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Ancient items, modern wonder

A display includes pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

By NICK JOHNSON,Times Staff Writer
Published August 12, 2007

The Rev. Thom Miller, founder of Special Visit Ministry in Mansfield, Ohio, visited Suncoast Cathedral with two fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, an ancient Torah written on goatskin and other artifacts.
	[Martha Rial | Times]

The pastor of a prison outreach ministry recently visited a St. Petersburg church with what may be part of the most significant archaeological find for people of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths.

The Rev. Thom Miller of Special Visit Ministry exhibited a small collection of religious antiquities, including what he said were two fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, at the Suncoast Cathedral on Wednesday for a group of church members and the media.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of about 900 documents discovered in Khirbet Qumran caves in Israel by Bedouin herders and later by archaeologists in 1947.

They include manuscripts of almost every book in the Hebrew Bible as well as a number of sectarian scrolls, but the biblical writings are the ones of greatest significance.

"For people of Christian faith it substantiates that the Bible isn't just a book that somebody wrote down," Pastor Tim Suddreth of the Suncoast Cathedral said.

That's because the biblical scrolls are 1,000 years older than any other known biblical writings, about 21/2 centuries older than the birth of Christ.

Special Visit Ministry was started by Miller, who says he found salvation while spending eight years in a maximum security prison after a life of crime and doing the mob's dirty work.

Now he does prison outreach work in Mansfield, Ohio, where his ministry is based, and in jails and prisons throughout the country.

Miller said one of the fragments was anonymously donated to the ministry and the other was on loan from a group of physicians from New Jersey.

He plans to return to the Suncoast Cathedral in October with another Dead Sea Scrolls fragment that is held by the Ashland Theological Seminary and a more extensive exhibit of religious artifacts.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are actually a collection of more than 100,000 fragments that have been pieced together by archaeologists.

The San Diego Natural History Museum is displaying Dead Sea Scrolls on loan from the Israeli Antiquities Authority, which holds most of the scrolls.

Dr. Russell Fuller, a professor at the University of San Diego, worked as a consultant on the exhibit at the museum and edited a number of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

He said bits of the artifacts have become privately owned over the years.

"There are some small fragments in private hands in the U.S. and Europe, so it's conceivable that they could have a fragment," Fuller said. "If you have the resources and you have the contacts, it's possible that you could buy yourself a piece of Dead Sea Scroll."

Although the fragment that is held by Ashland Theological Seminary didn't make this trip, Dr. Kenneth Walther, who curates the collection, said the seminary would happily loan its fragment to Miller.

Walther said the school's fragment is tiny but is an authentic piece of the Dead Sea Scrolls that was purchased from the private collection of a European Roman Catholic priest.

The other pieces in Miller's collection were authenticated by Lee Biondi, a self-professed expert appraiser and private dealer in ancient religious texts, who says he learned most of his trade while working in the field.

Biondi said Miller's pieces were real but likely not very significant, despite the spiritual importance people associate with the discovery of the scrolls.

"Although they're not substantial physically, clearly they have a huge talismanic effect and religious importance," Biondi said, pointing out how the scrolls helped validate biblical writings for many people.

Regardless of the authenticity of the fragments, it's hard to deny the mystique surrounding the name Dead Sea Scrolls.

"That captured the public's imagination in a way that no other manuscript discovery ever did," Biondi said.

Nick Johnson can be reached at nickjohnson@sptimes.com or 893-8361.

If you go

Display to return

The Special Visit Ministry plans to return to the Suncoast Cathedral, at 2300 62nd Ave. N, with its complete collection Oct. 7-15. The exhibit will be free and open to the public.

[Last modified August 11, 2007, 22:53:05]