Site Thought to Make Christianity, Actually Made Pottery

By Timmy Watson in News on Oct 22, 2006 6:27PM

We are sure you all saw the September issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review regarding the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The article in the review validates a theory that a University of Chicago professor has held for over 40 years, most likely making him feel pretty damn good.

Norman Golb, a 78-year-old professor with a Ph.D. in Judaic and Semitic studies, believes the Scrolls were written by different Jewish sects and brought to a site known as Qumran for protection. It seems Mr. Golb has long been alone in these beliefs. The majority of scholars believe the Qumran is a monastery and point this as meaning the scrolls were written by a tiny sect in the monastery. Golb believes the site is a fortress, used simply to guard the scrolls against Roman invaders. Later the site was turned into a pottery factory.

According to a Tribune article, the dig that brought about the additional support for Golb’s theory also brings Qumran’s use under question. While proving that the site was a fortress does not completely confirm Golb’s ideas, it certainly makes him cool as hell. We know we would feel a certain amount of self-justification.

They are just scrolls, so what? The scrolls point to the origination of Christianity and are therefore very controversial and probably involve all sorts of codes in paintings and albino self-mutilators. Golb believes if the scrolls were written by different Jewish sects, not one select group, then “Christianity came out of the tremendous variety of the contemporary Jewish community.”