DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Wimberley man searching for more

When you mention the Dead Sea Scrolls to a Jewish or a Christian person, eyes light up and thoughts of the historic ancient religious texts that were found in the 1940s and 1950s are noted. The scrolls, some from before the time of Christ and some from later, were discovered by Bedouin goatherds in Judean Desert caves by the Dead Sea. Many have called it one of the greatest archaeological finds of the twentieth century.

But the search for more of the scrolls still continues, hoping to find more of the religious texts, and includes a twist of Wimberley.

The scrolls and the texts contained in them do not really offer any new information, but they do confirm that the present day texts of the Bible has not been changed in the centuries from when they were written. They also command enormous prices from antiquities dealers who have purchased some from looters.

Lately, reports state that two brand new ...caves were found near Qumran in the West Bank. Led by Dr. Randall Price of Liberty University and Oren Gutfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the team has returned this year to dig a little further.

Michael Hogan, of Wimberley, is one of those on the team with Jonathan Price and Steve Howell, all Central Texas residents. Hogan is the Pastor of Freedom Valley Fellowship In Wimberley.

Last year pottery shards, string and pieces of textiles were discovered in one of the caves, bringing hope to the team. According to an article in National Geographic, which featured the team’s search on the cover of the December 2018 issue, Price said, “They found lots of pottery from a range of periods of time—from early Islamic to Second Temple to Hellenistic.”

“There’s reason to hope something else might be there…This cave was robbed by Bedouins maybe 40 years ago…fortunately for us, they didn’t dig very deep. Our hope is that if we keep digging, we hit the mother lode.”

Looters never took time to dig deep in obtaining antiquities. The caves have been looted in the past, but the team “is going deeper into the caves than anyone has in potentially more than 2000 years. The hope is that the Jews, who hid the scrolls in the caves to protect and preserve them, hid more of them deeper in the caves,” Hogan said. It was important to hide the scrolls from the Romans during Israel revolts of the first century.

“In January of 2017, the team discovered a new cave. This was the first new cave since the fifties when the first of the scrolls were discovered…this find made world wide news and was on the cover of National Geographic,” Hogan said.

They have surveyed and used ground-penetrating radar to uncover more caves and to find other artifacts. So far this year no major finds have happened yet. But the media also is very interested with the team and their finds. Reuters News and others have been keeping up with the group.

“Times of Israel was there filming yesterday in the caves,” Hogan said.

Archaeological work is slow and painstaking. It’s not as easy as Indiana Jones makes it look in the movies. But perhaps like Jones, an important discovery is just a few inches of dirt away.

Hogan got interested in archaeological digs in 2011, after leaving a well paying job for a major company he decided to do God’s work.

“We (along with wife Tawnya) initially built a camp ministry and had no intention of having a church. However, volunteers began to come and help us build, primarily because of our story. The volunteers began to encourage us to start a church. After about a year of saying no, we decided to do it. Our church opened in 2013. He decided to help with the Lord’s work.

“I was invited to join an archaeological team (my first dig) in Israel. We spent three weeks under the old city of Jerusalem in an underground cave system called Zedekiah’s Cave,” Hogan said.

It was there that he met a fellow Texan, Terry Telligman and through him was invited to Israel and joined up with Dr. Randall Price on the Qumron Caves. If, or when, they find a new discovery, it would be just as exciting as a Indiana Jones movie, but without the skullduggery and drama.

The first thing would be the safety of the find. If new objects are found preserving them is very crucial as once they hit air and the elements, they start to deteriorate.

“They would immediately be taken by the head Archaeologists and the Israel Antiquities Authority to the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem where they would be preserved and then thoroughly examined… it would instantly be world wide news.”

Ancient discoveries happen everyday and help us to understand history and times far past. With new technological advances, and a lot of elbow grease, who says there are not new scrolls just waiting to be revealed?

Maybe a guy from Wimberley will help find out.