Dead Sea

Dead Sea
Cold snap strands, kills at least 38 sea turtles
Associated Press - January 10, 2010 9:15 PM ET BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) - Officials say at least 38 endangered sea turtles stunned by cooler water from the recent Texas cold snap washed up near...
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Dead Sea popularly known in the Bible as the "Salt Sea" is an inland body of water that is rich in mineral content and plays a prominent role in the Bible by acting as a barrier that blocked the traffic from the East. Dead Sea has some post biblical names like the "Sea of Sodom", "Sea of Asphalt", "Sea of Lot" and the "StinkinWhere would men be without that eternal favorite, perfume? Easy to buy and wrap, it makes the perfect gift for birthdays, anniversaries and other important dates that might have slipped the mind. g Sea". The Dead Sea scrolls refer to some specific manuscripts that are found in various caves near the ruins of Qumran which is believed by the scholars to be the home of the community who owned the scripts. Going back to the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD, these manuscripts have enabled scholars to reconstruct the history of Palestine and throw a new light on the emergence of Christianity and its relationship with Jewish religious traditions.

Here some interesting facts about Dead Sea scrolls:

1. Discovered between the years 1947 and 1956 in eleven caves that are situated in the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, these scrolls are fragmented texts that are numbered according to the caves they were found from. The area covers 13 miles east of Jerusalem and is about 1300ft below sea level.
2. Caves 1 and 11 had intact manuscripts in them and cave 4 produced the largest amount, about 15000 fragments from nearly 500 manuscripts were found.
3. The Dead Sea scrolls are mostly made of animal skin, copper and papyrus. Written with carbon based ink from right to left there are no punctuations and sometimes they even lack space between words.
4. Divided into two categories - Biblical and Non-Biblical, the scrolls consist of fragments of the Old Testament except for the book of Esther. Prophecies by Jeremiah, Danile and Ezekiel, not mentioned in the Bible are written in the Scrolls. Even the last words of Joseph, Levi, and Judas are written in the scrolls.
5. The Isaiah Scroll is 1000 years old than any copy of Isaiah and is considered to be the oldest manuscript ever found for the Old Testament.
6. The non-biblical writings include rule books of the community, warfare, hymn compositions, linguistic text, law books and other knowledge based writings.
7. The Dead Sea scrolls were believed to be a part of a Jewish library, hidden in the caves during the outbreak of the first Jewish revolt.
8. The Copper Scroll discovered in cave 3 has a list of 64 underground hiding places all over Israel that contained deposits of gold, silver, manuscripts and aromatics.
9. Found in cave 11, the Temple Scroll is the longest one and it length is of 26.7 feet.
10. The Qumran community considered themselves to be the holy ones as they believed that the Holy Spirit dwelt within them. They called themselves "Sons of Light" and called their enemies "Sons of Darkness".
11. The scrolls consist of unknown stories about popular biblical figures like Abraham and Noah, Enoch.
12. Some of the manuscripts that dated back to 200 BC were offered for sale on June 1st, 1954 in the Wall Street Journal.
13. The Dead Sea scrolls are considered to be the evolutionary link between Christianity and Judaism and augment our knowledge of both.

The Dead Sea scrolls are recognized for their historical significance and are a collection of about 900 scrolls that now reside in the Shrine of the Book of Jerusalem. Discovery of these manuscripts have helped scholars to find important facts about the community and cast a light on the religious relationship between Christianity and Jewish.

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