Dead Sea Scrolls

Pilgrim on a Long, Long Journey

In 1947 a Bedouin came upon an almost inaccessible cave. He found the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He had pitched a rock in a cave to bring his goat out of the cave. The sound when the rock hit was different. So different he went off to explore the cave.

The Romans had wiped out the Essenes about 2 millennia ago but didn’t know about their caves. The caves like all caves maintained the yearly average temperature each day. In addition the lack of humidity in the desert preserved the scrolls. It was a find that has kept a lot of archaeologists very busy. Caves with scrolls are still being discovered in this portion of this middle eastern desert.

History and theology have interfaced more precisely since the “chance” or providential finding. I am in the providential camp.

H. Robert Rubin, best-selling, Amazon memoirist and author of Look

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That Organ Within our Noggins

“Altogether, the human brain is estimated to hold something on the order of two hundred exabytes of information, roughly equal to ‘the entire digital content of today’s world,’ according to Nature Neuroscience.*1 If that is not the most extraordinary thing in the universe, then we certainly have some wonders yet to find.” Bryson, Bill. The Body (p. 55). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. Interesting, whatever exabytes are.

When I was a medical student I was intrigued by neurology. I appreciated, for instance, that, there was an individual neuro-examination that even an adolescent might find, at least, partially, doable. Other physical examines like palpating livers through the skin or hearing subtle, cardiac sounds went beyond my grasp as a young adult. However, the neuro-exam was within my capabilities. For example, one asked the question, was there a reflex when a particular area about the knee was lightly hammered? Even I could do that.

In keeping with that interest, I did sleep research through medical school and investigated aging of the brain in my residency.  The result was one new discovery in two years of work. In my sleep research we studied patients with nocturnal angina pectoris (per Webster “…a disease marked by brief sudden attacks of chest pain or discomfort caused by deficient oxygenation of the heart muscles”). In all of our patients prone to attacks of angina pectoris awakening them from sleep, they awoke every morning easily. That was no surprise given how frightening chest pain can be.

So much for my research career. Neither, was I ever found haunting the neurology wards again. On the other hand my entire medical career was filled with diversity, either, because I am odd, or, curious, or both.