Israel unveils 2,000-year-old Bible scroll, most significant find since Dead Sea Scrolls

Israel unveiled fragments of 2,000-year-old Bible parchment found in desert cave on Tuesday and would have been hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome almost 1900 years ago, calling for the discovery “historical”And one of the most important since Dead Sea Scrolls.

“For the first time in about 60 years, archaeological excavations have unearthed fragments of a biblical parchment”, the Israel Antiquities Authority (AAI) said in a statement.

The fragments, written in Greek, allowed, according to Israeli researchers, to reconstruct passages from the books of Zechariah and Nahum, which are part of the Book of the Twelve Little Prophets of the Bible. Through a radiocarbon test, they were dated to siglo II d. VS ..

The new pieces are believed to belong to a series of parchment fragments found at a place called “The Cave of Horrors”Named after 40 human skeletons were found during excavations in the 1960s. The cave is located in a secluded canyon in the Judean Desert, south of Jerusalem, more precisely in a cliff in the Nahal Hever nature reserve.

The fragments were discovered during an operation carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority to Find manuscripts and other artifacts to prevent possible looting.

To carry out the operation, which extended to the part of the Judean Desert located in the West Bank, The IAA provided archaeologists with drones and mountain gear, including ropes for rappelling.

Pray Ableman, Curator of the IAA, said that parts of the same scroll from the Book of the Twelve Little Prophets were first discovered in the Cave of Horrors by the Bedouins in the The 50’s.

Most of the text is in ancient Greek, a language widely used at the time, but the word Lord appears in ancient Hebrew writing.

Oren said that one of the most striking features of the new fragments is a deviation from all other known versions of the Old Testament: in a passage, the word “doors” is replaced by the word “streets”.

The significance of this deviation is “What we are trying to find out now”, He said.

Yosef Garfinkel, director of the Institute of Archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, described find as “exciting” and told AFP that he could enrich the “Study of the History of the Greek Translation of the Bible.”

The fragments were said to have been hidden inside the cave during the Bar Kochba rebellion, an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136 AD. VS ..

The excavation of the Judean Desert also uncovered a reserve of rare coins, a skeleton of a six millennial boy and an basket described by the IAA as “probably the oldest in the world”, carbon dated 10,500 years.

“I was shaking for days”, after the basket was discovered, the IAA archaeologist said: Chaim Cohen.

The woven basket was found remarkably intact, with a stone placed on it, an indication that its users wanted to keep the content safe and intended to come back for them, Cohen said.

Organic matter like wood used for the basket usually breaks down, but This unprecedented find was preserved by the dry climate of the Judean Desert and the protective conditions in the cave., He said.

Cohen added that Very little is known about the society that lived in the region at the time.

“From this ancient period, we have nothing: we can say, and I want to be very careful, that they are probably nomadic or semi-nomadic”, He said.

Archaeological evidence suggests looters searched within three inches of the basket but never found it, Cohen said.

According to Israel Hasson, the director of the IAA, which exhibits the pieces in his laboratory at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the initiative launched in 2017 aims to “Save these rare and important pieces of heritage from the clutches of thieves.”

Since the discovery of Dead Sea Scrolls more than 70 years ago in the Qumran Caves, the rock caves of the Judean Desert have become the target of antiquity looters.

These 900 manuscripts are considered one of the most important archaeological finds of all time. because they include religious texts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, as well as the oldest known version of the Old Testament.

(With information from AFP and AP)

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