AN UPDATE in the Toronto Star on the coming Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition in the Royal Ontario Museum:

A look at life in the Holy Land in days of Jesus

Jun 04, 2009 04:30 AM
Stuart Laidlaw
Faith and ethics reporter

The Royal Ontario Museum has months of programming ready with speakers from around the world coming to Toronto to talk about the Dead Sea Scrolls, which go on display later this month.

"They are some of the most noted Dead Sea scholars of our time," says Julian Siggers, vice-president of programs and content communication. "But they will be presenting in a very populist format."

The Anne Tanenbaum Lecture Series begins June 23, four days before the historic exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls opens on the 27th.

This is in addition to the Director's Signature Series of lectures already underway featuring political commentator Christopher Hitchens last week, author A.J. Jacobs next Tuesday, and social critic Camille Paglia on June 16.

The aim will be to help ordinary people understand the importance of the scrolls and become engaged in the exhibit, he said.

Weekend programming for families has been planned for the summer and fall to help visitors understand the food and the culture of 2,000 years ago, when the scrolls were written.

The scrolls, discovered a little more than 60 years ago just as the modern Jewish state of Israel was coming into being, date from the time of Jesus, and are considered one of the most important archeological discoveries of the 20th century.

The first lecture, by University of Notre Dame professor Eugene Ulrich, will look at the impact of the scrolls on our understanding of Old and New Testaments.

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Hindy Najman of the University of Toronto is also quoted and is on the lineup of speakers. The full list of speakers can be found here.