6 FEB 07: I SEA DEAD SCROLLS

Our best wishes first to Jim Swilley, whom we read Monday is retiring as Pastor of North Highland Assembly of God. His successor will have tough shoes to fill - and may come in asking why the church isn't in the North Highland neighborhood anymore.

Columbus State University hosted an honors lecture Monday night, which Jim Swilley might have found interesting. A professor from Jerusalem talked about the "Dead Sea Scrolls." A good crowd turned out for this presentation - so while "drawing dead" is bad in poker, something Dead can still draw on campus.

If you're a regular blog reader (especially to our Saturday posts), you can understand why this topic interested me. The Dead Sea Scrolls are considered the most important religious discovery of the last century. Edgar Whisenhunt's book "88 Reasons Why the World Must End in 1988" apparently ranked farther down the list.

The lecturer was Professor Shalom Paul, who chairs the Bible Department at Jerusalem's Hebrew University. He also happens to be the chair of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation - and if you know anything about the Dead Sea, this group must be a very salty bunch.

This year marks six decades since the first seven of the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a Middle East cave. Shalom Paul recalled the first three scrolls were sold by a Bethlehem antique shop for $100. Seven years later in 1954, they were sold for $225,000. Nowadays, they might be equal in value to Nick Saban's football contract at Alabama.

Shalom Paul described what he called a "gold in them thar hills" rush to search Middle Eastern caves, once the first Dead Sea Scrolls were found. But local residents beat archeologists to the best scrolls. Paul said archeologists could tell by the "packs of Marlboros" inside the caves. [True!]

Tens of thousands of Dead Sea Scroll fragments were recovered between 1947 and 1956, with nothing found since. The longest discovery was a 24-and-a-half foot scroll of the Biblical book of Isaiah. I'm not sure even pro basketball players could unroll that on their own.

Shalom Paul noted 90 percent of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments are in Hebrew, seven percent in Aramaic and three percent in Greek. He said this shows the people of that time were multilingual - so those of you complaining about signs in Spanish at Home Depot might want to shut up, and start learning.

Shalom Paul explained the Dead Sea Scrolls are significant because they're 2,000 years old, and show writings of scripture before the Bible as we know it was finalized. He called them books in a "pre-canonical stage." This is different from when Mario Andretti drove in the Indianapolis 500 - which was the "pre-Kanaan-ical stage."

Shalom Paul went on to say the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal the "matrix of Christianity." For instance, he said the practice of baptism has its roots in ritual bathing before meals by the ancient Essenes. But Paul took a real risk with his Columbus audience when he declared John the Baptist was "more accurately, John the Jew."

Shalom Paul calls them the "ever-alive Dead Sea Scrolls" - and his foundation makes sure of it by putting fragments of the scrolls on tour. The latest stop is Kansas City, beginning this month. But Paul said the scrolls can be displayed for only three months at a time. He didn't say why. Maybe one has a hidden restrictive covenant on it.

Shalom Paul revealed when the Dead Sea Scrolls are shown in San Diego next summer, the display for the first time will include copper scrolls currently kept in Jordan. Only a few scrolls were written on copper, and some people believe they contain hints for finding hidden treasures in the desert. Maybe THAT'S where those weapons of mass destruction from Iraq went....

It had been a long time since I attended a lecture such as this one. I learned many things from it - including a new "over-and-under" side game to play. I heard three cell phones ring during the presentation.

(BLOGGER'S NOTE: We'll have more from Shalom Paul's presentation this coming weekend.)

E-MAIL UPDATE: It's nice to have readers in high places - especially when they're the people we're writing about:

Hello Richard,

You have a great blog and I will take note of your cautions. Delta has begun to respond to fares rates as noted below. However, we must continue to monitor to see if the change in fares is permanent and reliability is there. The fares below reflect a drastic change over past fares.

Personal note: My son in the Air force reads this blog when he is deployed to the middle east to keep up with hometown news. Thanks.

Regards,

Don

Our thanks to Don Cook, whom we mentioned Sunday. Given his son's military service, I shouldn't be surprised at his involvement on the Columbus Airport Commission -- and this may give Atlantic Southeast Airlines reason to be very careful around here.

