Yigael Yadin

Behind the Scenes of Israel’s Acquisition of the Temple Scroll

Were it not for the efforts of the man who got Jerry Falwell started in television, the famous Dead Sea Scroll known as the “Temple Scroll” might never have come to light.

At least that is the story according to Reverend Joe Uhrig, now semiretired and living in Virginia.

Yigael Yadin, Israel’s foremost Biblical archaeologist before his death in 1984, tells a somewhat different story. In his magisterial, three-volume edition of The Temple Scroll,a Yadin describes how he first learned of the Temple Scroll, a scroll that he identified as the Torah (or Bible) of the Essene community of Jews that lived near the Dead Sea at the time of Jesus.

The existence of the scroll was first brought to Yadin’s attention by a man he identifies only as Mr. Z. Mr. Z presented himself to Yadin as a Virginia clergyman. Yadin, however, had his doubts. From Yadin’s perspective, Mr. Z did him out of $10,000; Yadin didn’t trust Mr. Z or anything he said. Nevertheless, the Israeli archaeologist steadfastly refused to disclose Mr. Z’s identity.

Read the rest of Intrigue and the Scroll in the online Biblical Archaeology Society Library.