THE COPPER SCROLL MEETS THE DA VINCI CODE:

NY Times Best Selling Author Joel Rosenberg Special Guest on “Jay Sekulow Live!” Wednesday, July 19th

2006-07-18 -- Media Advisory (USA Religious News)

(WASHINGTON, DC) Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), announced that communications strategist and New York Times Best Selling Author “Joel Rosenberg” will be his special guest on the July 19th edition of the nationally syndicated radio program “Jay Sekulow Live!” airing at 12:00 Noon EST.

Rosenberg is the author of several New York Times bestselling books, including “The Last Jihad” and “The Ezekiel Option.” His most recent novel is “The Copper Scroll,” slated for national release August 6th.

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And here is the press release for the book:

NOVEL ABOUT HUNT FOR “WORLD’S GREATEST TREASURE IN THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS REGION” BASED ON ACTUAL DEAD SEA SCROLL

New York Times broke story of The Copper Scroll in 1956; Thriller by Joel C. Rosenberg to be released Aug. 1, 2006.

(Washington, D.C.) – In the summer of 1956, the New York Times broke a story that captured the imagination of the world. Another Dead Sea Scroll had been found, unlike any before it, describing unimaginable treasures worth untold billions buried in the hills east of Jerusalem and under the Holy City itself.

In a major front-page article, the Times reported that “the document tells of hoards of fabulous value….two hundred tons of gold and silver” and “sounds like something that might have been written in blood in the dark of the moon by a character in Treasure Island.”

Sounds reasonably accurate so far, but then there's this:

In the years that followed, a growing number of scholars came to believe that the Copper Scroll could be history’s greatest treasure map, one that could not only lead to the treasures of the First and Second Jewish Temples in Jerusalem but also pave the to the way to build the Third Jewish Temple – a move that would be highly controversial. Some have even speculated the Copper Scroll could lead to the famed Ark of the Covenant and the actual Ten Commandments, priceless religious relics that have been sought for centuries but whose whereabouts are still unknown.

Many scholars do think the Copper Scroll represents a real treasure. I think so myself. But none of them are talking about it "paving the way" for any Third Temple. Nor do they think that the Copper Scroll leads to the Ark of the Covenant (which in real life was presumably melted down by the Babylonians for its gold) or any of the Ark's legendary contents. I don't doubt that there are people who have raised such wild, preposterous speculations, but they aren't specialists in Qumran studies.

But the Copper Scroll’s code has never been broken. The treasure remains hidden. And experts on all sides warn that any effort by Israel to rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem would unleash a war of biblical proportions.

Now, exactly 50 years after the Copper Scroll was revealed to the world, New York Times best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg has written a novel, The Copper Scroll (Tyndale/Aug 06), that takes readers on a hunt for what he calls “the world’s greatest treasure in the world’s most dangerous region.”

“The Copper Scroll as a novel is fiction, but it’s based on a real treasure, described in a real Dead Sea scroll, buried in a real country, with real – and explosive – religious, historic and political implications,” said Rosenberg, who traveled to Amman, Jordan, in June 2004 to see the real Copper Scroll for himself.

“The treasure is believed to be buried under Jerusalem and in the hills of the West Bank,” added Rosenberg “But, obviously, this is a highly-contested city and highly-contested territory, fought over for thousands of years. Hunting for the treasure described in the Copper Scroll could spark a war. Finding the treasure could spark a war. Preventing others from finding the treasure could spark a war. Yet I have to admit: I suspect someday, someone will find it and when they do it will be biggest archaeological discovery of all time.”

The treasures of the Copper Scroll, assuming they're real, were left in relatively small caches around this area. It's possible that some are still there and will be discovered (Richard Freund thinks he has found one, but this is controversial), but most likely most of them were found long ago and are lost to us. In any case, they would have to be tracked down one by one on the basis of very much less than lucid directions. There's plenty of war-sparking going on in the area, but the Copper Scroll is not to blame, nor is it likely to be.

Maybe Rosenberg's book is a good thriller. But the advance publicity doesn't give me much hope that he has dealt with the historical issues in a responsible way. Sigh.

UPDATE (20 July): I didn't look up the details of the original NYT announcement etc., but it seems I should have. Stephen Goranson e-mails:

The Qumran Cave 3 Copper Scroll was not found in 1956, but found by archaeologists on March 20, 1952. The New York Times reported the find in a story from Jerusalem dated March 31 and printed April 1, 1952, page 13, col. 6: "Ancient Scrolls Found: Copper Sheets Left by Essenes are Dug Up in Judea."