If you ever have a chance to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls in any kind of exhibition, do.
We expected to spend maybe a couple of hours looking at some old parchment that documented some of the formative writings of Judaism and Christianity. What I didn't expect was that the two youngest would be attentive for 3 hours and that we would spend about 5 hours total exploring, learning about and viewing the Dead Sea Scrolls.
It was an incredible experience. Not only was it incredible from a personal religious standpoint, but it was unfathomable from an historical standpoint.
Part of what we saw was a copy from Deuteronomy, specifically, the passages containing the 10 Commandments. The portion of the scroll on display was maybe three inches across and perhaps 10 inches long. It contained the 10 commandments written twice (two different copies...hard to explain) including interpretive text in the original paleo-Hebrew. The writing was positively minuscule and perfect. The condition of the parchment was impeccable. It just blew me away to see such a beautiful example of writing from so long ago.
Really, I'm struggling to put into words how much this affected me. I expected to be wowed by our visit today. I didn't expect to be so deeply moved. This was well worth every penny we spent today. I'm so glad we went.
