discovery embedded within the

sequence of everyday events and understand that the combination of the right people in the right place at the right

time is what made them happen.

Welcome to the exhibition The Faces behind the Scrolls !

You are about to meet some of the fascinating people responsible for bringing four of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Shrine of the Book. Take a look at their photos and the special objects associated with them.

Want to find out some surprising things about these people and their objects?

Follow us!

Use the headsets to listen to an interview

with the Bedouin shepherd Muhammed

edh-Dhib.

In the interview Muhammed describes

how he found – together with his

cousin – the oldest Bible in the world,

written on scrolls and hidden in pottery

jars. Before the scrolls were taken

to the Shrine of the Book, they were

stored in a cave in the Judean Desert

for more than two thousand years.

The dry, dark conditions in the cave

protected them and kept them from

disintegrating. That’s why we keep the

Shrine of the Book dry and relatively

dark, just like the cave.

Muhammed edh-Dhib and Jum‘a Muhammed, n.d.Khalil Eksander Shahin (Kando), 1910—1993

In Winter 1946/47 two cousins, Muhammed edh-

Dhib and Jum‘a Muhammed, Bedouin shepherds

from the Ta‘amireh tribe, were herding their

flocks in the hills overlooking the northern Dead

Sea, when they noticed a small opening in the

rock. They tossed in a stone and were surprised

to hear the sound of shattering pottery. Three

days later they returned, crawled through the

opening, and discovered a cave (later named

Cave 1) containing ten lidded jars, one of which

held three rolled scrolls. The shepherds took

the scrolls back to camp, intending to sell them

in Bethlehem. During a return visit to the cave,

they found four additional scrolls.

The seven scrolls were sold to antiquities

dealers in Bethlehem. Three were eventually

purchased by Eleazar Sukenik, professor of

archaeology at The Hebrew University of

Jerusalem. Four were sold by Khalil Eksander

Shahin (Kando), a Syrian Orthodox Christian

shoemaker and dealer, to Archbishop Athanasius

Yeshue Samuel of Jerusalem.

The man in the photo purchased the

scrolls that Muhammed and his cousin

discovered in the cave. His name

was Athanasius Samuel, and he was

a Christian clergyman. Today we

know that touching the scrolls with

bare hands damages them and that

they may only be handled by people

wearing gloves. Athanasius, like others

in his day, apparently did not know

this. The book that bears his photo is

his autobiography. In it, Athanasius

tells the story of his life and reveals

that the purchase of the scrolls was the

greatest thing he ever did.

Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, 1907—1995

Knowledge of the ancient manuscripts reached

Athanasius Samuel, head of the Syrian Orthodox

Monastery and Church in Jerusalem, in April 1947.

Samuel and his mother, survivors of the 1916

Ottoman massacre at Hilwah, wandered as

refugees until ultimately reaching Jerusalem.

There Samuel trained as a priest, became the

monastery’s librarian, and rose to the rank of

archbishop. After purchasing the four scrolls,

he consulted scholars at the American School

of Oriental Research, who determined that the

writings were two thousand years old, and

that three scrolls were in Hebrew and one in

Aramaic — the language spoken in the time of

Jesus and used in the Syrian Orthodox Church.

In 1948, as fighting between Jews and Arabs in

Jerusalem increased, Samuel took the scrolls

to Beirut and then to the United States. After

studying and exhibiting them, he put them up

for sale. In 1954 archaeologist Yigael Yadin

secretly purchased the scrolls for $250,000 on

behalf of the State of Israel.

Athansius became Patriarchal Vicar to the

United States and Canada and is buried in a

cathedral in Glane, The Netherlands.

If you decided to write a book about

your own life, what would be the most

important event in it?

This letter was written by John Trever,

an American scholar and photographer

of the Dead Sea Scrolls. In his day there

was no e-mail, and to make sure that

his letter would reach the Dead Sea

Scroll scholars in Israel quickly, he sent

it by airmail – in other words, by plane.

Letters sent by airmail had to be light,

and so they were written on a single

sheet of paper. After he finished writing

his letter, John folded the sheet

into the shape of an envelope

and wrote the address on the

outside.

John Trever, 1915—2006

On February 18, 1948 the American School of

Oriental Research in Jerusalem was empty.

John Trever, a biblical scholar and professional

photographer from Yale University, answered

the telephone himself. On the line was Butrus

Sowmy, assistant to Athanasius Samuel, asking

for help with four ancient scrolls.

Trever immediately agreed, and when the scrolls

arrived he spread the longest one across his

bed and compared the square Hebrew script to

that of the Nash Papyrus, a manuscript from the

second century BCE. To his astonishment, he

realized that before him lay an ancient scroll of

the Book of Isaiah.

