What I saw in Eden

Could the patriarchs, Adam and Enoch and Methuselah have prophesied concerning the cross of Christ and buried their message in a neolithic temple designed to survive the great flood? Archeologists are not likely to admit it, but it seems that may be the case. In this blog I'll consider that question.

When not working my full time job, I have spent the better part of the last seven weeks creating maps of an area known as the "fertile crescent" in search of Eden. In drawing these maps I have accounted for everything from archeological evidence to a multitude of Biblical texts, as well as possible fault lines. My reason, as always, is prophecy. Zechariah speaks of "Living Waters" proceeding from the sanctuary at the Lord's return at the Mount of Olives. Zion then becomes the well spring for two rivers that seem more than allegorical, because he is specific about various landmarks and it all involves a very great earthquake probably accompanied by tsunamis. See Zechariah 14 for a start on this.

The restoration of this river, which is of "Living Waters" has had me considering whether the restoration of Paradise, and of the Garden of Eden may be involved because of the missing Pishon and Gihon Rivers which surround Havilah and Cush, a land the Lord promised to the descendants of Ishmael. And, yes, indeed, that means the Arab nations are sitting on what the Jewish and Christian Bibles say is Paradise. It is not all about Israel. But I'll save that discussion for another time.

One of my favorite early church fathers, Hippolytus, insisted that Paradise was a part of creation proper, and did not belong to another world, heavenly though it is. Hippolytus was a student of Ireneus, who held similar opinions. And Ireneus was a student of Polycarp and of Papias, both of whom knew John and some of those who knew the other apostles personally. Papias described Paradise graphically and later church fathers criticized him for this as they rejected PreMillennialism. But my studies have shown that the reaction against PreMillennialism may have been a deterioration in the apostolic deposit. The earliest opinion given against the idea is Victorinus, who does not appear to be so tightly connected to the apostles.

Before dismissing any of this as fanciful 1st and 2nd century Christian imagination, let us consider the power of prophecy and of our hope in the resurrection. Scientists say the world is billions of years old. And we can't prove that Eden ever existed literally. Archeologists agree that there was never a great flood. Their methods of interpretation must follow the various "lithic" periods which have become conventional, with their corresponding system of dating. It is the new dogma.

Prophecy is another matter. We can interpret this literally as well as allegorically without necessarily raising brows. For all those Christians who are evolutionists, etc., yet believe that Jesus Christ died in fulfillment of the Scriptures and rose from the dead, there's still a place for the miraculous somewhere. And the prophets are not dismissed, even if they are often accused of retrofitting history, as is commonly thought with Daniel 9-11.

Me, I'm simpler than that. And that is why I would like to have full access to the things that only scholars seem to be permitted to examine. A case in point is the Gobekli Tepe archeological dig in SouthEast Turkey. I didn't even have to go there and I can see from my own living room what the pictographs left behind mean because one of the wall paintings that survived tells the story. The photo above was taken from a frame of the YouTube documentary below. And to my eye, it looks like a prophecy foretelling Calvary. But of course, prophecy is not something that archeologists, being scientists, can consider.

First discovered in 1964 and thought to have been a buried Byzantine monastery, in 1994 it was found out that Gobekli Tepe (pronounced "Gobeeklee Tipay") was a place of worship for a peoples archeologists are calling neolithic, which up until now would have been an anachronism. The neolithic period (the stone age) is supposed to be characterized by nomadic hunter gatherers. Building temples requires a community organization, especially when it means carrying huge stones up mountains prior to the domestication of animals and the invention of the wheel. But at Gobekli Tepe none of the signs of agriculture exist.

I actually found out about this quite by accident. I had been investigating the origins of the place called Beth Eden, along the Euphrates. The increasingly famous dig is just a few miles north of Beth Eden. And indeed, many people are referring to the site as a possible location of the original Eden, though usually tongue in cheek.

The team, headed up by German archeologist Klaus Schmidt, says they do not know how to read the pictographs painted or carved into the stones as reliefs. The site is remarkably well preserved. And although only 5% of the site has been excavated so far, many conclusions have already been made - one of the first of which is that it was deliberately buried.

The early conclusion of the team is that based on a lack of signs of agriculture and carbon dating, the site was built around 10,000 BCE, over 6000 years earlier than Stone Henge and the earliest pyramids. This has young earth creationists on the defense, who say that carbon dating methods are unreliable for dates previous to the oldest trees and previous to the flood, and who argue that the assumptions of anthropologists that man evolved from a nomadic to an agricultural way of life are largely untrue. So to them the finding of a place of worship like this is no surprise.

I have not been in the creation science circle. I am more interested in prophecy and patristics. But I do wonder whether the creationists will maintain that this site is post or antediluvian. At a time when I'm considering every conceivable possibility concerning Eden, if I were to venture a guess, I'd be primed to speculate that there really was a flood and the site was created by the ancestors of Noah just prior to the flood. These, I suppose based on their overlapping ages in Genesis 5, all knew the prophecies through Adam and Enoch. Then, knowing that the flood was coming, the antediluvian patriarchs buried the site in the hope that it would one day be uncovered. Methuselah apparently died the very year of the flood. In this way, they could point to the one true faith - Christianity.

It points to Christianity? Did I say that?

Well, the Bible says that where the corpse/body is there the vultures/eagles will gather. What is there, mostly, is pictures of vultures feeding on corpses. Or as one might interpret it, on the body of Christ, those who have fallen asleep in Him, rising from the dead on the wings of eagles. The ambiguity between vultures and eagles, and the corpse and the body is a reference to the return of the Lord, where some die, and others are given life by death. It was an expression of the hope of the resurrection despite the coming destruction. Here's a video link showing some of these vulture/eagles so you can get the idea -

More prominent than the eagles, every worship location is characterized by circular walls supporting multi-ton T-shaped decorative cross-like stones. And the complex is very large. It is impossible for the unbelieving archeologists to interpret this as predictive of Christ. Instead they must find some other meaning, some other culture, something that is not Biblical. Convention requires it.

