Today on the way to Beit Shean we stopped at the Israel Museum to get a richer understanding about Israel’s history. The Israel Museum is the largest museum in Israel, and possibly even the Middle East.
One thing the museum is known for is the scale model of Jerusalem made according to the notes of Josephus Flavius. Flavius was famous for writing two books, “Jewish War vs. Romans” and, “Jewish Antiquities”. He is also a known historian. Almost everything that he wrote was exactly in line and correct with the way Jerusalem looks today. There were a few buildings that he described that were not excavated in the old city but he is spot on about everything else.
The other thing that that the museum is recognized for keeping is the Dead Sea scrolls, found on November 29, 1947, the same day Israel was recognized by United Nations (not a coincidence). There were 7 complete scrolls discovered on the day that the shepherd came running after his sheep. Ultimately more than 900 artifacts and pieces of scrolls were collected. The shepherd picked them up and sold them to an antiquarian. He did not know the true value so he was not given as much money for them as he should have been. Four of the scrolls discovered that night were smuggled into America because people feared they would get lost or destroyed in a future Independence war. The antiquarian who received the scrolls was named Sukenik. The man who returned the smuggled scrolls back to Israel was also Sukenik, but it was his son, Yadin – quite the family affair. Yadin Sukenik was a brilliant man; he was a high ranking part of the Israeli military and part of the team that excavated Masada, and brought home to Israel more than half of the greatest archaeological find.
One last thing that the museum is known for in recent years is that they have created the world’s smallest bible. A team at the Museum experimented for months to determine the best material to print it on, rather, laser print it on. This bible was created by putting millions of tiny dots on the material, and if you look at it using technology you can read it; it’s perfectly legible. This was truly the coolest thing they have at the museum. Oh yeah, the size of the bible? Smaller than a grain of sugar.
The sculpture garden provided some cool photo ops that we took advantage of and you will be able to see all the pictures on our blog. The Israel Museum was a great stop on the way to being reunited with our friends from Emek HaMayanot and I can’t wait to return to see new exhibits!