ABOUT JIM BARFIELD
Director, The Copper Scroll Project
The Copper Scroll has more prophecy in the first line than all the other non-Biblical texts put together.
Full name: Jimmy Don Barfield I
Director, The Copper Scroll Project
Produced 300 page document proving ample evidence and research for findings.
Retired Federal Police Officer
Award-winning arson investigator Nationally and Internationally
Self-proclaimed archeologist
Army Scout Pilot
Jim Barfield is an award winning arson investigator who has turned his investigative skills from the ruins of criminal arson to the ancient ruins of Qumran in the Judean Desert of Israel. Jim’s professional careers as an Army Scout Pilot, Helicopter Test Pilot, Training, Advising and Counseling Officer and Award winning Arson Investigator for Oklahoma and Internationally. His training seems an odd combination to prepare a man to solve the mystery of the Copper Scroll but many in the Israel Antiquities Authority believe he has done it. Jim has spent the last nine years trying to get the Israeli Officials to let him finish a superficial excavation conducted at Qumran based on his Copper Scroll Project research in April of 2009.
Jim Barfield believes the Ark of the Covenant is in Qumran, the area of the Judean Desert where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. In 1952, a fragile scroll made of copper was discovered in a cave above the Dead Sea at Qumran. The Copper Scroll is materially unique in that it was written on thin, hammered copper, rather than the less durable papyrus or parchment, which were the materials used for all of the other scrolls. Jim Barfield, founder and director of The Copper Scroll Project, believes he has found in the enigmatic Copper Scroll the key to the location of the cave where the Ark of the Covenant is hidden, along with the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and the Altar of Incense. The Copper Scroll, he believes, also shows the locations of 56 additional sites where vast hoards of sacred treasures are buried — including tons of Temple items made of gold and silver from the Temple of Solomon.
Jim is a retired criminal investigator with multiple career positions leading up to his retirement from the Lawton, Oklahoma Fire Department in August of 2005.
During his years as a firefighter, Jim had evenings and weekends to dig deep into his favorite pass time, hobby and personal interest, Bible study. That passion eventually led him to the Dead Sea Scrolls where he came across the least interesting and least understandable scroll of all…the Copper Scroll. Least interesting because it was a list of treasures and a waste of energy because the text had no real point of reference. So he thought. After a year as a Federal Police Officer at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma Jim retired completely to focus on his Biblical studies.
An award-winning investigator discovered the secret to the most treasure laden and mystifying map in history. Artifacts from the Tabernacle of Moses, sacred possessions from Jerusalem’s Temple and massive treasures listed on the Copper Scroll chill prophecy experts, electrify historians and enrage the financial elite. The potential of this mysterious and illusive discovery also holds the most frighteningly unpredictable influence on Middle Eastern and world stability. After a 2400 year absence, the moment the world lays eyes on “the Ark of the Covenant,” the universe will change.
Involvement with the Copper Scroll
Retirement was fantastic and more time was available to meet other students of the same interests. One chance meeting was with a maverick self-taught and self-proclaimed archeologist. It had been fourteen years of intense biblical and historic study before Jim came across a gentleman named Vendyl Jones. That gentleman would completely change Jim’s view of the Copper Scroll.
Vendyl was a real character. Loud, overbearing and very intelligent, the Texan was a great host and his wife Anita, was an angel. We had been invited for a weekend with him through a mutual friend, Miriam Ben Yaakov. The goal for that meeting was to pick Vendyl’s brain about the Dead Sea sect that wrote the scrolls and learn about the leadership of Qumran. Instead, Jim got a little of that and a load about the Copper Scroll, including a new respect for the incredible metal document.
ABOUT THE COPPER SCROLL PROJECT
The Project’s Inception
Oklahoma winters are bitterly cold, especially the predawn morning of the 21st of December 2006. Sitting at my desk wrapped in a blanket I turned on my computer and waited. Realizing my research into the era of Jeremiah was complete, I hesitated. Staring at the flickering monitor Vendyl Jones came to mind. This, I thought, was a perfect time to try something different, something that haunted me since meeting the Texas gentleman months prior. The old guy, love him or hate him, had some interesting things to say about a strange set of copper scrolls from Qumran; details that inspired me to reconsider its role in Biblical history. In all my years of studying the Dead Sea Scrolls, that scroll seemed a waste of energy; it made no sense and honestly, bored me to tears.