Thus they will fail to notice that the depictions of scorpions and spiders and every unclean animal that is posted on every cross, (along with the clean, even lambs) at this clearly pre-Christian site declares that all things are made clean in Christ, in whom is all glory. And they will not understand the significance of the fact that the site itself was buried only to be found again in these last days. So that even if the people fail to give the Lord praise in these last days, the rocks and the hills will cry out. It has been resurrected. And it lifts high one thing - the cross.

Did the patriarchs foresee that nothing except giant stones would last the flood of time? The Book of Enoch, though many copies were found in Qumran, may yet be pseudepigraphal. But I'm not so sure about the writings of this ancient mound. In this case, we have an actual autograph, not just a copy.

Now for my pitch ...

Would you like to examine with me the remains of the Book of Enoch found in the caves of Qumran, by the shore of the Dead Sea? So sorry. We can't do that because I haven't yet raised the money I need to open up the first 24/7 Scrolls Reference Hall. I was thinking that someone would pass the word on for me that I was looking to form a board of directors for this so that I wouldn't have to do it myself. I have maps to complete so I can write my books. I can't be spending my time raising funds.

Meantime, I've got to drive down to Miami to access Discoveries in the Judean Dessert (DJD) and my other passion, Migne's PG and PL. That's a three hour trip - well worth it. But we'll have to get an early start because the library closes at 4pm.

Just in case you missed it, the reason I blog here is to bring attention to the fact that I have very limited access to the materials I need to write my books. I am willing to open up a library 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that would make these materials available to everyone, so that I could devote myself full time to writing and making such a facility available to others who would like to do the same. I need to raise about $200,000 for the purpose. If you can help, or if you know of anyone else who can help, please send them a link to this blog.

Also, just to clarify about my last blog, no - it does not need to be located next to a 7-11 or BP gas station. The idea there is that I'm open to suggestions. Whatever works. Hello? Is anybody out there?

Convenience

I had been in a holding pattern on 24/7 Scrolls, waiting for another word from God, what direction to take, how much effort, if any, to put in. Never move without a plan, something definite. Or should I?

I almost sent out a blog, relaying all these non-assertive thoughts. Should I act alone? Noah did. Elijah did. Jonah only had the assistance of a fish? Should I? Shouldn't I? Surely people were out there who could help. All I really needed was one wealthy patron. The needs were modest compared to other non-profits.

But I was not alone. Not only did I have Him. I had her.

My gorgeous wife, Lisa, is a brilliant woman, but has had some misfortune. She has been looking for work for next to seven years now, following a severe brain bleed that left her partially paralized despite much very expensive physical and occupational therapy. Time and time again I've told her that if I ever quit my day job and was in a position to hire, say for instance as in a NPO like 24/7 Scrolls, she would be first on my list of "volunteers." She was also well aware that doing something beyond my day job is not an option for me. It is not workaholism. Our current condition is not sustainable. Something must change. If it's not 24/7 Scrolls it will be something else.

While I was whining to her once again about how all I needed was $10,000 for the DJD, $40,000 for the PG and PL, $20000 for other miscellaneous scrolls, $20,000 for a computer network and hot spot, plus some rooms for lectures and chat, plus salaries for four initial employees including me - ooooh, maybe $500,000 for a fully staffed Reference Hall #1, it occurred to me what the missing element was - coffee.

Lots and lots of coffee. And maybe some snacks. Yes, we would need vending machines.

One wealthy patron. That was all that was needed. To pay for all that coffee. Oh, yes and the books.

Why? Because college libraries, if they have such specialized reference material, are only open to students and not open 24/7. Public libraries also probably won't carry them for financial reasons. Churches and synagogues may have an interest in housing the scrolls but only support their individual ideologies so I've discounted them. Plus they also close after hours. And what the need was, who the target was, was the person who needs to do research - the one who has a full time job but wants to write their book on the side to escape the poverty trap - people like me, or the diligent and astute rabbi, pastor or imam that actually makes the effort to check their facts. Or perhaps, the skeptic, who would never set foot in a place of worship and whose agenda is simply to dismantle organized religion one piece at a time, one fact at a time, through their own channels of communication, supposing that there is nothing in these scrolls that would support historical expressions of faith, much less modern ones.

With all of these I would be happy to dialog daily and throughout the night, hearing and considering their insights if there seemed to be any merit to them. I can't afford to put myself through college again. What I needed, and people like me, was the convenience of a 24/7 Scrolls. Please make me the director. Please put me there. It's my passion to be in an environment like that.

That and this incredible woman I've been married to for about 20 years. There she was sitting by the window chatting with me. And here we were talking about 24/7 Scrolls and my workaholism - and coffee: what it needed most. There she was in the light of the rising sun peeking through the vertical blinds as I considered just how much coffee, and snacks, and the profits from the snacks that could pay for it all. And then flash ...

What we really needed was a Convenience Store!

Aren't they already open 24/7? Aren't they already fully staffed? Aren't they already in every city? What if instead of a 24/7 Scrolls with some conveniences we had a Convenience Store chain with some 24/7 Scrolls in some of its stores - just giving it a try?

I liked it. They're well lit. Very visible. Just like her, with the light of the sun shining on her and those big brown eyes.

So we returned to a conversation we had had a number of times. It wasn't so much that it would be difficult. It was about how to proceed. It wasn't so much that there wasn't money out there. It was about who to approach.

Then she suggested BP Oil. "They could use some good PR right about now," she said.

