THE PROPHETS THAT WROTE THE COPPER SCROLL


By Jim Barfield

Below are verses from the Book of Haggai, one of five men said to have written the Copper Scroll.  Two of those men were prophets from the Bible, “Haggai and Zechariah.”  That information comes from two sources; one is a 17th century book call “Emeq Ha Melek (Valley of the King).”  The second source has nearly identical wording and dates the Copper Scroll to the time of Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Ezekiel and the war with Babylon.

The opening lines of the second document, two Marble Tablets from Ezekiel’s tomb, also names the same “five writers.”  Imagine…if those two documents are correct, you are looking at the handwriting of Haggai and Zechariah when you check out the facsimile of the Copper Scroll below.  Those five men, assisted by 100 priests, buried amazing things, portions of which you will find listed in excerpts from Emeq Ha Melek in this week’s same article.

Jeremiah and the Five Writers of the Copper Scroll

Haggai 2:6  For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;

7  And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

8  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.

9  The glory of this latter house (Temple) shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Below are the opening lines and the first two Mishnayot or “Records” from Emeq Ha Melek.

Opening lines of Emeq Ha Melek… (Literally: Valley of the King)
By Rabbi Naftali Ben Ya’acov Elchanon in the year 1648

These Mishnayot [“Records”] were written by five righteous men. They are: Shimur the Levite, Hizkiyah, Zidkiyah, Chaggai the Prophet and Zechariah, son of Ido the Prophet. They concealed the vessels of the Temple and the wealth of the treasures that were in Jerusalem which will not be discovered until the day of the coming of Mashiach, son of David, speedily in our times, Amen, and so it will be.

Mishnah 1

These are the vessels dedicated and concealed when the Temple was destroyed: The Tabernacle and the Curtain, the Holy Menorah, the Ark of Testimony, the golden forehead Nameplate, the golden crown of Aharon the Cohen, the Breastplate of Judgment, the silver Trumpets, the Cherubim, and the Altar of burnt offerings, the Curtain of the Communion Tent, the forks and the bread molds, the Table [of the Showbread], the Curtain of the Gate, the Copper Altar, the sacred garments of Aharon which were worn by the Cohen Ha Gadol (High Priest) on the Day of Atonement, Pa’amonim (bells) and Rimonim (pomegranates) on the hem of the robe [of the Cohen Ha Gadol], the holy vessels that Moses made on Mount Sinai by the command of the Holy One, the Staff, and the Jar of the Manna.

Mishnah 2

These are the holy vessels and the vessels of the Temple that were in Jerusalem and in every place. They were inscribed by Shimur HaLevi and his companions, on a “Luach Nehoshet” (Copper Plate), with all the Vessels of the Holy of Holies that Shlomo (Soloman) son of David made. And together with Shimur were Hizkiyahu, Zidkiyah, Haggai the Prophet, and Zechariah, son of Berachiah, son of Ido the Prophet.

From the time that I determined the number of burial locations for each writer on the CS it seemed odd that Writer 2 had so many and Writer 4 had so few.  I figured out that Writer 2 was actually Writers 2 and 3.  It wasn’t until after I examined the Hebrew letters very closely that I determined a breaking point between the two.  That breaking point explains why Writer 2 appeared to have so many locations.  Writer 4 was probably Shimur because his locations made a perfectly straight line leading up to the buried cave, which will be discussed in a future article for “Nuggets from the Copper Scroll.”

Writers 2 & 3 were difficult to distinguish.  The only way to determine where the separation was (if I am correct) was to watch where a noticeable change took place with the Hebrew letter for “M” (enclosed in green and red squares).  Why did they use five writers and not one well-trained and skilled calligraphist [1] to record the locations?  Instead, according to Emeq Ha Melek, Shimur used four men, or boys, or a combination of both, with the calligraphy skills of a kindergartener.

(Click on thumbnails for larger images)

If Qumran was the site of the battle Rabbi Elchanan wrote about in Emeq Ha Melek, the slaughter killed over fifty percent of the priests responsible for guarding the Treasury.  According to the same document, the Babylonian attack failed but at a great cost to the men at Qumran.  The priests, however, held the ground.  If indeed ancient Qumran contained a large portion of the CS items, the siege strongly motivated the men of ancient stronghold to hide the valuables and the treasures of the Tabernacle.  By doing so they kept the last remaining, desperately needed implements out of the hands of the pagans.   But, it also required meticulous planning to keep the treasures safe at each phase of the process applying counter measures to prevent loss from accidental discovery and from moral failure of the men doing the hiding.  That many men hiding that much treasure made for a compromising situation.  Divide and separate the teams, however, and reduce the amount of loss should one member of a team decide to sneak back for a talent or two of the treasures.

The Greek Letters of the Copper Scroll

Writer 4

Several mysterious Greek letters appear randomly on the document for no apparent reason, posing an obstacle to complete understanding of the CS.  Those Greek letters are Indiana Jones kind of interesting and may be transmitting a prophetic message 2400 years after the fact, that is, if my analysis is correct.  But, to be honest, a clear picture of the meaning of the Greek may elude us until recovery of the items at the last location on the CS, the buried cave.  If the additional document recorded to be there exists, as the CS claims, a comparison of the two should render an answer.  Posted are the Greek letters found on the scroll in descending order of appearance  with the English equivalent to the right.

[1] I first learned of the four writers from my good friend Vendyl Jones.  His website under “The Copper Scroll” is a good source of information on this subject and others pertaining to the Copper Scroll.