In the school’s basement, against the

background of approaching war, Trever took

the first photographs of the Great Isaiah Scroll,

the Community Rule, and the Commentary on

Habakkuk. These photographs enabled the

leading scholar William F. Albright to confirm

the scrolls’ dating and authenticity.

Trever returned to the United States, became a

professor of Bible, and engaged in the research

of the scrolls. His books remain an important

source of information about the story of the

scrolls’ discovery.

This camera belonged to the priest and

historian Roland De Vaux. He used

it to photograph the archaeological

excavations that he directed at Qumran

near the Dead Sea. Roland searched

for antiquities and scroll fragments. The

objects he discovered tell us a lot about

the scrolls and about the people who

wrote them.

The long piece attached to the top of

the camera is a distance gauge, which

measured the distance between the

photographer and the objects being

photographed, so that the photo would

be sharper.

Roland De Vaux, 1903—1971

In 1949 Father Roland De Vaux, director of

Ecole biblique et archeologique francaise de

Jerusalem, began excavating in the vicinity

of the caves where the scrolls were found, on

behalf of the Palestine Archaeological Museum

(later the Rockefeller Museum) directed by

Gerald Lankester Harding.

De Vaux, born in Paris and a graduate of the

Sorbonne, was ordained as a Dominican priest

and eventually joined Ecole biblique, where he

became a professor. Between 1951 and 1956

he discovered 267 caves, thousands of scroll

fragments, and the site of Qumran. De Vaux laid

the foundations for the theory connecting the

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site, the caves, and the scrolls to the Essenes.

This theory, once accepted by most scholars, is

now the subject of debate.

De Vaux stood at the head of an international

team devoted to deciphering the scrolls and

was chief editor of the major publications in

this field. He was regarded as an outstanding

teacher and a meticulous scholar, but was also

criticized for preventing other scholars from

examining the scrolls.

De Vaux is buried at Saint Stephen’s Basilica,

Jerusalem.

Some of Roland’s sharp photos are

screened in the exhibition; can you find

them?

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Protocol of my visit to this exhibition________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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This document is called a protocol;

it is a record of the things that were

said at an important meeting. After

each participant’s name is a short

summary of what he or she said. This

protocol records the conversation

between archaeologists, scholars from

the Hebrew University, and the mayor

of Jerusalem. They discussed the steps

that needed to be taken in order to

conserve the scrolls, study them, and

publish them.

Perhaps you can write a protocol of your

visit to this exhibition and record what

everyone said?

Yigael Yadin, 1917—1984

On June 1, 1954 a reporter called the attention

of archaeologist Yigael Yadin to a Wall Street

Journal announcement advertising the sale of

four Dead Sea Scrolls. The advertisement was

posted by Athanasius Samuel.

Fearing that Samuel would refuse to sell the

scrolls to an Israeli, Yadin used a middleman to

negotiate with Charles Manoog of the Scrolls’

Board of Trustees. He succeeded in purchasing

the scrolls on behalf of the State of Israel,

thanks, in part, to a donation by philanthropist

D. Samuel Gottesman.

In 1955, when the scrolls arrived in Israel,

Yadin initiated the establishment of the Shrine

of the Book Foundation, for the promotion of

education and science. He commissioned the

services of artist James Bieberkraut and his

wife, photographer Helene Bieberkraut, to

unroll, conserve, and document the scrolls.

Yadin was Israel’s second military chief of

staff, a Dead Sea Scrolls scholar, a professor of

archaeology, and the excavator of the Cave of

the Letters, Masada, and other sites. Toward the

end of his life he became involved in politics.

He is buried in Israel’s national cemetery, Mount

Herzl, Jerusalem.

These drawings were made by a talented artist named James Bieberkraut, who

helped conserve the Dead Scrolls. They were meant to be used as bookplates

(ex libris). People used to commission drawings like these with their names on

them and paste them on the first page of all their books. That way everyone

knew who owned the book, in case someone

borrowed it.

How would you design your own bookplate?

James Bieberkraut, 1879—1981

James Bieberkraut, born in Leipzig, Germany,

studied art in Berlin and later in Munich, where

he was certified by the Academy of Arts in

1899. He married Helene Joseph in 1928, and

the couple arrived in Mandate Palestine in 1934.

In his citizenship papers he was accidentally

referred to as “Professor,” and the title stuck.

When the four scrolls purchased by Yigael Yadin

arrived in Israel in 1955, Bieberkraut began to

work on their conservation. He had previously

worked on the three scrolls purchased by

Yadin’s father, Eleazar Sukenik, in 1947. The

Genesis Apocryphon Scroll was in a particularly

poor state, and until then no one had opened

it. Its ink contained metal, which had oxidized,

blackened, and damaged the parchment.