BP HMMMM
I was with her on that. I've been boycotting Citgo for years because of its connection with Hugo Chavez. But now, since the press is still attached to the president, Big Oil, (and American capitalism generally), is the bad guy so instead of actually doing anything to help BP clean up the Gulf and contain the spill the Obama administration has simply promised criminal investigations. With the press on his side, this will no doubt churn up grass roots efforts calling for a boycott on BP. In the end, Hugo Chavez wins.

I like to stay away from politics but ... imagine George Bush responding to Hurricane Katrina by doing no more than calling for an investigation into why New Orleans was unprepared for the disaster. Surely the problem was poor leadership in New Orleans itself in one administration after another. But the one who took the fall was George Bush - despite his sending in the military to help PDQ and a number of other things that just weren't fast enough for a hostile press. By contrast, it's been six weeks now and there's been absolutely no government assistance I am aware of in the Gulf. What we have here instead is an opportunity to knee jerk legistlation that will further hinder the economic interests of the United States in the name of environmental good will. Somehow against the mainstream I was looking at BP as a victim rather than a criminal.

And that was where Lisa's genius was. In that one statement I could see she saw the irony - I would be willing to help them even though they have billions and I am penniless. But what are the chances I could get them to help me? Probably nada.

As an aside, I have plenty of thoughts about politics but I stopped going public with them years ago because I did not believe that any politicians would be capable of fixing the Unitied States nor would my words make a bit of difference. It would just be a matter of how fast it fell. That is why I registered as "no party affiliation." I don't believe that any of the parties has the answers to my country's needs. The Bible says that the Restrainer will be removed. I have never hidden the fact that my interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls had to do with my interest in prophecy. And that is all I intend to say on the subject.

But when that luminary with such fascinating eyes suggested BP, my thoughts raced while my heart lept. She was speaking way down deep into the core of my being. Whoever owns BP has more than enough money to make 24/7 Scrolls happen. And really, any corner store might just increase their profits if they added some 24/7 Scrolls Reference Halls to their mix. I mean, the books take maybe one aisle of shelves - a thing they specialize in providing already - shelves. The rest is just people hanging out - people who eat and drink coffee and eat snacks. Can't hurt business. Can it? Might even be tax deductible.

It's worth building a sample floor plan for. And I would, but discretion tells me someone will think I'm telling them how to run their store. I'm not. I just want to know where they want to put the 24/7 Scrolls department. I'm accepting proposals.

THE NEGATIZER
Let's just think about this. Every time I see the light this way I take a reality check. My negatizer - that little demon on my left shoulder who always explains to me why things won't work, starts his next rant by telling me no convenience store chain, least of all BP would find this profitable. Furthermore, he always adds, they won't want to associate with anything religious, even if it doesn't represent any particular religion so much as the facts behind them all. And if they were going to have any books, they wouldn't be ones that only scholars read. Why not best sellers? Books-a-Million knows what books to put on shelves. I'm just a freak of nature out of touch with the average guy. Then sinking his talons in a little farther he sends a picture of some corporate sycophant saying the business model has never been proven and is way too innovative. He has the facts to prove it. Finally he points to the folks behind the cash register and shouts out: "do you know how much it will cost to train these people to become librarians?"

THE POSITIZER
Holy, holy, holy. Nothing is impossible with God. Really any Mom and Pop would do. It only takes one willing participant. Scrolls are not just for scholars. But more importantly, did I say you couldn't include the top Books-a-Million picks in your inventory - actually selling them for profit? Be gone evil one - if freedom from the trappings of big biz is what is needed, there are thousands of smaller chains and individually run shops across the planet who might be willing to give this a try. And did I mention that I would be willing to move 24/7 Scrolls Reference Hall #1 anywhere, so long as I could be there to adminster it? I only mentioned Palm Beach Gardens because ... wouldn't it be just so nice if I didn't have to drag my kids to another school and say goodbye to Mom. And yes, there still are not one but two or three tremendous empty office buildings in my backyard all begging to have the 24/7 Scrolls name placed on them. I would love to walk to work every day. All they need are convenience stores added to them. Are you listening Mr. BP?

KNOWING PEOPLE
I never checked into who runs BP. I suppose it was the Brits who first owned it since that's in the name. Google says 95% of its oil comes from the US. Some 27% of it is apparently owned by people from Kuwait. But I don't have to wait until they call me. Nor do I have to try to get my foot in the door there or anywhere else by digging further. This little work-a-holic is not looking to get involved in fundraising. I am a writer. I don't mind founding an idea. I don't mind being there to guard it. After all, that's a place where I can get paid, do research and write at the same time. Works for me. Neither do I mind public speaking, or travel, etc. Actually I enjoy it quite a bit. But I'm still going to let someone else do the work of communicating these ideas, first by recognizing them and then by doing what THEY do best - promote, apply for grants, raise funds, organize, network, and so much more.

SIX DEGREES
Did you know that a study was once done proving that every single person on this planet is connected by just six degrees? That is to say, I've (1) met someone (2) whose met someone (3) whose met someone (4) whose met someone (5) whose met someone (6). This summarizes the entire distance of the living human race. Every single person is no more than six degrees away from anyone else. You are only six degrees away from every single person on the planet living today. So now I'm going to ask a favor - for me, for my wife, and dare I say "for God?" Please contact the people you know and tell them about this blog. There is somebody out there who can make this happen. And I would like to meet them. I think I've conveyed the idea well enough so that the other posts in this blog, along with the web site, should give them everything they need to know. But if anyone has any questions, there is a contact form on the 24/7 Scrolls web site. Please send me an email.

Seeing Things

The 5D stereogram "Jesus Is Love" is created by Stephen Schutz, PhD. Copyright © 1994 by Stephen Schutz and Susan Polis Schutz. Reprinted by permission of Blue Mountain Arts, Inc. All rights reserved.

