Isaiah Scroll on display in Jerusalem

The Message of the Isaiah Scroll
By MATTI FRIEDMAN, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Selected sections of the ancient Dead Sea scrolls will be put on display in Jerusalem this week to be seen by the public for the first time in more than 40 years.

About five metres (15 feet) of the Isaiah Scroll, one of the world's oldest texts from about 120 BC, will be taken out of its dark, temperature-controlled chamber at the Israel Museum for an exhibit honouring Israel's 60th anniversary.

One section of the exhibit features Isaiah's message of peace: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

U.S. President George W. Bush, on a three-day visit to Israel to mark the anniversary, was one of the first to view the scrolls during a ceremony at the museum.

"The Great Isaiah Scroll is the most important cultural treasure of the Jewish nation and one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century," said Adolfo Roitman, curator of the Dead Sea scrolls.

The scroll was discovered in 1947 in a cave in an area called Qumran off the northwest shores of the Dead Sea. It was one of 220 biblical scrolls found near Qumran and the only one containing an entire book from the bible, the museum said.

The entire Isaiah Scroll is about 8 metres (24 feet) long. It was last displayed in 1967 and has been kept since in storage for long-term preservation.

The Dead Sea Scrolls include fragments of the books of the Old Testament, treatises on communal living and apocalyptic war and shed important new light on the origins of Christianity.

(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; edited by Richard Meares)