Israel Museum

Model of Temple and 1st Cent. Jerusalem

This morning found us on a half day tour of the Israel Museum. Wow! We enjoyed the huge model of ancient Jerusalem in the first century and a film on the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and life among the members of the ancient Qumran community, a sect of Judaism known as the Essenes. We then viewed a number of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the material excavated with them. We saw copies of not only biblical manuscripts, but also the sectarian literature and the extra-biblical (apocryphal) books in use among the Community back at that time.

Inscription Mentioning Pontius Pilate

We then toured the finds housed  in the Museum from Israel's pre-historic periods up through modern time. We enjoyed the biblical finds the most. What a vast and fantastic collection.

We have a long evening at the Shabbat (Sabbath) of a Lifetime tonight. We'll try and post about that experience tomorrow. We leave Jerusalem in the morning and visit ancient Beersheva and Arad on our way south to Eilat on the Red Sea. We will drop off our guide Yael in Beersheva so she can return home to her children. We will certainly miss her! We have a day free to explore the Red Sea area. Some will likely shop, others snooze, and some swin or snorkel along the coral reefs.

More from Eilat!