My sons are perplexed by the fact that I have an interest in ancient writing in languages they don't know (and I don't know well), and the history that gave birth to it all. Why don't I just spend my time like they do - watching fake wrestling on TV, keeping track of sports or music? Why can't I just be normal - like they are?

Prompted to give explanation, the answer came to me the other day in a way that even a child might understand. Here it is...

I see things. Yes, a little like Haley Joel Osment - the kid who said to Bruce Willis, "I see dead people" in the movie Sixth Sense. Only what I see isn't dead people. It's just stuff most other people don't see.

That isn't the whole reason. The other part is that what I see is something I realize other people would benefit by if they also could see it. In fact, some of the things I see I find to be altogether urgent. And if it weren't for an underlying belief I have that God is in control, and doesn't really need me, I would consider it a crisis. Seeing the gravity of the matter my old (prior to recovery) nature wants to panic but I am prompted by wisdom to remind myself to (please indulge a cliche as it is what I live by daily) "let go and let God."

Still - what I see is what I see. For me there is no question about what I see, just more detail to fill in the gaps as the picture gets ever-clearer.

The dilemma for me is that in order to show people what I see I need to first show people that I am not just seeing things. This requires fact checking for those who like to know I've checked facts. And it requires simple explanations for those who for some reason just don't see what I see. And that includes my children. But the same idea applies with just about everybody.

I will illustrate using two pictures. The first appears at the top of this blog-post. It is a 5-D Stereogram. A 5-D image is similar to a 3-D image but instead of using 3-D glasses to see it you use two gifts from God - faith and paitience. Possessed with these, the first thing you will see is many colorful doves. But inside the image is something that only those who have the ability to see things a certain way will see. The hidden image shows up fine on most computer monitors but to see it requires patience and relaxation of the eyes. You will need faith, as well. Otherwise you will lose patience. So follow these steps ...

1. This may be very bright and hurt your eyes slightly but come to within six or eight inches of your computer monitor and look at the screen's many colors.



2. Allow things to get blurry. They may already be blurry if you are far-sighted. That's OK.



3. Don't look at the screen. Look beyond the screen as if there was something inside of it. What you will see will be three dimensional. Pretend your screen is a box, rather than a flat screen and there is something inside of it.



4. Allow yourself to see something inside. If the image doesn't appear at first be patient. It is there and anyone with eyes to see can see it. It is not just doves. Doves will be in the background. And doves will make up the form in the foreground resting on Him. You will see Him. He is showing you something with his hands. Can you see what He is showing you?



5. Once your eyes have focused on Him you will notice that the vision is clear like in a polished mirror as compared to the blurry doves that you first saw even before you started to relax.



6. You will eventually take your eyes off of Him. When you do so you will see blurry doves again - exactly what you saw before you saw Him.



7. Don't worry. You will be able to see Him again. Just let go and let ____

Many people still can't see anything in this image, in fact most can't and won't. There are two general reasons. The first reason is they don't believe there is really an image and they think I just want them to stare at a picture to eat up their time as some cruel joke. (You won't find me clowning around like that too often: genre of this blog - very serious material relating to the support of 247scrolls.org ). The second reason is lack of patience. You are not seeing anything but doves in this picture because you have not sought the One who Is in the picture with sufficient patience. You have given up. And every time you try you give up too soon, perhaps just seconds too soon. Give it five minutes if you must. Take a break and come back and try it again if it doesn't work the first time. It really is there. And it is really quite amazing. No joke. The rest of this blog-post is written to those of you who have seen ...

So you see you really can see things that other people can't see - just like me. Now imagine living a lifetime seeing things that other people can't see and then just saying nothing about it - going on as if life was all blurry - the way that other people see it. There is really no way you would want to do that.

But I also mentioned urgency, gravity and crisis. It's not just some - hey, how kewl is that -experience like this 5-D StereoGram. The He that I see has told me what is about to happen in the future and how important it is that people open their eyes to some of the things that I have seen. I cannot share with the general public what that is at this time because - well, like this picture, it needs to be presented by way of Illustration, rather than a few simple words. It needs to be experienced. And I know that not everybody is going to be able to see it, even if they all have eyes to see. I accept that. I accept it with a little bit of sadness when I can't share a cool thing. I accept it with some amount of mourning when I can't share an urgent message

And so I pray.

Illustration #2: Below and to the left is a photograph of my son's baptism. Many people say that they can see an angel in the photograph. Not everyone can. And probably more will disbelieve rather than believe when I tell them that before we ever saw this photograph a woman who attended the Church came up telling us that the waters of the baptismal pool had been "stirred up" and that she had seen a vision of the Archangel Michael that night. This was before she saw this photo. She was comparing it to the Pool of Siloam.

The Evangelist, John, explains that the word "Siloam" means "sent" (John 9). The idea of being "sent" is indicative, in John, that something is from heaven. As such it can be counted on. It is not of this world. John the baptist was "sent" (John 1). The disciples were "sent" (John 17), as was also Jesus Himself "sent" (John 5). And in John, unless a person is born again from heaven, generated from above, He cannot see the Father (John 3).

Now let me digress and say - from all of this one thing is clear. You can't see unless you are sent. In order to see, then, it is important to ask to see. But you have to be willing to be sent. Otherwise you will not be able to see. This little tid-bit must be added to the faith and patience that you already possess. Willingness to be sent will be the lenses in the 5-D glasses of your life. You have not because you ask not. You remain blind because you refuse to see. And no matter how much faith you have, no matter how much patience, you will see what you choose to see so long as you refuse to be sent. Whoever will cling to his life will lose it. Whoever is willing to give up their life will gain it. To be "sent" requires not going where you want to go, but where you are sent. You have to let go and let ____.

