A bit over a month ago the Israel Antiquities Authority announced a stunning achievement: a burnt scroll found in excavations of the ancient synagogue of Ein Gedi in 1970 has been partially deciphered using micro-CT technology. It turns out to contain at least the beginning of the book of Leviticus and, after the Dead Sea Scrolls, is the oldest extant text of the Hebrew Bible. The strong implication of the press release, along with many subsequent news reports, is that this was a Torah scroll stored in the ark and used for public, liturgical recitation. It might indeed be. The few facts that have been released to the public about the scroll, though, also give one pause. (It is worth noting that 45 years after the excavations there is no final archaeological report of this synagogue.) When the sensationalism is brushed aside, what do we really learn? First, it is clear, this was a terrific technological feat. Not a lot of burnt scrolls are found in excavations, but they do appear and it is very exciting to see that there is yet hope for deciphering them. Second, we have yet further confirmation that a version of the Torah that was […]
↧