July 09, 2007
Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit misleads public?
![DeadSeaScroll[1].jpg](http://dead_sea_scrolls_controversy.sandiegoblogs.com/DeadSeaScroll[1].jpg)
The Los Angeles Times recently carried an interesting report by Mike Boehm, on the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit taking place at the San Diego Natural History Museum. They asked the curator, Dr. Risa Levitt Kohn, why the museum has carefully excluded all scholars who oppose the old, and increasingly contested, theory of Scroll origins from the lecture series accompanying the exhibit, and she came up with a good reply--"You don't want to confuse people with so many competing theories, so they walk away, saying, 'Well, nobody really knows anything!'"
I for one find that extremely convincing. The last thing in the world we would want is for people to understand why there is more than one interpretation of the facts. After all, that would only confuse them, and in their confused state they might become depressed, or behave in an irrational manner. They might even start asking why the museum has not explained how it came about that an entire series of major scholars rejected the old theory over the past decade, not in favor of "so many competing theories," but in favor of one salient competing theory. Yes, we must protect people from the truth at all costs. Besides, we wouldn't want to do anything that might upset Dr. Kohn's academic friends!
For a somewhat different perspective, see University of Chicago historian Norman Golb's article Fact and Fiction in Current Exhibitions of the Dead Sea Scrolls--A Critical Notebook for Viewers. And see his editorial in The Forward, Take Claims about Dead Sea Scrolls with a Grain of Salt. (The titles are links--clicking on them brings up the articles.)
A chronology of this controversy is now available on-line (that's another link). I've posted a picture of the Copper Scroll, easily the most important document found in the caves--and which the museum appropriately treats as a "mystery" because to explain its significance for the interpretation of the scrolls as a whole would also confuse the public.
Posted by Charles Gadda at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)