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(Sergio) So far, we've seen the place where Jesus was baptized,
explored the salty Dead sea.
And, next, we are on route to one of the most
significant archaeological discoveries of all times:
the Qumran Caves.
This is the place where they found
most of the ancient manuscripts of the Old Testament in Hebrew.
In this episode, we'll learn about
the community of scribes that once lived here
and how their manuscripts
have affected Judaism and Christianity today.
Awesome!
That's what happens when you come from Nazareth, babe.
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(Sergio) So, we are in Qumran.
This is an incredible place, isn't it?
- (Rhoda) Yes. - (Sergio) Wow.
So, right behind me you'll see the cave
where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Now, what is Qumran?
Qumran is a set of 11 caves discovered by accident.
That's a pretty cool story.
A shepherd boy, a Bedouin shepherd boy,
walking around tending his sheep or goats,
and he starts throwing rocks into the cave,
which is kind of a fun thing to do in Israel.
Yeah, we like throwing rocks around.
That's right. So, he's throwing rocks and then he hears
a shattering sound of glass or pottery.
They go in and they find pottery.
And the pottery contains the most ancient Hebrew texts,
which are manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible.
(Rhoda) Scrolls.
(Sergio) Scrolls. How many of them?
850 Hebrew manuscripts.
Here is the cool part.
Before that, we used to have Masoretic Texts.
Masoretic Texts are copies of the Hebrew Bible.
And, now, that dates to the 11th century AD,
and it's the oldest copy we had until these were found.
And these date a thousand years older.
These are from the 1st century BC.
Until they were found,
there was a dispute about Psalm 22.
It speaks about Jesus being pierced.
It says: They pierced My hands and My feet.
Well, that is the English translation.
What does the Hebrew text say?
Well, until these were found, the Hebrew Masoretic Text,
which dates from the 11th century,
says "ke'ari," and ke'ari is "like a lion."
But the more older Greek manuscripts
used to say "pierced."
So, which one is true: the Hebrew scripts or the Greek?
Well, the Jews used to say the Hebrew is true,
the Greek is just a manufactured fairytale,
until they found these Hebrew manuscripts,
a thousand years older than the original Masoretic Texts.
And those Hebrew manuscripts say "ke'aru."
Instead of an "yud," it's a "vav," translating to "pierced."
So, in fact, the original Hebrew text meant to say "pierced."
It is a Messianic verse, and it's incredible.
That's awesome.
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(Sergio) So, this used to be a community of scribes.
They called themselves the Community of The Way.
- (Rhoda) The "Yahad." - (Sergio) The "Yahad."
And they believed that they are the sons of light
and everyone else from outside are sons of darkness.
In fact, to get accepted in the community,
you had to go through two years of like a trial period.
(Rhoda) And the purpose of this community, mostly,
was for a life of purity.
They were here, away from their families,
from their friends.
They gathered here together for purity.
And we know that by the number of mikvehs,
the ritual baths that are found in such a small community.
They have so many of them,
just the proportion between the people and the mikvehs,
so purity was an essential point.
They washed before meals, after meals.
They washed a lot, basically.
(Sergio) And one of the manuscripts-- there were five manuscripts--
one of the texts that were here
says a story about a person named John Yohanan
who came here to be accepted into the community.
He stayed here for two years, and then suddenly...
(Rhoda) Right before he got accepted, he left.
(Sergio) Yes, left.
And then, later,
they get the news of John the Baptist being beheaded,
and they are thinking: This is the same guy.
Interesting story.
Another interesting finding in the texts,
from these jars is the bread and the wine tradition.
Apparently, back at their time already,
a hundred years before Jesus,
they had a tradition where they believed of serving bread
together with wine over a dinner,
and a high priest is supposed to do that.
And what's interesting is that they believed
the Messiah is going to do it too.
And after the Messiah, it's going to be tradition
to be kept every time you get together
to eat bread and wine.
Zip line.
But I ate bacon this morning.
But it's kosher bacon.
I forced my pork to chew on cud.
By the way, guys, think about it.
Kosher bacon. You force your pork to chew on the cud.
It has split hooves. It's kosher!
We should start a business in Israel.
You might have a problem with the Rabbanut, though.
Place your order in the comments below.
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So, we were just driving on the road,
and we said, hey.
Look at that cool ancient road up.
Why not hike it, right?
Maybe David climbed this thing once.
Wouldn't that be cool?
All right.
So, you see this behind me?
That's a rock slide.
Not a mud slide, a rock slide.
You don't want to be here when it's sliding.
This is actually, now, a dangerous season
because this is when it rains.
And when it rains, especially the first rains,
the ground is so hard and dry
that the water doesn't soak it in.
Instead, it creates a flood.
And, quite a few people died in this very season
in these Judaean mountains.
It looks like a smooth stone that David threw at Goliath.
It's good to make like pancakes
or mashed potatoes or garlic or wok.
- (Sergio) Or kill Goliath.
Who wants to be Goliath?
(Sergio) I'll be Goliath. Film.
(growling)
By the way, we have with us extra crew today:
The pilot, Michael,
and a tourist from Germany... Nite.
So, yeah. You can pick this mud
from across the street for free.
But, I guess it's just cleaner this way,
and it's a nice bag, but it's--
And it's Ahava, so it's very well--
20 bucks, though. 20 bucks!
- Yeah, it's expensive. - For mud!
20 bucks for mud.
That's what it comes down to.
Anyway, we're in the gift store in the Qumran Park.
Fish, star, and menorah necklace things.
We're gonna send three of those
to three random commentators in the section below.
So, put a comment,
and we're just gonna randomly let the computer select
three random people from the comment section
and send it to you.
So, once we declare who the winners are,
we will reply to your comment.
We'll give you our email address
so you can tell us your postal address
so we can send it to you.
So, make sure to comment below, and we'll send it to you.
(Rhoda) (non-English speech)
What happened at the counter?
He's an Arab. I spoke to him in Arabic,
and he gave me an additional discount.
Awesome.
That's what happens when you come from Nazareth, babe.
5%.
Win-win.
Now we have extra money for a Shawarma or something.
See, it's good to be an Arab sometimes.
Always.