My wife and I have always been fascinated by the Dead Sea Scrolls and this lecture was sure to deepen our desire to learn even more.

 

Wise’s lecture wasn’t on the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran that were discovered in caves around 1946-56 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, but his lecture April 5 was on “the other” scrolls, documents and letters found in caves in the early 1960s. Explorations of these caves produced letters and fragments of papyrus that dated back to 132-135 A.D.

 

Wise explained the letters — numbering in the hundreds and including both biblical and non-biblical materials — relate to the time of the second revolt of the Jewish people against the Romans. 

 

This was a time when Judaism and Christianity were splitting apart. Early Christians had been regarded as a Jewish sect until this time, but were now being seen as a separate religion. 

 

The leader of this second revolt, Shimon Bar Kokhba, was considered a Messiah, and the Jewish people (apart from Christians) supported him in this belief and in rising against Rome. 

 

Wise explained the place Bar Kokhba’s letters were found came from a place called “The Cave of Letters” (about 12 miles south of the Qumran caves). The caves are located in the desert near the border of Israel and Judea, in a ravine called Nahal Hever.

 

In the Cave of Letters, archeologists found a niche of skulls and skeletons along with textiles, clothing, coins bronze vessels and baskets, along with the cache of letters. The hole in the mountain can only be accessed via a 50-ft. climb up (or down) to the cave’s entrance.

 

The Cave of Letters is a massive cave with two openings in the sheer cliff wall with three internal chambers connected by narrow passageways with the cavern complex cutting more than 300 yards deep into the cliff-side. The most common theory is that the caves were used as a hideaway by Jewish refugees who were escaping oppressive Roman rule.

 

What I found interesting in listening to Wise’s lecture was how some of those events of those days seem to mirror our modern days. 

 

The two revolts in some ways mirror our two world wars — a bullying faction decides to force control over neighboring countries, attaining or retaining a world dominance. 

 

The meteoric rise and fall of Bar Kokhba in some ways parallels the life of Jesus Christ. Bar Kokhba’s name means “son of the star” and since a passage in the Book of Numbers said the following: “... a star will come out of Jacob...”, many Jewish people assumed Bar Kohkba was the Messiah. He grew to great prominence and was considered the most successful Messiah-like figure in Jewish history based on the number of followers. Though Jesus’ followers and today’s Christians would argue Jesus never “fell”, many nonconformists considered his crucifixion the end of his significance, just like Bar Kohkba’s death in battle ended all Jewish hopes.

 

The Jewish people were being persecuted in the first century for their religious beliefs and rituals and that is similar to how today’s Christians are being treated all over the world.

 

And finally, Jerusalem’s loss of their Holy Temple mirrors all that is being lost in America - the 10 Commandments being taken out of government buildings, the suppression of speech, the pledge of allegiance being taken out of schools, the mention of “God” or “Jesus Christ” in schools or on public documents bringing about expulsion or discipline and so on and so on...

 

Christians today are being treated the same way the first-century Jewish people were being treated — being mocked for believing in a monotheistic deity when the world had several, for believing the Torah was God’s word, for being forced to be “tolerant” of other people’s ideas and lifestyles, for making moral judgements and for following “practices” — like going to church — that many in this world find old-fashioned and benign.

 

The pagan culture in America seems to be winning, just as Rome did in the first century. 

 

Will history repeat itself? Will Christians continue to allow heretics to walk all over them, as many Jewish people did in Jesus’ time? Will Christians go against their belief in God and the Bible to be sure they’re accepted by their friends and acquaintances?

 

Only time will tell.

 

Interesting enough, after the failure of the revolt, the rabbinical writers changed Bar Kokhba's epithet to "Simon bar Koziba" meaning, "the son of disappointment or evil one".

 

No one’s ever changed Jesus’ epithet.