Once in a Lifetime: Rare Isaiah Scroll on Display in Jerusalem

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Hello all Israel news viewers. I'm Moriah Moran and I'm here at the Israel Museum at a very very rare occasion in which the Isaiah Scrolls are out [music] on display for only a few months and then they're going to be underground in temperature controlled rooms for another 60 years. So this opportunity is rare and amazing. Let's [music] go and take a tour to see the Isaiah Scrolls. You're allowed to take pictures no flash.

[00:00:24]The all Isaiah Scrolls 66 [music] chapters.

[00:00:32]47 degrees We built two special rooms in order to make it normal.

[00:00:45]I'm here with [music] the Isaiah Scrolls and I can't even tell you guys what a strange feeling and what an honor it is to be next to the original scroll. When you visit it >> [music] >> in the different place that they display it, it's a replica but this is such a rare opportunity and you just want to physically touch it with your hands and feel it. They literally just removed everyone to the side to give us all a little personal you know, moment with the scrolls.

[00:01:17]I feel so close to it. I want to touch it. You can see and feel the texture of it. You know, you can see that like sort of leathery. You can see every single one of the letters so meticulously written and you can see that they took such great care of it and the fact that it even survived for so many years and the fact [music] that we found it is just absolutely incredible.

[00:01:39]The fact also that it's going to be taken away from this little display that they meticulously made to preserve it and it's going to go away again for you know, however many years and it's such a privilege to be here to see our Bible, our prophecies in the flesh and these scrolls. It's incredible. [music] It's the moment that door is closed, we can open this part because it's that much temperature controlled.

[00:02:03]>> See the sentences on it that everybody's familiar with about the lamb lying down.

[00:02:12]>> So, this is sort of the Isaiah scrolls enlarged so that we can [music] see them. And they take um you know, sort of the most important quotes and prophecies.

[00:02:23]And [music] they show you exactly sort of where it is.

[00:02:28]So, look the young woman we [music] as Messianic believers or Christians believe looked at a young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son that let her name him Immanuel.

[00:02:38]And then it shows literally here >> [music] >> where that says it.

[00:02:44]There you go, alma.

[00:02:46]Amazing, wow.

[00:02:48]>> So, the location of our story of our mystery, we should say, takes place in the north of the dead sea in Jerusalem by the year of the 66 BC, everything was just fine.

[00:03:04]The temple was okay. Everything came to see the to see God three times a year, but still something was wrong. What was wrong? The society didn't get along with each other. They didn't respect each other opinions. They didn't respect each time schedule. And as time goes by, the people of Israel were divided two cults. One of that of those cults decided that they no longer wants to be part of Jerusalem and what's going on there so by society, by economical disorders and more. And they want to leave Jerusalem and the temple and rebuild the temple by themselves.

[00:03:49]They're leaving Jerusalem to the desert.

[00:03:52]They come to the desert and in that desert they're making a new settlement named Qumran. The main thing they do, they rewrite and scribe the Bible and it has three different ways of learning the Bible. One of One of it is to [music] take the Old Testament the old scribes that they knew from Jerusalem >> [music] >> and write the 24 books again and again.

[00:04:22]The second one is to give interpretation and the third one is it's to give rules to that cult. 2,000 years afterwards, now the story goes to the near history.

[00:04:34]The year is 1947.

[00:04:37]Two ships goes, they don't find them and the shepherd is looking for those two ships and while they were looking for them they were taking stones and trying to see maybe in that cave, in that cave and when they go inside the Bedouins see few jars. Inside the jars there were the scrolls.

[00:05:01]Imagine 2,000 years scrolls from the second temple period are in caves and Bedouins find them [music] and they're trying to understand what they found. They realize it's written in Hebrew, maybe old Hebrew, but not more than that.

[00:05:20]The Bedouins are going to a name named [music] Kando who lives in Bethlehem and he is trying to realize is well known as someone as a dealer [music] that works with these kind of things and he tries to understand what's the story and then after Kando was looking at those scripts, [music] he realized that it's probably from the second temple period, but he's not sure.

[00:05:45]He is talking key to his good friend Athanasius, >> [music] >> who was the head of the monarchy in the Syria uh Orthodox monarchy here in Jerusalem.

[00:05:56][music] Those jars were moving from Athanasius the metropolitan of Jerusalem [music] from the Syrian church to to America [music] to Professor Trever. He ran away with those scripts.

[00:06:16]He took four scrolls. Three other scrolls [music] were still in Jerusalem and were given to Professor Sukenik, who was the head of the archaeology wing at the Hebrew University.

[00:06:27]>> [music] >> And Professor Sukenik was trying to understand what he sees.

[00:06:32][music] He was really excited and he said I think that I'm holding one of the most significant object that we had in >> [music] >> in all the years I've been working in archaeology and I've been researching the history of the Jewish people.

[00:06:50]>> I just came out from seeing the Isaiah scrolls in the flesh with my very own eyes and I'm telling you guys it is such a beautiful thing to behold. The word of God [music] is living and alive and to be able to see it with my very own eyes is a rare opportunity [music] that I will never forget. And we hope that you guys have enjoyed this as well. Thank you guys for watching. If you want more Israel-related content, go to allisraelnews.com, >> [music] >> hit the notification bell, hit subscribe and we will see you guys in the next one.

[00:07:16]>> [music]