primitives discuss Dead Sea scrolls

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7462747

Oh my.

cali  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-14-10 09:45 AM
THE BITTER OLD VERMONTESE CALI PRIMITIVE
Original message

Jordan wants Dead Sea Scrolls back from Israel
 
AMMAN, Jordan – Jordan's tourism minister said Thursday that her country was seeking the help of Western nations to regain possession of the Dead Sea Scrolls Israel seized from a Jerusalem museum during the 1967 Mideast war.

Maha Khatib said Jordan has given up hope that Israel would directly give back the more than 2,000-year-old scrolls and now hoped Western nations would return them to the Arab kingdom when they host them in exhibitions.

Israel rejected the Jordanian claim to the scrolls, which include the earliest known version of portions of the Hebrew Bible and have shed important light on Judaism and the beginnings of Christianity. Their origin is the subject of an insular, but notoriously heated, academic debate.

They will next be exhibited in Milwaukee, WI, starting Jan. 22.

Jordan says Israel seized 14 scrolls kept in a museum in the eastern sector of Jerusalem when its army occupied that Jordanian-controlled part of the city along with the West Bank in the 1967 war. Israel annexed eastern Jerusalem soon after the war and now says the entire city is its unified, eternal capital.

<snip>

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_j...

azurnoir  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-14-10 10:03 AM
Response to Original message
 
1. Canada refused to do this

I seriously doubt that the US will even hear the Jordanians as far as I know the scrolls will be in my area from March--October of this year after that I have no idea where they will be going but if this gains any momentum it will almost certainly be back to Israel, if that was not where they would have been going anyway

xchrom  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-14-10 10:08 AM
Response to Original message
 
2. Other treasures, art, artifacts have returned

To countries of original ownership -- why not these?

There's a problem with that, however.

Which is why it's a damned good thing the Elgin Marbles are in possession of the British, and not the Greeks, or all these ancient Egyptian artifacts in England and France, rather than in Egypt.

Things of valuable historical significance need to be in safe hands.

Ever since the British took away the Elgin Marbles for safekeeping, Greece has had how many wars, revolutions, riots, and corrupt governments, during which time these valuable historical artifacts could have been destroyed?

[Specbid]

The scrolls are in the States? How did I miss that?

Anyway, cool, I'll have to find a schedule.

[Celtic Rose]

The Dead Sea scrolls were originally Jewish in origin, just as Jerusalem was a predominantly Jewish city.  I would say that the the Israelis have a greater claim than the Jordanians.

[The Village Idiot]

Lets hope Obama doesn't do something stupid.


oh crap.

[JohnnyReb]

Lets hope Obama doesn't do something stupid.


oh crap.

You can HOPE but he will not CHANGE.

[franksolich]

The Dead Sea scrolls were originally Jewish in origin, just as Jerusalem was a predominantly Jewish city.  I would say that the the Israelis have a greater claim than the Jordanians.

I think "ownership" of things produced by people now long ago gone is ambiguous, and as long as it's ambiguous, it's just best that they be in good hands.

The Center for the Study of the Great Plains is the crown jewel of Yale University in Connecticut; I have no idea how that happened, but it happened.

Yale has more Nebraska history than all of the museums, libraries, and archives here in Nebraska.

Which is fine with us; Nebraska is a small state with limited resources, and taking care of these things would impose an onerous burden; and it is possible that Yale takes better care of these things than we would.

Yale does not forbid people from Nebraska from examining our history stored there, any more than the British forbid Greek tourists from visiting the Elgin Marbles.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

xchrom  (1000+ posts)        Thu Jan-14-10 10:08 AM
Response to Original message
 
2. Other treasures, art, artifacts have returned

To countries of original ownership -- why not these?

You mean like Israeli scrolls, written by Israelis...in Israel...staying in Israel?

[DumbAss Tanker]

You mean like Israeli scrolls, written by Israelis...in Israel...staying in Israel?

Funny, I had thought they were a little older than 1948.

[kenth]

Dummie channeling time:

"Jooooosssss... take them away from the joooooossssss!"

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Funny, I had thought they were a little older than 1948.

The Jews living in ancient Israel didn't author the Dead Sea scrolls?

[Ralph Wiggum]

Dummie channeling time:

"Jooooosssss... take them away from the joooooossssss!"

My first thought as well.  You don't often see a more anti-Semitic bunch than the DUmmies.

[DumbAss Tanker]

The Jews living in ancient Israel didn't author the Dead Sea scrolls?

They were Israelis?  Who knew?  You think they voted Likud, or Labour?