Central Texans join the hunt for more Dead Sea Scrolls

When you mention the Dead Sea Scrolls to a Jewish person or a Christian, eyes light up and thoughts of historic ancient religious texts that were found in the 1940s and 1950s are noted. The scrolls are from before the time of Christ and some from later and were discovered by Bedouin goatherds in Judean Desert caves by the Dead Sea. Many have called it one of the greatest archeological finds of the 20th Century.

But the search for more of the scrolls and the religious texts they containstill continues. The scrolls and the texts contained in them do not offer any new information but they confirm the present day texts of the Bible not being changed in the centuries from when they were written. They also command enormous prices from antiquities dealers who have purchased some from looters.

Lately, there are reports that two previously undiscovered caves were found near Qumran in the West Bank. Led by Dr. Randall Price of Liberty University and Oren Gutfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the team has returned this year to dig a little further.

Michael Hogan of Wimberley is one of those on the team with Jonathan Price and Steve Howell, all Central Texas residents. Hogan is the Pastor of Freedom Valley Fellowship In Wimberley. 

Last year pottery shards, string and pieces of textiles were discovered in one of the caves, bringing hope to the team. According to an article in National Geographic, Price said, “They found lots of pottery from a range of periods of time—from early Islamic to Second Temple to Hellenistic,” he continued. 

“There’s reason to hope something else might be there … This cave was robbed by Bedouins maybe 40 years ago … fortunately for us, they didn’t dig very deep. Our hope is that if we keep digging, we hit the mother lode.”

The caves have been looted in the past, but the team “is going deeper into the caves than anyone has in potentially more than 2,000 years. The hope is that the Jews, who hid the scrolls in the caves to protect and preserve them, hid more of them deeper in the caves,” Hogan said. It was important to hide the scrolls from the Romans during Israel revolts of the 1st Century.

“In January of 2017, the team discovered another cave. This was the first to be discovered since the 1950s, when the first of the scrolls were discovered … this find made world wide news and was on the cover of National Geographic.”

They have surveyed and have used ground-penetrating radar to uncover more caves and to find other artifacts. So far this year, no major finds have happened yet. But the media also is very interested with the team and their finds. Reuters News and others have been keeping up with the group.

“Israel Today was there filming yesterday in the caves,” Hogan said. Archeological work is slow and painstaking. It’s not as easy as Indiana Jones makes it look in the movies. But perhaps like Jones an important discovery is just a few inches of dirt away.