16 Jesus, Prophet ofIslamhitting stone. Instead the stone made a clinking noise as if it had
hit an earthen pot. His imagination was fired. He thought that per
haps he had stumbled upon a treasure trove. Next morning, he
returned to the cave and, with a friend to help him, entered it,
Inside they found several day jars amongst the fragments of
broken pottery. They took one of them to the camp where they
were living and were bitterly disappointed when all that they found
was a foul smeUing leather seroU.They unroUed it until it reached
from one side of the tent to the other. Itwas one of the scrolls which
were later sold for a quarter of a million doUars. They sold it to a
Syrian Christian named Kando for a few shillings. Kando was a
cobbler, and he was only interested in the leather as it might come
in handy for resoling old shoes. Kando, however, noticed that the
leather sheet was over-written in letters unknown to him. After a
doser look, he decided to show it to the Syrian Metropolitan of St.
Mark's Monasteryin Jerusalem.These twoshadowyfigures carted
the serol1sfrom one country to another, hoping to make money.
In the American Oriental Institute of Jordan, the scrolls were
found to be the oldest known copy of the Book of Isaiah in the Old
Testament. Seven years later, the scrolls were placed in the Shrine
of the Book in Ierusalem by the government of Israel.
At a rough guess, there are about six hundred caves dotted
around the hillside above the bank of the river Jordan. In these
caveslived the Essenes, a community of people who had renounced
both the world and Roman rule, because by their understanding a
trueJew couldonlylive underthesovereignty of[ehovahand was
not permitted to obey any authority except His. So, according to
their beliefs, any Jew living under and recognising the Roman Em
peror as overlord was committing a sin.
Tired of the pomp and show of the world and overwhelmed by
its uncontrollable forces which lead inevitably to conflict and self
destruction, they sought refuge in the silence of the cliffs rising
above the shores of the Dead Sea. They withdrew into the solitude
of the mountain caves so that they could concentrate on living a
life of purity and so gain salvation. Unlike many of the [ews of the
Temple, they did not use the Old Testament to make money, but
tried to live according to its teachings. By leading this Iife, they
hoped to achieve perfection and holiness. Their aim was to set an
example to the rest of the [ews of how they could escape from the
road leading to destruction, which they knew was fast approach
ing, unless the Jews fol1owed the Word of God.
http://www.islamicbulletin.com