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July 15, 2005

Discovery of Bar Kokhba era Scroll Fragment

On the Biblical Studies News Group, Yitzhak Sapir reports the purchase of a new Bar Kohba Scroll fragment from Nahal Arugot, near Ein Gedi.

Walla News, apparently reporting an article from Yediot Ahronot, reports that in the past year a small piece of scroll found at Nahal Arugot, near Ein Gedi, was purchased for $3000 by Prof. Hanan Eshel of Bar Ilan. Originally, Prof. Eshel refused to appraise the scroll when he was first asked to do so in August 2004, although he did photograph it at this time. When he came upon it again, it was near crumbling state, and he purchased it and turned it over to Amir Ganor of the Antiquities Authority, who are trying to locate the thieves. It consists of two pieces of deer-hide scroll, about 35 square cms, containing portions of verses from Leviticus 23, dealing with the Feast of Tabernacles, and differing from the MT only in that the scroll misses a single holam. It is dated to the Bar Kokhba revolt days. Prof. Eshel is calling for searching again for more scrolls which may still lay hidden among the caves in the area.

Hebrew language article: http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//747506
(no pictures of the scroll)

This discovery will not affect much. But it is interesting that such fragments continue to appear and this may be indicative of more fragments or even whole scrolls still awaiting discovery.

For those readers who have not studied Hebrew, a holam is a Hebrew waw (w) used to indicate an ô or ō vowel sound. Hebrew words having one of these vowel sounds are often written without it. Also, MT stands for Masoretic Text. This is the "received" rabbinic text of the Hebrew Bible. A complete Hebrew Bible written in 1008 C.E. and now in the Leningrad public library is often used as the baseline for the MT.

Via Codex

Update:

A photo of the fragment is now available via Associated Press. The fragment appears have one column is from Leviticus 23:43-44 and the second column from 24:16-18. But I can't convince myself that I have found the missing holem. I sure wish they printed those scrolls.

Update: July 16, 2005

Tyler F. Williams of Codex has a great discussion of the fragments. He has a translation of the relevant sections of Leviticus with the English words that translating the Hebrew of the fragments in bold so you can see exactly where the they are in the text. He also has a good discussion of the importance of the fragments. In addition, he did find the missing holem but it was missing from the MT rather than the fragment. I looked at the a dozen times, but because I was looking for a holem missing from the fragment I didn't see it. A mind can be a terrible waste.

Posted by DuaneSmith at July 15, 2005 01:41 PM | Read more on Archaeology |

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