the appointed word. And as the account spoke of the changing of Jacob into Israel, so the resolution passed on that day would lead to the changing of the children of Jacob into the nation of Israel.”
“When I next saw the Oracle, he would open up the mystery of an appointed word of a very different nature, one hidden away for two thousand years to be revealed at the exact moment when an ancient prophecy was to be fulfilled.”
“And through what vision would it be revealed?”
“The vision of the goat.”
Chapter 27
THE DAY OF THE SCROLLS
I RETURNED TO the cave to find the Oracle sitting in a chamber of clay vessels, cylindrical jars of reddish, brown, and white clay, taller than they were wide, ancient, and crowned with cylindrical lids. I sat down beside him and asked him to tell me the meaning of what I had seen in the cave at the end of the vision.”
“The swirling stars and galaxies,” I said, “what was that about?”
“The universe,” he said.
“But what did it mean?”
“You threw a rock into the darkness,” said the Oracle. “On the rock was a word. From the rock came a universe. Before the world . . . was the word. It was the word that brought the creation into existence. So when God creates, He begins with the word. He spoke to Abraham of a nation that would become as numerous as the stars. He spoke of it before it existed. First the word, then the reality, the nation.
“And before that nation could be established in the Promised Land, the children of Israel were brought to Mount Sinai to be given the word—again, first the word, then the kingdom. Centuries later, when the Jewish people mourned in exile in Babylon, they were given visions and prophecies of their nation’s restoration. Seventy years later the word would be fulfilled. And when the remnant of that exile returned to the land, a man called Ezra would gather them together to read to them the Scriptures . . . Again, the word and then the restoration.”
“And with the rebirth of Israel in modern times . . . ”
“Over two thousand years before it happened, it was foretold in the word, in vision and prophecy. As it was for the creation, so it was for the creation of Israel. Before God creates, He sends forth the word. And so the restoration of the word is linked to the restoration of the nation. And when God restores the nation, He always restores the word.”
“But what does this have to do with the vision?”
“A bedouin shepherd was searching for a stray goat.”
“The goat in my vision.”
“The shepherd climbed up the side of a small mountain and noticed the opening of a cave. He threw a stone into it.”
“As I did.”
“And as you did in your vision,” said the Oracle, “so too he heard the crashing of pottery. He would enter the cave with a friend, and they would explore it together. Inside they found clay jars. They removed the lids that covered the openings. Inside the jars were rolls of parchment with writing on them. They brought the parchments to a merchant in Bethlehem.
“At that time the Hebrew University’s head archaeologist was Eliezer Sukenik. Upon being told of the existence of the parchments, Sukenik decided to go to Bethlehem to see for himself. The Bethlehem merchant allowed him to take the scrolls and examine them in the privacy of his home.
“Upon arriving home, Sukenik began unrolling the parchments, his fingers trembling at the prospect that what he was about to see was unprecedented. The words on the parchments were in Hebrew. The writing was ancient, going back thousands of years. It would represent the beginning of what has been called the greatest archaeological discovery of modern times . . . the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls had remained hidden and miraculously preserved for two thousand years.
“But it was not only that ancient texts lay hidden in the caves. Hidden as well was the word of God. The Dead Sea Scrolls contained the Hebrew Scriptures. Up to their discovery, the oldest surviving copy of the Hebrew Scriptures, or most of the Bible, came from the Middle Ages. Any biblical manuscript from before that time had either been lost, destroyed, or unable to survive the passage of time.
“But with the uncovering of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the world was now in possession of a Bible penned a thousand years earlier, from ancient times, from the