(Photo: CBN News) Treasure Maps Found Among the Dead Sea Scrolls Keep Archaeologists and Historians in Suspense
“What would be most dramatic is if in fact the treasures that are described by the Copper Scroll—and perhaps revealed more fully in the Key Scroll—are in fact from the second temple. Finding them would in fact be the most dramatic archeological discovery of all time.”
Teresa Neumann (June 30, 2008) (Jerusalem)—After a Bedouin shepherd stumbled across a cave containing the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947, archaeologists discovered more caves and more scrolls, including one—called the Copper Scroll—that was completely unique. According to a CBN report, the Copper Scroll describes a hidden cache of gold and silver buried in more than 60 locations throughout Israel, most likely items from the Temple.
“This is a tremendous witness to history. To actually have a list of treasures from the temple itself from the first century is just amazing. We have nothing better than the Copper Scroll now for telling us what was really there,” said Stephen Pfann, one of the editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
As far as where the treasures are today, Pfann said: “In my mind, most if not all of these were actually found by the Romans under the point of the sword … And we do know that Titus used the booty to build the Coliseum in Rome…If there’s any treasure left, there would have been small parts that might not have been found that still lie out there ready for people to find today. We don’t know.”
But there was apparently another “treasure map” scroll made, not yet discovered—coined the Key Scroll—and author Joel Rosenberg has written a best seller novel about it, the theory being that it would lead to the Ark of the Covenant. Not as far-fetched as some might think, notes the CBN report, stating that “ancient Jewish writings say the Ark and other first temple treasures were hidden by priests before the invasion of the Babylonians,” and that their locations were “inscribed on a tablet of copper.”
Rosenberg said, “The Key Scroll has never been found, nobody has any idea where it is.”
“What would be most dramatic is if in fact the treasures that are described by the Copper Scroll—and perhaps revealed more fully in the Key Scroll— are in fact from the second temple. Finding them would in fact be the most dramatic archaeological discovery of all time.”
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