Now my son does not yet appreciate what his father sees. Neither do skeptics of any sort. But I do see an angel in this picture, as have many others. And I take comfort in the fact that there are others who do my battling for me. They fill in where I, as one human being, cannot.

My son is a skateboarder and has not yet fully realized what this baptismal photo reminds me of. The Psalmist gave me comfort ...

He will give His angels charge over you to guard you in all your ways. With
their palms they will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.
(Psalm 90/91:11-12)

So that is why I do what I do. But until a person really gets it, seeing for themself, I sound pretty dull. I focus on detail they don't care about because they aren't ready for it. What they don't need because they never saw the image to begin with, I need in order to see the image more clearly. And I have to give them the steps to see it.

So let me bore and perplex as I discuss such detail. Here is an interesting Psalm that is literally "pivotal" - as are many things, when it comes to my seeing things more clearly. The Psalms found by the Dead Sea were numbered as they currently are by the Hebrews and just one off by the count of the Greeks - so that the quote above is from Psalm 91 in Protestant Bibles and Psalm 90 from Greek translations according to the Greek counting. For those of you who don't know, there are 151 Psalms in some Bibles and only 150 in others.

Why should I care about the numbering of the Psalms? Well, sometime in the first few centuries just before Jesus was born, came this community of people out in the desert of Judea, not too far from Jerusalem, next to the Jordan River. Some people have thought that John the Baptist was there. Others have said that a group of prophets was there. Some have said this group of people were Jewish monks. Some have said they were zealots who wanted to overthrow the Romans. Some have said Jesus and his family was among them. And there are hundreds of opinions about it.

All I want to know is the truth. And in order to determine what the truth is I have to know the facts in very great detail. Part of that is answering who wrote the Psalms. Clearly not just one person. Some say so themselves.

My own concerns go well beyond minute details. I don't rejoice in the hard work of scholars. My eyes are on what I already see - a big, very urgent, picture. At the heart of it is prophecy. Some say that prophecy ended with Malachi. Then the Jews suffeered a 400 year period of silence - not once hearing from God.

Such a notion does not stack up when considering the many prophecies that were found in the scrolls in the caves at the northwest shoreline of the Dead Sea. However, the fact that prophecies were found, does not mean that those prophecies were written during that period, or of those which may have been written then, that they were truly of God. For every true prophet there has ever been, there have been any number of false prophets speaking things contrary to what they've said.

The clear picture I seek is the authentic Voice of God. I know that I am far from alone in wanting to know this Voice.

At the Dead Sea were found Psalms 1-89 in good order. But the ordering of the Psalms after this, beginning with this very "pivotal" Psalm 90/91 begins the rather complex endeavor of figuring out which set of texts came first, and what God may have been saying by having more than one set, so that we might understand something very 3-dimensional about Him. Who added Psalms 91-151? Who made that decision? Were some written that this particular set of Jews just hadn't received yet? Had the others not yet been written? How does God use man to speak?

If it weren't for the fact that I had already seen something in the midst of it all I might say I had no idea. And I might consider these questions a mere exercise in sophistry. And one might think - "oh, he just likes to sound smart, to use big words. He can't stop showing off" - all the while the scholarly community mocks me for my lack of knowledge. But I'm not doing this to impress anyone.

It is a matter of seeing things. Seeing for yourself. And it is also a matter of seeking to see more clearly. This is not very complex. I will tell you what I have seen. I see that the Lord is coming soon to judge. I have seen that the time is very near. That much is very clear to me. This is good news for those who look forward to His coming. It is an urgent warning to those who don't. I have some books to write because that is what is required to explain what I have seen. It is in very clear detail, much like the detail that one can see once one sees what others cannot see in the two images above.

If you cannot see this, please ask to see it. And remember that to see it you must put on your 5-D glasses. What are those? You must ask genuinely to be sent. Are you willing?

Vorlage

"Vorlage" is a word not too many people use. It refers to the way a thing used to look. Every now and then we see pictures of ourselves from long ago and we think "Wow! - I sure have changed through the years."

That happened to me this week. Here's a picture of me in 1986. Nancy, an old friend I'd lost track of when I married, posted it to FaceBook. When I first saw it I thought it was somebody else. What seems weird about it to me is, this is probably how Nancy remembered me.

There are some accusations flying around that the Bible did that. It changed over time. Hence the use of the word "vorlage" by professors in bow ties that teach in large universities that have so much grant money available that they have collections of scrolls and museums to keep them in. Really what they want is a better look at the Bible when it was in its youth. Unfortunately, we don't have many pictures of that. What we do have comes through excerpts retained by those of later generations.

So to be more accurate, the word "vorlage" is about how other people used to see something at a certain stage, not how it used to be. The word "be" is complex for the Bible because, like people, it has been many things to many people. And it was made to grow over time.

Or was it? Some people prefer to limit it to the day of its birth. For the Samaritans, for instance, it was just five books. The first five. The Torah alone. And it is imagined by many that all these books were written by Moses and at the latest, compiled by Joshua, the successor of Moses. That way we can account for the recording of the death of Moses and yet claim authorship by him.

Others believe that books known to have been written in subsequent centuries are equally inspired. And that is why we have the Old Testament comprised not of five, but thirty nine or more books, plus another twenty seven books from the New Testament.

Despite the fact that the Bible developed and became different things to different people it is still called "the Bible" and is thought to "be" something. It is what it is, as people like to say. The supposition also still exists that it should be today what it was when it was first written. Or that it is. And everyone wants it to be what it was.

Yes, Bill. What we want to know is what the meaning of the word "is" is. What did "I Am Who I Am" - who never changes - really say? Will the real "I Am" please stand up? And can anyone please show us the Bible in its original form? Is that what we are looking at now?

