New Liberty Videos: Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls {A Review}

New Liberty Videos sent us Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls DVD ($19.95). We'd recommend it for ages 12 and up. 

Mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls has a running time of 60 minutes and is broken into three sections. One evening, I cuddled with Wheel on the sofa watching all three of the episodes.

The first part is called Dead Sea Scrolls with Joel Lampe, a curator. This section tells about the 19,000 pieces of scrolls found over 55 years ago in the caves of Qumran near the Dead Sea by a shepherd. While looking for his stray, he happened upon one of the most amazing finds in history. 

Many advances in science have allowed for pieces to be put together accurately. Thanks to infrared technology many of the pieces that could not be read by the naked eye can be read now. And DNA testing has been used to match the exact pieces to the proper scroll. Scholars have been putting the pieces together like a puzzle for all of these years.

I have been interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls since I was a junior in high school. When I was told to write a paper over ancient history, I turned to the scrolls to report on. I especially appreciated learning about how the scrolls were left behind, forgotten, and destroyed.

The second part is called Hebrew Word Pictures with Dr. Frank Seekins. Ancient Hebrew is read from right to left, every word is a word picture and a phonetic word as well. It amazes me how a language can be composed of both pictures and sounds.

I was very interested in how when you combine woman and man together you have God, his glory dwelling there. But that is not all, if God is taken out of the picture, a new spelling develops. Strong teeth or fire is what is left in each word. So when men and women are together (and God is absent) you spell fire. Not once, but twice. Men and women together without God leaves the most destructive fire there is.

Another very interesting word picture to me is the use of the sign of the cross. Hundreds of years before Christianity, the sign of the cross was put on the door frame in blood so that the death angel would pass over. Christ has always been written, his death, his love, from the beginning. 

The third part is called The Forbidden Book with Dr. Craig Lampe. There have been many times, in many ages in which the Bible has been forbidden. Dr. Lampe asserts that now across our country the Bible is being forbidden again. He discusses the bravery of John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, and William Tyndale. They worked with death hanging over them to share the Bible in the language of the people. 

As a mother of two daughters, I found it very empowering how he talks about women and his own daughters. Woman means mighty warrior in Hebrew. Our society has taken the image of a woman as a mighty warrior and made her a trophy piece.

This DVD would be excellent for learning the history of Hebrew, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the translation of the Bible.

Wishing you homeschool blessings,


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