Scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls who lectured Saturday at Casper College urged both the crowd and Wyoming's college and university students to learn about the history of religion and the scrolls.

"This is the greatest find of our time," said Peter Flint, an author of several books about the scrolls and an expert in their interpretation.

Flint and Laramie County Community College Religious Studies Instructor Mark Elliot rued that Wyoming students are not required to learn about the foundations of Western civilization and religion that are, in part, embodied by the scrolls.

"You'd think that [such education] would be mandatory in every institution of higher learning," said Elliot.

Flint, co-director of the Dead Sea Institute in Langley, B.C., Canada, delivered several lectures to a crowd of about 200. Also lecturing were Elliot and Rev. Dave Stillie of First Southern Baptist Church in Rawlins.

The three came to Casper as part of $10,000 grant from the Wyoming Humanities Council, put together by Paul Flesher, director of Religious Studies at the University of Wyoming, and Hershiel McCarthy of Bairoil.

The scrolls, discovered at several sites between 1947 and 1956, are almost 900 documents containing mostly biblical scripture and religious commentary dating as far back as 250 B.C. The scrolls are generally considered to have been written by the Essene Jews, a sect that was effectively wiped out by the Romans in the first century A.D.

What's notable about the scrolls, and their authors, is that they most often cite the three books of the Bible - Isaiah, Deuteronomy and Psalms - that are most often cited in the New Testament.

"The Essene Jews loved the same three books [as early Christians] and that's interesting," Flint said.

These books talk about the end of days and the coming of the Messiah, which were preoccupations of the early Christians.

These discoveries are significant because they show a type of Judaism that differs from what has survived. Some of the non-biblical religious writings also talk of baptism for the forgiveness of sins and use language about the Son of God that scholars had previously attributed to a later time, said Flesher.

None of this means there was any Christian influence on the communities that produced the scrolls, the scholars stressed.

The scrolls do provide evidence of a split within Judaism itself, and shows there was an existing platform of religious thought for Jesus and his followers, Flint and Elliot said.

"Scholars see Him [Jesus] as a movement within Judaism," Elliot said.

The audience was mostly older, with a smattering of students. Judging by their response to Flint, who would quote Bible verses and compare them with the scrolls, many people knew the Scriptures well.

Cindy Pattishall-Baker, a pastor at the Presbyterian churches in Encampment and Saratoga, had even been to Khirbet Qumran in modern-day Jordan, where many of the scrolls were found. She said she was interested in the scrolls as religious documents, as well as archeological finds.

Flint, however, stressed that he is a scholar and was not delivering a religious sermon Saturday.

But Flint and event co-organizer McCarthy both argued that discussion of religion and its history is essential and should not be blocked by strict demands that public life be secular.