The Dead Emcee Scrolls

The title for this blog is from Saul Williams' book, which is a reference to the greatest manuscript find of the twentieth century: the Dead Sea Scrolls. My interview with Saul Williams on Fresh Air: The Alternative can be found here and on iTunes.


Wikipedia writes about the story of the the find in 1947: According to rumor, a Bedouin goat herder named Mazra threw a rock into one of the caves, seeking a lost goat. The sound of pottery shattering drew him in, whereupon he discovered ancient jars containing scrolls wrapped in linen. The site was later excavated, and over 900 documents were found spread throughout many caves in Quamran, which contain some of the only known surviving copies of Biblical documents made before 100 AD.

On Monday, December 22, 2008, I left Jerusalem on a Jewish tour of the Dead Sea, Masada, and Qumran. There were mainly middle-aged American Jews in the tour van with me, which held about 20 people.

I had a great time with them, as we listened to our tour guide's interesting take on the Bedouin who go between Israeli and Occupied Territory. We drove on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, where Jesus set his Good Samaritan parable. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave one of his finest sermons on the Good Samaritan Parable about his trip driving on this road back in the 1950s. Dr. King, seeing the treacherous cliffs next to this road and how one could easily be robbed traveling here on foot, explained that those who passed the hurt man felt they were in part justified out of their own personal safety. But then, Dr. King said that sometimes to help one's fellow man, one must risk his own personal safety, and take the calling to help those least among our brethren. The sermon is now part of his "Drum Major Instinct" collection.

We stopped at Qumran to take photos of the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found:

We passed through a security checkpoint along the Dead Sea, entering into the Israeli-controlled territory. Being in an Israeli tour bus, we only stopped for a moment, and the bus driver shouted something out the window in Hebrew that made the soldier smile, and they let us pass right through.

Next we went to the Masada tourist center, at the base of the mountain. The plateau ontop of Masada served as the ancient fort for Jewish zealots, who endured the long siege with the Roman army in the time after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE.

I was amazed at how much of Masada's ancient buildings, fixed up by King Herod, were still intact.

Extensive archeology expeditions and restorations on the site have rebuilt the walls of many of the structures, like one of the earliest remaining synagogues:

The gondola heading up to the mountaintop was cool to ride. The view from up there was one of the best I've seen. Across the Dead Sea, you can see Jordan.

Some of the surrounding mountains and the colors of the different layers of eroded rock reminded me of the Grand Canyon:

The square outline on the adjacent plateau is the remains of one of the Roman army camps that took part of the siege of Masada 2000 years ago. The Romans really built things to last, I've seen walking on 2000 year old walkways in Jerusalem, and seeing the siege ramp that they built to the mountaintop, which looks more like a natural feature of the mountain than something man-made. The tour covered how the ancient Israelites ontop of Masada used ingeniously designed water ducts to capture what little rainwater that fell in the dry region into large cistern system dug into the mountain.

There's also a Byzantine-era Catholic chapel on the top of Masada:

The Dead Sea was very enjoyable. I tried the "therapeutic mud" that they have along the shore, and stepped into the saltiest water I've ever encountered. As soon as I sat in the water, I instantly floated. I had a great time swimming around, while being cautious not to get the water in my eyes. I had seen kids crying as I walked to the sea shore who had tried to dive down, and got the salinated water in their eyes. I took the quintessential Dead Sea photo:

And then after my tour, I went back to the hostel I'm staying at in Jerusalem. This is a view of the Dome of the Rock from the roof of the hostel.

I later went out Monday night with 18 people from the hostel in the city center of Jerusalem. It was fun comparing traveling stories with people from many different nations. We were all surprised to see that the very traditional Jewish man in his 70s in the bunk next to mine, proved to be a ladies' man, and loved partying. He was the life of the party last night.

However, we all had to put up with his unbelievably loud snoring in the men's dorm room I'm sleeping in. It was almost comical how loud that man can snore. It sounded like someone was running a chainsaw right outside out window. Nonetheless, I got a good night of sleep and awoke to find three Christmas trees in the common room of the hostel.

Someone had dropped off many freshly cut evergreen trees and had set them at the entrance to Jaffa Gate in Old Jerusalem. The trees were free to take, and now the hostel has a nice pine scent.

Tuesday morning, eight of us from the hostel went to try the best hummus in Jerusalem, led by the guy who works at the hostel. It was a good breakfast, and I think I will stay at the hostel for another night and walk or take the bus into Bethlehem tomorrow with some people from the hostel for Christmas Eve and Christmas celebrations. More on that anon.