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