Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: * Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories * Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England * Metropolitan county, a typ ...

Mor Athanasius Yeshue Samuel (19091995), more often referred to as Mor Samuel, was a The First Metropolitan and Archbishop of the

Syriac Orthodox Church , native_name_lang = syc , image = St_George_Syriac_orthodox_church_in_Damascus.jpg , imagewidth = 250 , alt = Cathedral of Saint George , caption = Cathedral of Saint George, Damascus ...

of Antioch in the United States and Canada, the Metropolitan of Jerusalem of the

as well as a central figure in the discovery of the

Dead Sea scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls (also the Qumran Caves Scrolls) are ancient Jewish and Hebrew religious manuscripts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at the Qumran Caves in what was then Mandatory Palestine, near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the ...

. In 1947, while Metropolitan of Jerusalem of the

of Antioch, Mor Samuel received news that some ancient texts had been discovered. Samuel arranged to see the scrolls. After examining them, and suspecting that they were indeed very old, Mor Samuel expressed an interest in purchasing them. All four scrolls that had been then discovered would find their way into his possession, including the now famous

Isaiah Scroll The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QIsaa and also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1946 from Qumran Cave 1. The scroll is written in Hebrew and contains the en ...

, the

Community Rule The Community Rule ( he, סרך היחד, ''Serekh haYahad''), which is designated 1QS and was previously referred to as the Manual of Discipline, is one of the first scrolls to be discovered near ''khirbet'' (ruin of) Qumran, the scrolls found in ...

, the Habakkuk Peshar, and the

Genesis Apocryphon The Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20), also called the Tales of the Patriarchs or the Apocalypse of Lamech and labeled 1QapGen, is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1946 by Bedouin shepherds in Cave 1 near Qumran, a city in the nor ...

. The scrolls were sold to Mor Samuel by Kando, an antiquities dealer. Following the end of the British mandate over Palestine and Transjordan and the outbreak of hostilities between Arabs and Jews, Mor Samuel relocated to the United States in 1949, and played a major role in the life of the Syriac Orthodox Church in North America. From 1952, he served as Patriarchal Vicar to the United States and Canada, and from 1957, as Archbishop of the newly created Archdiocese of the United States and Canada.

Bibliography

* Wilson, Edmund, ''The Dead Sea Scrolls, 1947–1969'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. * Vanderkam, James and Flint, Peter, ''The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005.

External links

Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch
Syriac Orthodox Church bishops Oriental Orthodoxy in Israel Oriental Orthodoxy in North America Dead Sea Scrolls 1907 births 1995 deaths {{bishop-stub