How much like people this question is! No one ever asks me how I was in my original. They simply ask me how I am. They understand I was made for change and diversity in my relationships. I suppose I was one thing to Nancy and another thing to my seminary professors. Who was right? Any of them?

So here is the challenge. We want to know what it was, so that we can determine what it is. In the case of the Bible, many of us think it is the word of God. And we want to know what God has been saying to us. So we spend hours and hours, and entire lifetimes searching for answers.

But if change is part of what something is then we shouldn't necessarily be looking for an original. What do you want to see? Do you want to see chromosomes?

But "vorlage" doesn't really ask for an "original" so much as a good photograph. Take a picture at any stage and it is accurate from a certain vantage point at a certain time. If you had a bad day "the camera don't lie." (Yuch. Why do people keep requesting that song?)

The problem is we didn't have cameras when the Bible was being written. What we have is a few thousand very old parchments, papyri and fragments with a lot of references made by people writing many centuries ago who quoted earlier versions of what we now have so that we can reassemble what we think may be a more accurate picture of - not an original - but a Bible that someone long ago may have seen.

We know there were differences in the Samaritan version of the Bible because we have a very old copy, (a portion of which is copied above and to the left), which my seminary professors referred to (not very surprisingly) as "the Samaritan Pentateuch." And this one is different than the one we find in the Hebrew Bible of today.

Errr, I'm referring here to the Masoretic text, not the modern Hebrew. The Masoretes were Jewish scribes who copied the Bible in the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th, centuries of the Christian Era (CE) and produced what some modern rabbis and Christians claim is the original unabridged, perfectly preserved Old Testament. And that's what we call the "Masoretic text."

Boy, wouldn't it be nice if we could all just have a version of the Bible that was the real legit original? Well, that is the attitude of many Jews today and from yesteryear, and of many modern fundamentalists - particularly those of the King James Version only camp.

Nifty. But now for the bad news. The "very old" Samaritan Penteteuch is possibly very different from the "vorlage" of Joshua, the successor to Moses, (who is thought to have recorded the words of Moses - the original) and shows signs of "evolution." In fact, practically every old version of the Scriptures we possess - the Hebrew, the Samaritan, the Greek, all of them show signs of change. As a result, there is only one thing we can conclude with certainty. We don't possess any such thing as an original.

Too bad. But unless you are a Samaritan, that really should not be the objective anyway. For the rest of us we are looking for something more human - something that grew. - seeing that God revealed himself over time, not just at a single point in time. Christians, above all, should not have a problem with this. The Logos, as we believe, became flesh and dwelt among us from infancy to adulthood. This is the one set of chromosomes that was revealed.

So we don't possess an original Bible, but we can do the best we can to accurately reproduce earlier stages of Biblical development by comparing the many different versions that we have, figuring out which ones came first, and where they were found, and other such considerations. This is, of course, the work of those men in bow ties and their female counterparts - the scholarettes. Ladies and gentlemen, please connect the dots!

Or one can see it as a camera with a lense that we adjust, trying to get a more accurate picture. If our camera is out of focus we have a picture, just not a perfectly accurate one. So we need those dot-conntectors to help us get a better picture. It is an absolutely valuable endeavor for those who would like to "see Jesus" or for others, who would like to prove that Jesus was not who some say he is. Truth is truth. What does the camera say?

Enter Providence. The twentieth century CE was an exciting one for dot-connectors. Literally hundreds of old manuscripts were found as archeologists, paleontologists, papyrologists, sesquipedalians and a few other lucky people, unearthed find after find, and these found their way into museums and private collections, that a privileged few have had the good fortune to study.

But now the challenge. Making sense of it all. And here is the reality. It is in the hands of people who hole themselves up and who do not share what they have until their articles and books come out so they can make a lot of money and prestige and push their personal theories. The process involves not just producing more accurate versions of the Bible, but if they want to, their own conspiracy theories. And the only "accountability" that exists right now, is something referred to as "scholarly concensus."

Those last two words "scholarly concensus" frighten me. Somebody is paying for those museums they warehouse their stockpiles of Providence in. In the case of Israel it is the Israeli Antiquities Authority. I would not be the first person to suggest that the state of Israel deliberately withheld the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls because they believed it would somehow damage Judaism as a whole, or the number of pilgrimages to the holy land. But they were indeed in charge of selecting those who would ultimately edit and publish them - a project that took nothing short of 47 years. And now after 16 more years (that's 63 total as of this writing) the final volume (#40) is still being produced.

Forty volumes at an average cost of $200 each mean that the Dead Sea Scrolls are now available for anyone with about $10,000. To be sure, the purchase contains not just the transcriptions to a more readable type but the comments of the official editors, appointed by the Irealis.

The Bible has always been expensive. It had to be hidden and protected through the years because it took such a long time to reproduce new copies by hand. We used to have to write on paper we made from trees with a lot of effort. But after the printing press was invented prices dropped and there came a day when almost every house on the planet had at least one copy of the Bible.

We don't have to reprint by hand anymore. Instead we are faced with the power of monopolies to gouge prices combining itself with "neo-censorship." "Neo-censorship" fuses depravation of information with feeding the news. It isn't exactly book burning but comes very close. The net effect is almost exactly like what the effect of dominance by the Roman Catholic Church over the Bible used to be before the printing press was invented. Bottom line - 0nly the very wealthy and the privileged had access. Only the pulpit was allowed to have a voice. The Catholics, in fact, have been accused by some of being involved in the Dead Sea Scrolls delays. Is there anything new under the sun?

I am not so critical of the Catholics as are many others, but be that as it may, 24/7 Scrolls is the solution. Please give as much as you can to this charitable organization, whose mission is to make ancient scrolls available to anyone for free 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thank you for your consideration!




James Carvin is the founder of 24/7 Scr0lls. The Generations Blog is written to average people to stimulate interest in the scrolls and to highlight the need for universal access without cost.

Teaser

The reasons I might personally be interested in ancient papyri and parchment are probably very different than for others. Everyone puts their spin on the news. Spinning history is no different. We pick up on the stories that magnify our beliefs and further our agendas.

When enough people do it history changes while the facts don't. That bugs me. Shouldn't the facts and history be one and the same?


Case in point, the oldest known fragment of the New Testament was discovered in 1920 and thought to date to the year 100 CE. On the front we have a portion of John 18:31-33 and on the back we get verses 37-38.



The verses in their entirety would say:

"So Pilate said to them, "Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to
your law." The Jews said to him, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death,"
to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He
was about to die. Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and
summoned Jesus and said to Him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" (John
18:31-33)



"Therefore Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You
say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have
come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears
my voice." Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he
went out again to the Jews and said to them, "I find no guilt in him." (John
18:37-38).

OK. So here are the politics. The Jews and skeptics say Jesus never claimed to be God and that they had nothing to do with killing him. They claim that anti-semitism crept into the New Testament in the centuries that followed the death of Jesus and that Jesus was an instigator, a claimant to a throne, a rebel against Rome, a political rather than simply a religious figurehead. And, of course, we know what most Christians maintain. So no need to repeat that.



But what does this little scrap show us?



Already jumping to conclusions, are we? Already on the defense?



Slow down. There are more than a handful of things to consider. I'll reduce it to these two ...

1. The dating to 100 CE is based on the style of the script - something certain geeks call "Alexandrian script." That's fair. Geeks rule! But some scholars date it as late as 150 CE. Why? Well, you'd have to do some research to find out. What did one geek say and then another. Are the reasons political? Good question. I'll be kind and say it simply calls for examination - which is to say, research. More on that below.


2. The fragment doesn't contain the entire text. You can see this at first glance for yourself. The good news is that Greek hasn't changed all that much from the Koine Greek a lot of people know and have provided dictionaries and InterLinear translations for. So even with my very lousy ability in Greek I can tell you here's what the actual fragment boils down to. The parts in red below are the preserved parts of the verses you can see on the manuscript pictured to the right. The rest is missing ...

"So Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves, and judge him according to your law." The Jews said to him, "We are not permitted to put anyone to death," to fulfill the word of Jesus which he spoke, signifying by what kind of death he was about to die. Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" (John 18:31-33)

The back side is not showing here and I've taken some liberty in rendering this in English but the red parts above are pretty close. Those are the facts. So does this mean that Jesus was a rebel? Enter the story not of the Greeks, but of the geeks.

Geek 1 says the text proves the Jews had Jesus killed and that the Christians weren't lying.

Geek 2 says the Gospel of John wasn't written by the disciple of Jesus known as John but by somebody who wanted to start a new religion and became a priest, having followed John to Ephesus and filling in for him after he died, writing his Gospel.

Geek 3 agrees with Geek 2 and says that for sufficient time for John, Jesus' disciple to have died and a goodly amount of antisemitism to have crept in to what became a gentile church, the writing must not date back to 100 CE but must be of a later date.

Geek 4 agrees with Geek 3 and says that this portion isn't even from the Gospel, but an even later edition, no earlier than 150 CE. Hardly any, if any of the Gospel of John was written by John and the Christians were certainly antisemites. The Jewish Nazarenes, on the other hand, were devout Jews according to the party of James, which was the party of the circumcision.

And then we're back again to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Geek 5 has a plethora of theories about the Qumran community that stored up the Scrolls having been associated with the party of James. He has had almost exclusive access to the Dead Sea Scrolls for over fifty years, and while the whole world waits to check his theories or simply confirm them, he has been putting on presentations all over the world and has lots of books he's written. In Geek 5's eyes James was a far more prominent figure than the Jesus of history.

It's a theory that fits in well with the the claims of Jews for many centuries. Paul is the true founder of Christianity, not Jesus. The Way of the Nazarines was that of James, and James was his only proper successor.

So they say. But what are the facts? Surely you want to know. So stay tuned for the next exciting episode of blog teases by James... (and support 247scrolls.com so Geek 5 isn't the only person who has access to the answer).

-

Jericho

What was I thinking? My megalomania did its thing again. First, I'm writing a book and get frustrated because I don't have access to the Dead Sea Scrolls to do my research. Then I start thinking up ways I might gain access without paying for it. Then it occurs to me that while nobody would be willing to pay for the $10,000 Discoveries in the Judean Desert (DJD), which is the forty-volume publication that finally started rolling out in 1994 at a rate slower than trickle economics and is finally on the last volume, they might be willing to make such a donation if everybody could have access, not just me. No need to send me to U. of Chicago on a scholarship.

After all, who am I? But a whole community of people benefiting - that was different. And that was something I could solicit for. So I pictured myself on the side of the road handing out flyers explaining that the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) had been withheld from public view for far too long, and that now that it is out only a handful of people will be able to see it first hand because of the cost, but that if everybody chipped in a little bit then I'd be happy to open up a building 24/7 so anybody who wanted to could go in and see it.

Of course, a local library could do the same. But what I really wanted was to be able to look at them 24/7 myself and quit my retail job. Next comes I'm going to be the manager of this little hole-in-the-wall facility for geeks like me who love such things. But not much time passes before I realize that once these geeks get together they are going to want to have teaching sessions, classes, and that schools an religious institutions and lots of individuals and groups might have an interest, especially if there was coffee served there and a relaxing place to hang out with a hot spot for their laptop, like at StarBucks.

