ARCHEOLOGIA NUOVA

25 New 'DeadSea Scrolls' Revealed

By OwenJarus, Live Science Contributor | October 10, 2016

This scrollfragment preserves parts of the Book of Leviticus, in which God promises toreward the people of Israel if they observe the Sabbath and obey the 10commandments.

Credit:copyright The Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London, MS 4611

More than 25previously unpublished "Dead Sea Scroll" fragments, dating back 2,000years and holding text from the Hebrew Bible, have been brought to light, theircontents detailed in two new books.

The variousscroll fragments record parts of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,Deuteronomy, Samuel, Ruth, Kings, Micah, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Joshua,Judges, Proverbs, Numbers, Psalms, Ezekiel and Jonah. The Qumran caves ― wherethe Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered ― had yet to yield any fragmentsfrom the Book of Nehemiah; if this newly revealed fragment is authenticated itwould be the first.

Scholars haveexpressed concerns that some of the fragments are forgeries. [See Photos of theDead Sea Scrolls Fragments]

These 25newly published fragments are just the tip of the iceberg. A scholar told LiveScience that around 70 newly discovered fragments have appeared on theantiquities market since 2002. Additionally, the cabinet minister in charge ofthe Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), along with a number of scholars,believes that there are undiscovered scrolls that are being found by looters incaves in the Judean Desert. The IAA is sponsoring a new series of scientificsurveys and excavations to find these scrolls before looters do.

The Dead SeaScrolls

The Dead SeaScrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in a series of 11 caves by thearchaeological site of Qumran in the Judean Desert, near the Dead Sea. Duringthat time, archaeologists and local Bedouins unearthed thousands of fragmentsfrom nearly 900 manuscripts.

Some of theBedouin sold their scrolls in Bethlehem through an antiquities dealer namedKhalil Iskander Shahin, who went by the name "Kando." Shahin died in1993 and his son William Kando now runs his business and estate.

Many scholarsbelieve that the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden in the Qumran caves around A.D.70, during a Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire. They may have been writtenby a Jewish sect known as the Essenes.

Qumran andits caves are located in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel fromJordan during the Six-Day War in 1967. Jordan at times has asserted that theDead Sea Scrolls belong to them.

Although theterm Dead Sea Scrolls usually refers to the scrolls found at Qumran, there havebeen scrolls found in caves at other sites in the Judean Desert that areconsidered Dead Sea Scrolls.

Collectingscrolls

The 25 newlypublished scroll fragments were purchased by two separate collectors. [Galleryof Dead Sea Scrolls: A Glimpse of the Past]

Between 2009and 2014, Steve Green, the owner of Hobby Lobby, a chain of arts and craftsstores, purchased 13 of the fragments, which he has donated, along withthousands of other artifacts, to the Museum of the Bible. Green is helping tofund construction of the museum, scheduled to open in Washington, D.C., nextfall. (A fly-through of the museum can be seen on YouTube).

A team ofscholars has published details of these donated fragments in the book volume"Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments in the Museum Collection" (Brill, 2016).

Theprovenance of this batch of scrolls is not certain.

"Some ofthese fragments must have come from Qumran, probably Cave 4, while the othersmay have derived from other sites in the Judean Desert," wrote EmanuelTov, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the book volume."Unfortunately, little is known about the provenance of these fragmentsbecause most sellers did not provide such information at the time of the sale."

Antiquitiesdealer William Kando told Live Science that he doesn't know where the donatedfragments originated.

Scientistsare conducting tests on the donated fragments to help determine if any areforgeries, said Michael Holmes, executive director of the Museum of the BibleScholars Initiative, in a statement sent to Live Science.

The resultswill be combined with an analysis of the writing to help determine what thechances are of the different fragments being forgeries.

"Theresults will be incorporated in our future museum exhibits, inviting visitorsto grasp and engage with issues involved with assessing authenticity,"Holmes said.

Biblicalmanuscripts

MartinSchøyen, a collector from Norway, owns the other batch of the recently revealedDead Sea Scrolls. The texts from those fragments are detailed in the book"Gleanings from the Caves: Dead Sea Scrolls and Artefacts from The SchøyenCollection" (Bloomsbury, 2016). Also detailed in the book are otherartifacts related to the scrolls, including a linen wrapper in which one of theDead Sea Scrolls was found. [Photos: Who 'Penned' the Dead Sea Scrolls?]

Schøyen, whohas a vast collection of antiquities, began collecting biblical manuscripts in1986. "The ultimate challenge had become to acquire a fragment of the DeadSea Scrolls with a biblical text," Schøyen wrote in the book. "It wasfor me a 'Mission: Impossible.'"

Hisdetermination paid off as, gradually, he was able to track down scrollfragments that were for sale by a number of sources. He bought several from afamily collection that is now in in Zurich (the name was not published) andseveral more from the descendants of tourists or collectors who had purchasedscrolls from Shahin's shop in Bethlehem in the 1950s. He also purchased a fewfragments that were once owned by two scholars who had worked in the Qumrancaves as students in 1948 (the students got the fragments as gifts from abishop who supported the work).

"Thequest that started as a 'Mission: Impossible' in 1986, gradually proceeded to becomea collection of [about] 115 fragments from around 27 differentscrolls,"  Schøyen said. He addedthat some of the fragments in his collection come from caves 1, 4 and 11 atQumran, while some come from other caves in the Judean Desert.

Nehemiah

A highlightfrom the newly published Museum of the Bible collection is a fragment from theBook of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:13-16).

The fragmenttells of a man named Nehemiah who lived during the fifth century B.C., at atime after Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. ThePersian Empire had taken over Babylon's territory and the Jews, who had beenforced to leave Israel by the Babylonians, were allowed to return home.

The fragmentrecords Nehemiah's visit to a ruined Jerusalem, finding that its gates had been"consumed by fire." According to the fragment text, he inspects theremains of the walls before starting work on rebuilding them.

Scholars havenoted in previous studies that archaeologists hadn't found any copies of theBook of Nehemiah in the Qumran caves. How this fragment came to America isunknown, and scholars say they can't be sure it's from Qumran.

"It isassumed to come from Cave 4 [at Qumran], but in the final analysis it must besaid that the provenance of the fragment remains unknown," wrote Martin G.Abegg Jr., a professor at Trinity Western University who led the team thatanalyzed the fragment, in the book "Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments in theMuseum Collection."

Leviticus

A highlightfrom the Schøyen Collection is a fragment containing part of the Book ofLeviticus. In the fragment text, God promises that if the Sabbath is observedand the Ten Commandments are obeyed, the people of Israel will be rewarded.

"If youwalk according to my laws, and keep my commandments and implement them, then Iwill grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield itsproduce and the trees of the field their fruit," part of the fragmentreads (translation by Torleif Elgvin).

"I willgrant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone; and Iwill exterminate vicious beasts from the land, and no sword shall cross yourland," the fragment continues. "I will look with favour upon you, andmake you fertile and multiply you."

Schøyenpublished a note from William Kando saying that the Leviticus scroll fragmentwas once owned by his father who got it from Bedouin in 1952 or 1953 and it wassold, along with other fragments, to a customer in Zurich in 1956.

Original article on Live Science.

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