Micah's Copper Scroll

Micah rushed up the hills following the two sheep that escaped this morning, almost losing his left sandal several times. He tried avoiding loose light-orange sand while he jumped over larger rocks, baked beige by the sweltering sun and ragged enough to take chunks of skin and muscles should he fall on them. Almost no green shrubbery grew among these cliffs and, even while chasing the sheep, he wondered how the people living in the failed outpost of Qumran ever survived before the Roman Army swarmed the region, eventually leading to crushing the revolt in Jerusalem and finally the destruction of Masada. His grandfather told him the stories, passed along from his father, about the turmoil, death and destruction the Romans executed upon the region. The only reason his great grandfather survived is because he took his wife and sheep up into the hills to hide in caves he discovered but no one else knew about.       

Pausing to catch his breath, Micah looked down towards the dry, cracked sandy desert floor leading to the water, a water not fit to drink, nor fit for life, however, fit for taste. Yes, taking the deposits of salt from around the sea help provide taste to the tasteless food found near his village outside the city of Jericho, the oldest city in the world, and where his parents grew up. Even though his parents moved southwest from the city, into the foothills leading towards the pass to Jerusalem before he was born, he knew the city well, he even had some friends in the food markets. Maybe, after he collected his sheep and brought the flock back to his farm, he would go into Jericho for some fruit, but only if he didn’t kill himself trying to collect the runaway sheep.

He heard a bleat from about 20 feet above him, behind a large rock and restarted his pursuit. Following the sound, he rounded the rock expecting to see the sheep, but instead a small opening in the rock face is all he saw. Crouching low he climbed into the cave looking for the sheep. Several feet in he found the two sheep and started to herd them back up when a glint caught his eye beneath the smallest of the two sheep and in front of several old clay jars. Reaching out he grabbed the shiny object and discovered a scroll, made from he assumed copper with a hoof print and a small bite mark in one corner. The sheep must have grabbed it from somewhere in the cave and tried to eat it, only to find it too hard. Micah took the scroll and placed it in his bag, finished collecting his wayward sheep and made the trek down from the cave towards the desert floor.

2.

Finally, home and I can rest Micah thought. After several days of travel to buy new sheep and then travel back with his new herd, Micah sat and took the weight off his feet. Reaching into his bag for some figs he remembered he packed, his hand found a long metal object; the scroll! He almost forgot about the scroll. Pulling the oil lamp closer, he unrolled the scroll to discover more about his find. 

Unrolling it Micah saw words and numbers written in a list format. He could read some of the words, but didn’t understand them. The language and alphabet were Hebrew, with some other letters he didn’t know, but even the words he could read didn’t make sense, almost like they were written in a local dialect using unknown words. He looked at the entire scroll, unrolling it full length, which dropped to the ground when he stood and held both ends in his hands. Whatever it said escaped him, but the workmanship was steady, flowing and extraordinary. Maybe he could take it into Jericho to a friend to help him decipher the words. This friend may only look to be a fruit merchant, but he studied in Jerusalem at the Temple before desiring a simpler life. Yes, he would go this week.

3.

“Interesting, very interesting Micah! This looks to be a list of 60 or so locations and directions, but no idea what it’s for. You have words in Hebrew and some in Greek on the scroll. Unfortunately, there is no clear picture, like something is missing, and references to another list that this scroll should accompany, but there is no second list on this scroll. Are you sure brought me everything? You didn’t remove some part, or there isn’t another scroll?”

“This is all I have and there’s no other part. Like I said, I found it along the shore of the Sea.” Micah did not want to tell his friend, no matter how good of a friend he was, where he found the scroll. His friend would not have understood searching for two lost sheep and most likely would have made fun of him for a dangerous climb up the mountains near Qumran.

“Well, I agree the workmanship is amazing and my overall impression is whatever this is, it’s not relevant since it is only half a list, but the copper alone is worth more than two or three flocks of your sheep.”

“That much?“

“Yes, my friend, this is valuable copper. I would gladly pay you handsomely for it, say enough to be set for at least two years, if not more.”

Taking the scroll back Micah rolled it back up and placed it into his bag, watching his friend’s eyes ogle the scroll the entire time. Clearly his ‘friend’ was not telling him the scroll’s true worth. Two to three years wages must be a third its value knowing how his friend bartered with customers.

“Can you tell me more of what you remember it said?” His friend’s eyes finally moved up and lock into his own.

“Sure, but it that information is most likely worthless. Places and locations around Judaea and Samaria, including some as far north as the Sea of Kinereth, a couple across the Jordan River and at least one near Mount Nebo. The scroll indicated multiple locations near stairs, cisterns and baths here around Jericho, in Valleys between here and Jerusalem, outside of the Temple area around Jerusalem, near entrances to the Temple, deep in the Kidron Valley away from Jerusalem, near houses and olive presses, you know, just directions about where to find places. I’m sure the information is related to where people lived, or obviously some merchant’s customer list, useless information to sheep herders or fruit merchants like myself.”

“True, it might be useless to you and I, and I agree the scroll could be worth a few years’ wages, but I think I’ll hold on to it, at least for now. My fortunes are OK as I stand; my flock is healthy; I am to be married soon; I see a positive arc for my life. Maybe, when things turn sour and I need help, maybe then I’ll bring it back and see if you are still interested in buying it. Thank you, my friend, for the information and the interpretation of the words.”

3.

“My son, as far back as I know, our family has been sheep herders, and I forecast more generations after us will live in these hills and tend sheep to feed our families.”

The young man looked at his father, old, hunched and weathered. He could no longer move well and turned the flock over several seasons ago. The time was near.

“Yes, my father, I understand and I will ensure your grandchildren and your grandchildren’s grandchildren will roam freely in these hills raising sheep. We are one with the land and will always do what we must to be successful.”

“I’m glad you think that. Please grab the small wooden box under the table if you could. Yes, that one, the one I told you years ago I would pass along to you. Yes, bring it here, thank you.”

The old man took the box, removed the lid and pulled a scroll out.

“My son, your grandfather found this scroll many years ago near Qumran and passed it down to my father, and now I pass it down to you. It is a scroll made of copper worth many years wages. The words apparently detail a list of customers a merchant once had that are long gone, but the copper is still worth a lot. Please, hold on to this and only use it when all is lost. My grandfather chose not to sell it because he did not need to sell it. He believed one had needs and wants, and this scroll could never be a want, it must be a need. Even then, he only removed a small part of the scroll once to barter for bread, and never took any more once the famine passed.”

The young man looked at the scroll with wide eyes and somewhat of a longing. His father could see the longing and slowly shook his head.

“My son, this is not the key to working less, this is the key to survival if and only if it is absolutely necessary. And even then, only as little as possible. You must promise me you understand. You must promise me you know the difference between want and need, the difference between merely hungry and starving, the difference between comfort and ruin. Only in the latter of each can you use this, only in the most treacherous of times, only as a last resort. Do you understand and do you swear on your life only to use in an emergency?”

The young man’s mood changed hearing the passion in his frail father’s voice. “Father, I understand and I swear I will only use this in dire times.”

4.

“Father, what is in the bag that sits above the table?”

“Son, that is our family’s survival plan. What’s in the bag has been handed down for many, many generations and only used once, shortly after a long-gone ancestor found it in the hills near Qumran. Take it down please.”

The son took the camel skin pouch off the rocky shelf and handed it to his father.

“When you are old enough, this will pass to you. For hundreds of years this item graced our family and serves as a promise we make with each other. I made the promise to my father like his before him, and his before him all the way back to the time the Roman Army roamed these lands. Not the current armies fighting in Jerusalem, but ancient Roman Armies hell bent on conquering the world, not freeing their Holy City.”

The older of the two opened the bag and removed a scroll made of copper, unrolled it carefully and laid it on the wooden table. The scroll covered the entire length and doubled back on itself and the younger one looked at it with amazement.     

“This is only to be sacrificed when the need is urgent and there is no other path for family survival. Do you understand, do you promise?”

“Yes Father, I promise.”

5.

“Jacob, my son! You are home again! We have missed you, where have you been? I needed to ask for help collecting the sheep last week because you were not here.”

“Father, I do not have time to tend to the sheep, I am trying to secure us a better life than herding sheep.”

“By gambling I bet! You miss the point in hard work. You don’t understand how to work the land and if you don’t watch out, the British will come down hard on us. You’ve heard about the riots years ago, before you were born. Times are tough right now and you need to focus on your future through hard work and keeping your head down, not gallivanting around and gambling with scum. There is rumor the United Nations will create a partition on our land and the British will leave. I am sure things will not go well and you need to be prepared.”

Jacob looked bored and rolled his eyes.

“For many generations our family raised sheep on this land and we need to maintain the claim and work hard for our family’s success. You will one day inherit a gift that must only be used to help secure your future, do you understand?”  

“Yes Father, I understand.”

6.

“Come now Jacob, what are you going to use to match my bet? There is no way your herd is worth that much. Maybe you shouldn’t play cards if you don’t have the resources to pay.”

“I can use this.” Taking a wrapped scroll from his bag.

“Done.”

A turn of the card…

“Well, you are again nothing but a worthless sheep herder and this thin bit of copper, once melted, will only cover half your debts. You must also sell me half your flock to cover what you owe.”

7.

Epilogue:

In 1952, Qumran Cave 3, Henri de Contenson and a team of 10 Bedouin, while searching for Dead Sea Scrolls, discover a Copper Scroll. For decades teams of researchers, preservationists and archeologists work to unroll the extremely oxidized scroll, which is only 1mm think to discover its secrets. Eventually they cut the scroll into 23 pieces and start to translate the text hammered into the copper. Listed on the copper is 64 locations where hordes of treasure, widely believed to be from the 1^st and 2^nd Temple eras, (and now worth over a billion US dollars in monetary value but worth so much more in historical and intrinsic value) are hidden in the Holy Land. However, the list is not descriptive enough on directions and the scroll describes a second scroll with more direction. While the above story of Micah finding a copper scroll is fictional (or maybe not), it is a reminder that we must preserve our rich history and not gamble away our future. Our history is important to learn, understand and cherish, no matter how dark some periods may be, or the harsh life people experienced. All of the lessons of history should be conserved and all the treasures of history preserved.