The Dead Sea Scrolls

And the next day the two of them went to the cave, and this time squeezed through the hole and dropped inside. It was just as the younger lad had described. The jars stood in rows on each side of the narrow cave, and, in the middle, broken sherds lay amidst debris fallen from the roof. There were seven or eight of the jars all told, and some had large, bowl-like lids. They lifted one and peered in, but found it empty. And so with another, and another, until in the third they saw a bundle of rags and under it two more. If they had hoped for the glitter of gold and precious stones they were sorely disappointed, for the bundles crumbled at a touch, and, pulling away some of the folds, they could see only some black tarry substance and, below that, folds of smooth brown leather. When, later, the boys had taken this booty back to their camp, they took off all the wrappings from the large bundle, and unrolled the scroll it contained, until, as they later recounted wonderingly, it stretched from one end of the tent to the other. It seems certain that this must have been the larger of the two manuscripts of Isaiah, the news of which was to set the biblical world astir. However, at the time it evoked little interest among its new owners who could neither read the strange writing inscribed on it, nor think of anything useful to which they could put the leather, fragile as it was. So for a time the Bedouin carried the scrolls about with them as they pastured their flocks and made what trade they could with their neighbours. These Bedouin have no real home. The world is their prey and usually their enemy. This tribe had been in the vicinity since the seventeenth century, and they have managed to eke out a sparse enough living with their few animals, now and again putting their detailed knowledge of the territory to better gain in smuggling. Until the area became effectively policed by the Arab Legion, they practised highway robbery when they could, and always found a ready market for their trading, legal or illegal, in Bethlehem. It was to this town that they made regular visits to sell their milk and cheese, and there, one market day, they took the three scrolls.