Reading From the Scroll

Today Ferrell Jenkins and I were able to visit a site we’ve both wanted to see for years, the tel and cave of Adullam. This site is mentioned in the biblical narrative of David’s life, specifically of a time in which he was being pursued by the Philistines (2 Sam. 23:13ff.). We were able to secure the services of a local guide with a 4-wheel drive jeep. A memorable day.

Late in the afternoon we were back in Jerusalem. We visited the Western Wall, and just north of the wall we entered Wilson’s Arch. This area is a reading room and prayer room. Today’s photo shows one of the Jews present reading from a scroll.

Reading a Scroll in Wilson's Arch. Photo by Leon Mauldin.

This can be used to illustrate the writing and reading of Scripture in both Old and New Testament times. For example, Luke records a moment Jesus’ Galilean ministry:

16 He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. As usual, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him, and unrolling the scroll, He found the place where it was written: 18 The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. 20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled.” (Luke 4:16-21).

Click on image for higher resolution.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: