TREASURES OF ANTIQUITY

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31772, 31 August 1968, Page 4

TREASURES OF ANTIQUITY

Treasures of Quorum. By Athanasius Yeshue Samuel. Hodder and Stoughton. 208 pp.

The author of this record of little-known contemporary history is now Archbishop of the Archdiocese of the Syrian Church of Antioch in the United States and Canada. The most ancient of al! the Christian sects, akin to the Coptic, Ethiopian and Armenian faiths, its history would seem to have been one of a gentle piety rather than proselytising fervour. Bora in Mesopotamia, the son of a farmer who died when the boy was seven, the young Yeshue (as he was always called) was one of the many Syrian Christians who, after years of persecution by the Turks, were at last liberated from Turkish rule by the British in the first world war. Thereafter, he and his mother moved to Jerusalem where he was educated at St Mark’s School, and decided to dedicate his life to his religion. It was on a school expedition to some monasteries in the wilderness bordering the Dead Sea, and not far from the site of Jericho, that the boy first noticed some eerielooklng caves, and these were to be of immense significance subsequently, not only to himself but to the world. Vague

i stories had reached him of treasure or manuscripts which were alleged to be hidden somewhere in that desolate terrain in ancient times, and years afterwards—in 1946 when he had become appointed Archbishop and Metropolitan of Palestine and Transjordan—his memory of these stories was aroused.

The political troubles in the Middle East were heightening daily, and culminated in the foundation of the State of Israel, and its subsequent quarrels with its Arab neighbours. During this period a member of his congregation told the Archbishop that some Bedouins had discovered in a cave near Jericho, while searching for a lost goat, some bundles “wrapped like mummies,” and other curious artifacts, including writing on some kind of animal skin. Being certain in his own mind that this discovery was of vast importance he parted

with every penny of his not very considerable savings to purchase the articles. In the event his instinct proved to be correct, but not before he had suffered barbs of scorn and derision from every local scholar to whom he showed them. Only Father J. van de Ploog, a Dominican scholar, professed the opinion that one of the discoveries was a scroll embodying the Book of Isaiah, written probably about 100 years B.C. Then some American experts in ancient manuscripts also expressed belief in the authenticity of the scrolls, and urged the Archibisbop to remove them to America for safety, guarding them meanwhile, in the heat of civil disturbances, in a bank vault.

When he, with his precious freight, eventually arrived in the United States the Archbishop found himself up against other facets of human weakness—cupidity and chicanery. He was sued by the Governments of both Israel and Jordan—neither of which had any claim upon the scrolls —for their return, while certain commercial interests in America tried to cash in on the situation by circulating rumours that they were worth much less than the fabulous sum which such unique material merited. The Archbishop had to insure them at his own expense, and powerful organisations declared them to be “a hoax." One rich man saved these treasures of antiquity from extinction. Mr Sidney Esteridge purchased them for the staggering sum of 250,000 dollars, and they are now housed in their own building, suitably called “The Shrine of the Book.” As for the purchase money which rewarded a good and holy man for years of study, patience, and unmerited vilification it was immediately turned over to a charitable trust for the benefit of his ancient church, and its needs. The trust was formed in Massachusetts, and is known as “The Archbishop Samuel Trust.” After this says the author, “A deep peace descended upon me. . .” He has surely deserved it.

A. H. and A. W. Reed have published a popular edition, for a modest price, of the opulent photo-pictorial book, NEW ZEALAND, which was published, priced at five guineas, in 1963. The popular edition contains the text of the major work, a faithful portrait of New Zealand, by M. H. Holcroft, and twelve coloured and 109 monochrome illustrations from the cameras of Mr and Mrs K. V. Bigwood, whose work contributed so much to the 1963 edition.