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The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit opens in Grand Rapids
By Kat Meyer
Community News Editor
FILE PHOTO
Above: This fragment of Psalms measures 18 by 71.5 cm, the largest fragment on exhibit at the Van Andel Museum Center. This is a liturgical collection of psalms and hymns, comprising parts of 41 biblical psalms in non-canonical sequence and with variations in details.
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Fifty-six years after their discovery in a Bedoin cave by shepherds, the Dead Sea Scrolls find themselves at Van Andel Museum Center.
The scrolls are rarely seen outside of Jerusalem, never mind in Grand Rapids. The scrolls have only visited the Midwest twice since there discovery in 1947 and are expected to draw 225,000 visitors until the exhibit’s conclusion on June 1. Tourism officials expect scroll-seekers will pump at least $5 million into the local economy, and the museum expects to earn close to $1 million above costs.
The exhibit includes actual fragments of 12 of the scrolls written more than 2,000 years ago, plus artifacts from the ancient Dead Sea settlement of Qumran near the caves where the scrolls were discovered.
Officials said they hope the exhibit encourages people from all over the Midwest and the world to discover the scrolls themselves if they haven’t already.
Timothy Chester, director of the Grand Rapids Public Museum, admitted to reporters that he wasn’t sure exactly what the significance of the scrolls was before landing the region’s biggest cultural exhibit ever.
“I didn’t have a clue what they were,” Chester told The Grand Rapids Press, recalling his reaction when he was first approached about potential exhibit sites for the 2,000-year-old documents.
“The goal is whether you’re a sixth-grader coming from your Sunday school in Ludington or you’re a student at Calvin Theological Seminary, you’re going to have a good experience,” Chester told reporters.
The documents contain the earliest known writings of the Hebrew Bible -- which Christians call the Old Testament.Museum officials have taken many extra security and climate control measures.
The museum is also providing the best security it can offer for these priceless documents. Members of the Israel Antiquities Authority hand-carried them onto separate airplanes, and the exhibit was secured last week while the scrolls are installed in climate-controlled cases.
Chester said the museum spent close to $100,000 in building modifications and is hiring additional security. All visitors will be required to go through metal detectors. The federal government has paid for the exhibit’s insurance costs, Chester said.
Once inside, visitors will experience the scrolls in a more family-friendly way than was presented at Chicago’s Field Museum in 2000, Chester promises. Banners, audio tours and a miniature model of Qumran will bring the Dead Sea Scrolls alive for people who don’t know any more about them than he did two years ago, Chester said.
The exhibit kicked off this week with two preview and fundraising galas. Thursday night’s black-tie event, featuring corporate tables costing up to $5,000, sold out while some $100 tickets remain for Saturday night’s gala.
Officials also are selling tickets for specific viewing times -- the first two days, Feb. 16 and 17, have nearly sold out.
Memberships that guarantee a spot at the front of what are expected to be long lines have also nearly sold out. Advance ticket sales, now approaching 40,000, have doubled in the last few weeks.
The exhibit will feature biblical writings, including fragments of Exodus and the book of Psalms, along with about 80 artifacts to be displayed from the desert settlement of Qumran, where the scrolls called home for two millennia.
In the past decade most of the scrolls been published under Emanuel Tov, an Israeli scholar who will be here for the opening.
The museum is hosting a series of Tuesday night lectures, “Learning Lunches” and family programs with storytellers, music and dancers.
Calvin College will hold an academic conference March 31, while other colleges are offering special courses and lectures, and the North American Choral Company is even holding a concert titled “Secrets of Qumran.”
Scholars including Bruce Metzger, translation chairman of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible; Jodi Magness, an archaeology expert on the Qumran site; and Pnina Shor, head of conservation for the Israel Antiquities Authority, the owner of most of the scrolls.
Why was Grand Rapids chosen to host the exhibit?
One reason Grand Rapids was chosen are the local ties of scrolls experts: Chicago resident Ellen Herron, a guest curator who grew up in Spring Lake; James VanderKam of the University of Notre Dame, who translated 12 scroll volumes, is from Jenison; and Grand Rapids resident Bastiaan Van Elderen is a retired Calvin Theological Seminary professor. The Van Andel Museum Center will also hold family programs on Sundays at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. from the exhibit’s opening this Sunday, through June 1.
This Sunday,
Chicago storyteller and author Syd Lieberman will tell original stories about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Other performances will be featured March 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 and May 4, 11, 18 and 25.
For more information or to order tickets, call the Museum Center at (616) 456-3977.
For membership details, visit www.grmusreum.org or by calling (616) 456-3979. Tickets are $14 for adults and $10.50 for kids.
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