Sarah and The Dead Sea Scrolls by K. Denise Holmberg

Seventy years ago, along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea—thirteen miles from Jerusalem—
A Cave of Qumran
Bedouin tribesmen entered narrow caves on a cliff and made the 
greatest manuscript discovery of modern times.
Over the next decade, the industrious Bedouins discovered many more scrolls in the caves of Qumran that have become known as The Dead Sea Scrolls. 
Written on the treated hides of goats, ibex, and gazelles, the scrolls are believed to be the
library of a Jewish sect called the Essenes.
ibex
Hidden from the invading Romans, they lay on the floor in dark caves visited only by occasional rats, worms or other insects, for two thousand years.
Rolled up in stone jars, many of them dirty and ragged and mere fragments, the trove produced:
• Nineteen copies of the Book of Isaiah that were a thousand years older than any other known copy.
• Prophecies by Daniel, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, never seen before.
• Psalms of King David and Joshua not found in the Bible. Among many other ancient writings in both Hebrew and Aramaic.
In one of the fascinating translated texts is a poem written by an Egyptian man named Hyrcanos. He was an advisor to Pharaoh, and one of the men who discovered Sarah, Abraham’s wife. He wrote the poem to describe Sarah’s astonishing beauty to his king.
Poem of Hyrcanos
How splendid and beautiful is the aspect of her face, and how supple is the hair of her head.
How lovely are her eyes; how pleasant her nose and all the radiance of her face.
How shapely is her breast, how gorgeous all her fairness!
Her arms, how comely!
Her hands, how perfect—how lovely is every aspect of her hands!
How exquisite are her palms, how long and delicate all her fingers!
Her feet, how attractive!
How perfect are her thighs!
Neither virgins, nor brides entering the bridal chamber exceed her charms.
Over all women is her beauty supreme, her loveliness far above them all.
Yet with all this comeliness, she possesses great wisdom, and all that she has is beautiful.
Wow.
No wonder Pharaoh was besotted.
And to think she was sixty-five years old!
There is more treasure like this in the Dead Sea Scrolls, because they aged as well as Sarah.
Even being over two-thousand years old, they possess great wisdom, and have much to say to us.
Blessings!
Denise


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