Don Cook's e-mail included an attachment from Columbus Airport Director Mark Oropeza, comparing Delta Air Line ticket prices for flights from Columbus and Atlanta. We weren't able to post it, but we'll e-mail it to anyone who asks. On average, the "price gap" is about 40 dollars. But as they say at that appliance store -- are these fares fairer?

The fare chart shows Delta had a great deal Monday for flights from Columbus to Boston. Buy tickets 21 days in advance for $258, and you'll beat the fare from Atlanta by 20 dollars. Add the cost of shuttle buses, and you might be able to use the savings for one night at a cheap Boston motel.

In contrast, the biggest price gap was for 14-day advance tickets to Philadelphia. A flight from Atlanta cost $270 Monday. From Columbus, it cost $373. As if they think "Southern heritage" supporters might go to the Liberty Bell, and attempt a coup?!

We also had a forwarded message sent our way Monday:

ALL THAT MONEY SPENT ON HIGH DEFINITION PLASMA...LCD...DSP...TO SEE RAINDROPS & PRINCE NOT PLAYING HIS GUITAR..........................STEPHEN KING ..........SKY -HIGH PYROTECHNICS INT.INC.

Blame the National Football League for this one. They should have known better than to have the singer of "Purple Rain" perform at halftime of the Super Bowl.

(Which reminds me of the best short movie review I ever read, from Eleanor Ringel of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1984: "Purple Rain - down the drain.")

I was in a workplace Monday where people talked about Prince performing at the Super Bowl, about the rain in Miami, about the commercials - but no one talked about the game itself. That tells me it was boring, and I didn't miss a thing by turning it off and working on my tax return.

In fact, as I write this late Monday night, I still do NOT know which team won the Super Bowl. It's an experiment I do from time to time - to see how long I can go without learning some important bit of information. This shows if I'm overpowered by or overexposed to The Mass Media. And in this case, turning off TV newscasts after the weather works very well.

(And as long as I keep my radio on the FM religious stations and avoid their two-minute news updates, I might not learn which team won the game for years....)

Speaking of being "in the dark," let's look at other topics from Monday....

+ A construction crew broke an underground cable, knocking out power to Columbus Park Crossing for several hours. Things became SO BAD that some shop managers went to Lifeway Christian Store, to pray for the repair crew.

+ A convenience store on North Lumpkin Road was robbed - yet the videotape shown on WXTX "News at Ten" showed police officers smiling at the scene. C'mon now, the surveillance tape can't possibly be THAT funny....

+ The Columbus Better Business Bureau presented its annual "Torch Awards" for ethics in business. This year's winners include Northside Animal Hospital - where the prices had better be accurate, or the patients might bite.

+ ABC News "Nightline" visited the New York advertising agency which handles AFLAC commercials. CEO Dan Amos said business doubled in three years, with an agency which makes a big deal about being nice. It's a wonder the staff doesn't also do ads for Karo syrup....

(The female managers of this ad agency actually have written a book called "The Power of Nice," and contended to Nightline meanness in the workplace is "so last millennium." I presume these women never have been hired to do political commercials.)

+ Alabama Congressman Artur Davis announced a computer hard drive has disappeared from the Veterans Administration hospital in Birmingham. It could have information on 48,000 veterans. I think we can rule out Republicans doing this, since John Kerry isn't running for President again....

+ Instant Message to the driver of a car I saw in Phenix City, with a "BOOBAMA" license tag: I'll take three guesses....

1. You're a big Auburn fan.

2. You want Bo Callaway or Bo Jackson to be Barack Obama's running mate.

3. You have a serious problem with the American Medical Association.

SONG OF THE DAY: The evening news launched a new series Monday called "Does It Work?" It works in my brain - putting new words on the classic tune "Shall We Dance?"

Does it work?

Does the product do what the label said?

Does it work?

Or will you be so angry, you'll turn red?

Does it work?

Let's put some of these items to the test.

If they don't pass our muster, and their ads are full of bluster,

Then we'll discard them like they're jerks!

We don't want to waste our money,

So we'll see if they act funny.

Does it work? Does it work?? Does it work???

COMING WEDNESDAY: E-mail about radios.... which are inside your body....

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