My desire to “try something different” increased rapidly as thoughts of my first conversation with the Texan came drifting back. I remembered respectfully stating to Vendyl my low opinion of the scroll, “Isn’t the Copper Scroll just a treasure map?” The self-made archaeologist slowly glanced at me, lit his ivory pipe and pushed himself out of his massive recliner saying, “No sir. That is where you are sadly mistaken. That scroll has more prophecy in the first line than all the other non-Biblical texts put together. We had better check on dinner.” Vendyl continued to correct me as we walked onto his patio to examine the remains of a grilled turkey, burnt nearly beyond hope. We had just met, he was the scroll expert, so…who was I to argue?
Vendyl and his wife Anita were wonderful hosts to my family as we spent the weekend listening to him tell us, mostly about his colorful life. His stories, however egocentric, were fascinating and very entertaining but what he told me about the Copper Scroll changed my view forever.
Listening closely to his theories, however, about burial locations for the scroll’s treasures was hard to follow and, to be honest, didn’t seem logical. For four writers and one hundred priests working under the threat of death to hide Israel’s most precious artifacts, Vendyl’s theory seemed too complicated for the fast moving and dangerous scenario.
So, that December morning, six months after meeting Vendyl I decided to go for it and apply some investigative techniques on the old scroll and see where it led. After all, I was an award-winning investigator, no one would ever know if the idea failed and what could it hurt? As the book containing the translation fell open across my keyboard the thought came to me, this has got to be the biggest cold case file in history.
What you are about to hear may seem completely impossible, but I promise you it is true. Twenty minutes after examining the translation everything was falling into place. I selected the right map and one after the other each of the first five locations was completely understandable. I was baffled… How did all those scholars miss the obvious and, more importantly, how was I ever going to convince the Israelis that a fireman from Lawton, Oklahoma had figured out the most important and mysterious document in the Middle East?
A month after the initial discovery, with a small stack of notes, maps and a heavy bomber jacket under my arm, my wife and I were on a plane headed for Israel. My life was about to change.
In Retrospect
Established the night of the initial discovery, The Copper Scroll Project developed a simple mission statement, “Help The Nation of Israel recover the items of the Copper Scroll.”
Recorded in the CSP Research book detailing the individual treasure locations are multiple maps with photos and text providing proof for all 57 locations listed. That document has easily convinced many throughout the world that the research is correct and that it will guide Israel back to the treasures, fulfilling our stated mission, if they still remain.
Lining the back page of the original research, protected by dozens of Nondisclosure Agreements, are signatures of readers who gave numeric scores for the accuracy of the work. None gave a score below 93 percent that the research conclusions are correct. The Travel Channel, television news stations, Israel National Radio, The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Connection Magazine, God’s Learning Channel and many local newspapers have reported the discovery. Even the Director General of the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) and members of his staff gave positive reviews of the investigative findings. An Israeli archaeologist from the Archaeological Department of the Civil Administration even initiated an excavation marking three of the locations. For some unexplained reason, the ADCA official stopped far short of the depth required by the Copper Scroll.
Stories similar to the CS and the back story of The Copper Scroll Project are the life-blood of books, movies and the unwritten history of the Bible. Amazing hoards of talents (75lb gold and silver ingots) are arranged in deep trenches. Along with those talents are possibly the most important religious artifacts in history. Those artifacts will create instant fame and great temptation for even the most disciplined scholar to abandon required archaeological protocols.
If those artifacts remain at the selected site, they will defy even the most eloquent words expressing their importance for every religion on Earth. When the items are uncovered, Levitical Priests and their authorized family members alone can provide the proper handling and care as required by the Tanach (the Old Testament). Those men qualified to handle the artifacts are available, trained and ready if the Israeli government will allow it. Compliance with Biblical requirements will be paramount for all concerned. Future records will speak favorably of our actions and handling of the relics “only if” we conform to scriptural necessities. In fact, the world must understand, the treasures of the Copper Scroll belong with Israel and no other nation.