Bieberkraut also worked with Yadin and

archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni on finds related

to the Bar Kokhba Revolt from the Cave of the

Letters, and on finds from Masada. Until his

death at the age of 102 he lived with his wife

Helene in the Baka neighborhood of Jerusalem.

The object before you is a photographic

plate that was used by Helene

Bieberkraut to take photos of the Dead

Sea Scrolls. Her camera resembles a

large wooden box.

Can you find it in the exhibition?

Each plate was used to take a single

photo. For that reason, before she

took a photo, Helene spent a long time

focusing the camera. In the camera’s

viewer, everything appeared upside-

down.

Helene Bieberkraut, 1896—1983

Helene (nee Joseph) Bieberkraut, was born

in Cologne, Germany, studied photography in

Munich, and opened a studio for portraits

and architectural photography. She documented

the unification of Jewish communities in Munich

in 1930.

After her marriage to James Bieberkraut and

their arrival in Mandate Palestine in 1934,

Helene opened a studio at 6 Hagalil Street, Tel

Aviv, and continued to photograph children,

adults, and the world around her. When the

couple moved to the Romema neighborhood

of Jerusalem, she began photographing

excavations, archaeological finds, and

ancient manuscripts, working alongside such

archaeologists as Julius Rothschild, Nahman

Avigad, Eleazar Sukenik, and others.

Helene Bieberkraut photographed the scrolls on

glass negatives, and her photographs are still

used by Dead Sea Scroll scholars worldwide.

Among other projects, she documented the

opening of the Genesis Apocryphon scroll by her

husband James.

A selection of Helene's photographs from

Germany and Israel is presented in the

exhibition for the first time, in tribute to her

life's work.

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Four of the Dead Sea Scrolls that the people in the exhibition discovered, conserved, and studied

The Great Isaiah Scroll, Manuscript A, 120—100 BCE, written in Hebrew, 7.34 m The scroll bears the text of the book of Isaiah in a version close to the Masoretic version. It is the only biblical scroll to have been preserved in its entirety.

The Commentary on Habakkuk Scroll, ca. 50 BCE, written in Hebrew, 1.48 m The scroll bears a sectarian commentary on the first two chapters of Habakkuk. It is the only copy of this text in the world.

The Genesis Apocryphon Scroll, 25 BCE — 50 CE, written in Aramaic, ca. 2.9 m This is the only copy of this text in the world. The surviving fragments are a reworking of part of Genesis.

The Community Rule Scroll, 100 — 75 BCE, written in Hebrew, 2.50 m The scroll is the most complete copy of the Community Rule, and the first example of this literary genre to appear in the West.

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem | The Faces behind the Scrolls | March 2018 — September 2019 | The Dorot Foundation Dead Sea Scrolls Information and Study Center in

memory of Joy Gottesman Ungerleider | Curator: Rotem Arieli | Curator in charge: Adolfo Roitman | Exhibition design: Michal Aldor, Alex Topaz | Animation: Hadar Landsberg

| Text: Rotem Arieli and Yifah Mivtach-Greenvald | Hebrew editing: Tami Michaeli | English translation: Nancy Benovitz | Leaflet design: Noa Finkelstein | Photos: Elie Posner

| Consultant: Liora Vogelman | Printed by Keterpress Enterprises, Beit Shemesh | Cat. no. 658 | ISBN 978 965 278 476 6| © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2018 | All rights

reserved

Sources of the photos: © James E. Trever, Albuquerque, New Mexico; © Charlie Manoog, USA; © Ecole biblique et archeologique francaise de Jerusalem; © Eddie Hirschbein,

Bitmuna Collections; © Rani Tachauer, Kibbutz Gevaram; © Israel Antiquities Authority; © Alexander Schick, Germany; © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem | Sources of the

objects and documents: Athanasius Yeshue Samuel, Treasure of Qumran: My Story of the Dead Sea Scrolls, London: Hoder and Stoughton, 1968; Shrine of the Book Archive;

Ecole biblique et archeologique francaise de Jerusalem; Rani Tachauer and Nadav Hadas, Kibbutz Gevaram; Nitza Baruch, Kibbutz Hagosherim

The exhibition and leaflet were made possible by the Dorot Foundation | The leaflet is a joint project of the Shrine of the Book and the Ruth Youth Wing for Art Education

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Excavations at Qumran, 1950s

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Who am I? Yigael Yadin John Trever Roland De Vaux Athanasius Yeshue Samuel James Bieberkraut Helene Bieberkraut Muhammed edh-Dhib, Jum’a

Muhammed, and Khalil Eksander Shahin