Then came the thought of teaching PaleoHebrew and other ancient languages. What better place? And to boot, there have been some 106 manuscripts found of the New Testament since 1900 dating to the first two centuries CE. I could contribute one of my copies of Nestle Arand.

Suddenly then I'm imagining an ever growing group of people seriously interested in the Scriptures getting together and making the place great. And it was from that point that my abstractions started whirring around in me with a buzz like a reel with a shark on the line.

Everyone dreams of reeling in a shark, but truth is sharks bite off a pefectly good catch and almost always break the line. Try to real in a giant. See what happens.

That seems to be what happened to me here. I didn't set out to catch a big one. What I started out with seemed manageable. I was thinking nice and small. But the more I thought about it the bigger the idea kept getting. If a little 24/7 Scrolls facility in Palm Beach Gardens would work, then why not other cities? If it made sense for the DSS, which just one author wanted, why wouldn't it work for entirely different research material? Say for instance something related to science or medicine or genealogies?

Yes, I know. We call them libraries. We already have these. But libraries aren't open 24/7. And you can't take the reference materials home with you. If you have a full time job, like I do, the next book you write will take years, rather than months. Life is short.

That's how it all got started. It was just an idea born of my personal need. In a week's time I churned out a web site for it - http://247scrolls.org/ and set a goal of forming a team in 30 days and incorporating a non-profit. Not unreasonable.

But the bigger the idea got the greater my self-doubt loomed. There were people far more qualified than I am. I'm not an expert, much less a leading expert. My Greek is lousy. My Hebrew is worse. The only thing I have going for me is determination and faith.

Faith is what really got me in trouble. I recently(6 months ago) moved into PGA National and took a walk around the neighborhood for the first time after finishing the web site. I needed some fresh air. And I also needed a location for Reference Hall #1. Lisa and I noticed there was an empty building in walking distance from the villa. Perfect. Wouldn't it be great if I could walk to my office every day?!

Then came this breathtaking image. I look across the pond, over the fountain, and there it is. Yet another almost entirely abandoned building. I walked around that building seven times tonight. It was my Jericho. That, or a building like it, is too big for me. My big God has me thinking of the big things He can do. I don't have to limit this vision.

But neither do I want to be misled by visions of grandeur and angels of light. So while I walked I prayed. I prayed for discernment. And I was aware of my dependence on Him. I didn't get into this because I thought I deserved it. I won't get into it pretending I know more than I do. Masks will ruin it. I am a man who came to learn so that I might teach. I wanted due diligence for my writing. And now I want due diligence for my discerning.

I don't doubt that You can feed 5000 with the little loaves and fish I have. I don't doubt that I will walk on water if You tell me to. What I doubt is my ability to hear Your voice. I'm asking for the real thing.

A Beginning

Tomorrow I will be opening up a new web site and launching what I hope will be a new career, as the founder of 24/7 Scrolls and the curator of its first Reference Hall. You will be able to read up on it at 247scrolls.org so I don't need to say too much about it here except to say that I will be encouraging those who use the Reference Halls or donate to them to link up their blogs to the site as a good way of getting to know one other.

I've not been much of a blogger in the past. And I don't use MySpace or FaceBook or Twitter. No time for chit chat. But discussions of substance are another matter.

The picture I've chosen at the top is of me and my father-in-law, "Grandpa George" and my son. It was taken in a corn field like the one on the farm Grandpa George grew up on. Corn kernels become the seeds for future generations. The past rises up taking new forms, yet ever-recapitulating. Meanwhile we anticipate moving from glory to glory in the image of Divinity.

The past has a way of drawing us in as we consider its meaning for the present. Here is a photo of a papyrus fragment from Pompei, the place where papayrus was grown and scrolls were made up until 78 CE and the destruction of Mt. Vesuvius. One litte house amidst the molten ash contained something of a library that was miraculously preserved.

History is buried, but there are fragments that survive, fragments that become the stuff of meaning and emotion for today and for tomorrow.

The Creator of the Universe is writing a church family theme song and I can hear its harmony in that corn field, the stuff my life is springing from.

• I placed bushes around the walls of the castle theme at 24/7 Scrolls.
• 24 is the number of elders who worship the King.
• 7 is the number of eyes belonging to the lamb, the number of spirits of the churches, the number of oil lanterns in the heavenly temple.
• And it was out of the wood that the truth was made known. This is the theme that resonates in 24/7 Scrolls, scrolls being made of a type of wood, the wood of truth, the papyrus on which the word is written.

Funny that the words "from the wood" were disputed by Justin with Trypho (Dialog with Trypho, Chp. 73) and again with his disciple Tertullian (An Answer to the Jews 10:7). It was because of details like that that I took interest in the inventory of knowledge - the scrolls, the proof. I wanted to know for myself which was more reliable the Hebrew or the Greek. The cross puts flesh to the wood that preceded it like children growing in a corn field.

The task would be to look up Psalm 95/96 in the Hebrew now finally made available in a pre-Christian version - the Dead Sea Scrolls. Did either the Hebrew or the Greek contain this? Well, from what I have been able to find, starting with Psalm 90 the Psalms are numbered differently and vary greatly from what is found in the Hebrew Scriptures of today - the Tenakh of the Masorites, known as the MT. Cave 1 contained only fragmentary copies. Cave 2 had only parts of Psalms 103 and 104. Cave 3 had just a piece of Psalm 2. Cave 4 had more than any other cave but I can't seem to find the published results. Cave 8 has a few parts of Psalms 17-18. Finally cave 11 seems to hit the jackpot on Psalms, but the experts still haven't given me what I'm looking for.

Without direct access to the 40 volume series known as the DJD, (that those experts wrote), I may never have my answer. But I have determined that that is not going to be a problem. The answer is coming from the wood - paper money this time, at about $200/volume x 40 = something like $10,000 I need to raise to get a set.